I'm considereing buying a UK Turbo, what mods would you recomend for power with reliablity.

I currently own a clio cup, will I be disappointed with a std UK turbo?

 

I don't think so in my my97 uk with a full decat,induction kit and dawes devices upping boost to about 16 psi max. Irecorded with my gtech pro a 0-60 dash in 4.9.....thats pretty fast isn't it ?

 

what did those mods set ya back mate?

 

I recorded 5.4 2 up with G Tech Pro then got timed at 5.7 at Melbourne. hmmmm.....

 

Blitz nurspec Exhaust (arguably the best zorst around) £450 I think it was Group buy
De-catted downpipe ~£140 second hand off someone here
PiperX Induction Kit ~£50 prolly go for K+N next time
Dawes Device ~£30 2nd hand again off here.

You would really at least need a boost gauge and knock link aswell. Oh I had a hks fuel cut defender that stopped the ecu cutting fuel above stock boost aswell. Also I had a HKS AFR adjuster aswell to add some more fuel for the upped boost.

 

I have a MY00 UK turbo and just got it modified at PE. It now has a Magnex downpipe and centre (already had a H&S back box). It got a tek2 remap and now gives 265bhp and 265 lb ft torque. The difference from standard is quite noticeable and puts a very big smile on my face. It cost about £1300 to do this. People have been doing this kind of mod for years and I haven't read about any negative reliability problems.

 

NOS

 

My story may be of interest to you

2 years ago:
Bought a standard MY99 UK Turbo - 215hp, was pleased for about 3 months and then i started realising just how much quicker the jap ones are and how well the hot hatches went once moving, the 4wd was great in the wet from the lights but once you're going in a straight line it just slowed me down and with only 215hp on tap it was getting me down achieved a quarter mile time of 14.5secs

1.5 years ago:
Bought a decat exhaust system, the back boxes give pretty much the same performance and the main thing was the downpipe and centre section, noticeable improvements all round, gave me that edge I was craving after having the car from standard. Still reliable! achieved a quarer mile time of 14.1secs

1 year ago:
Got "used" to the power the decat gave me and put on a ecutek tek2 shelf map, gave the car yet another little kick up the **** and made me happy for a little while, everything else was still standard apart from the exhaust and the car had around 265hp, felt so much quicker but shortly after I needed a head gasket change, that was expensive but dont know if it was caused by the ECU upgrade, my guess is it was just bad luck. Again, back to the 1/4 mile and got a 13.8secs time

1 week ago:
Finally decided I needed more power, so bought a second hand Front Entry TD05 turbo, some samco hoses, an uprated fuel pump and regulator, had it all fitted and visited Pat Herbourn (spelling?) for some laptop time and we drove around for 2-3 hours gradually tweaking the map until the car was powerful and still safe. Estimated show that the car has around 310lb/s torque and 320-340hp, yet to be proven, expecting quarter mile times in the low 13's depending on how healthy the clutch is.

In short, you could spend loads of money on fancy induction kits, front mount intercoolers etc etc but the best route for most people seems to be

1) decat it (£600 - £700 if i recall)
2) ecutek it (£650 for initial license and map, prices may vary)
3) leave it there or get a bigger turbo (thousands)

Steps 1 & 2 wont significantly reduce reliability if at all, step 3 will put a lot more stress on the car, specifically the gearbox as the torque has risen so high.

Keeping a weekly eye on the oil and water levels will also keep it running well, one blast with no lubrication or adequate cooling and you're buying new head gaskets or worse (but that would be the case on a standard uk car anyway).

Buy a Knocklink and Boost Gauge before you do ANYTHING, that will help you keep an eye on detonation and overboost, the second you get any strange readings then get it checked out, with these in place you will have an early warning mechanism for most common causes of problems.

Hope that all makes sense, i'm not technically minded with cars, I just learnt what I have from modifying my one, there are a lot of classics now above the 300hp mark, but for now get the decat and see how you feel

Oh, and when you say "this is great, i'm going to stop here", forget it, you will go further, I said that after the decat.

One final thing I forgot, you need to stop, when the pads or discs first wear out then consider upgrading the brakes, a decent set of replacement discs and pads will make a huge difference and decrease brake fade. If you feel rich then maybe consider upgrading them to 6 pot's which are in the region of £1500 and will require larger wheels fitting to the car to acomodate the disc and caliper size so thats something worth considering a bit further down the line. (one saving grace with the 99/00 cars is they come with 4 pots whereas the previous years they only had 2 pots so the brakes a lot better one this model, you also have a revised phase 2 engine with straightened intercooler and slightly more options for tuning as well as not having to worry about doing something about the front end )

 

Have to Agree with UHF there - Mines a UK Turbo (98) - Full TSL Decat, Samco hoses and K+N Panel Filter (remove all air pipe up to box), PE phase 2 remap - 262lbs and 281 bhp

Done 110000 miles, had since it had 41000 on it - no Major parts...

Also, have to agree with all words of warning - it never is enough (though I'm sure this would be the same with a jap model) - I've just fitted a hybrid FMIC, saving now for Fuel Pump/regulator/injectors/new turbo and another map......

330-350 bhp here we come !

Mark

PS _ If its a pre-99, at least get the 4 pots off a 99/00 - I went for them and TSL disks/braided lines - massive difference, but now they need replacing I've gone for 335mm brake disks from Godspeed....

take a look at wildsworld - my site

 

Keep the Clio Cup IMHO. UK turbo is slow and needs expensive mods to really go well and then the gearboxes break.

 

would you like your turbo back then John

BTW, they had to cut a bolt hole out, something about the banjo pipes fouling the block. Still, goes well.

Care to explain why the UK gearboxes go and the Jap ones dont? Are they different? (RA ones aside)

 

John, though I'd agree that the UK is slow in comparison to the import, I'm not sure that its the same drive as a clio cup - I've owned a few front drive hot hatches and, although they're fun, have never been as enjoyable to own as the impreza.

I think maybe that gwynny needs to consider why he wants an impreza.. If you're after 'just quick', I'd agree, keep the clio - it can probably cross country, in real terms, as fast as an impreza, and is a bag load cheaper to run - but I'm not sure its as much 'fun' to own....

At the end of the day, I've had 320 diesels come past me on country lanes, cos I value Life too much for their caring !

I don't think you could call any impreza 'slow' - just not the fastest car out there....

(Have to agree entirely with expensive though - Mines probably had 8-9 grand spent on it, just on mods ! )

Though I'd never compete with the sort of cars going to shootout tomorrow, I enjoy mine all the same - modification especially -

Just as well we're all different -

Cheers,

Mark

PS _ Gwynny - maybe you should take a test drive (a prolonged one if possible) to see if its REALLY what you want before you spend your hard-earned...

 

The gears are larger and possibly hardened differently in the STis.

Call it the voice of hindsight when I've spent more than the price of a new Clio Cup to get my Scooby reliably over 400 BHP and into the 3s for 0-60.

 

hmm - can't really argue there .....

As said 'expensive' .

something to do though, eh John

 

I had, and have still got a VR6 Corrado...I'll be honest, when I bought my MY00 standard U.K. turbo, I was thoroughly disappointed with it in comparison. However, having had it modified with a janspeed/s/sport uppipe/downpipe, ported manifold, sti5 i/c and sti b/box and panel filter, followed up by a tek3 re-map, I've completely changed my opinion, and wouldn't be parted from it. As long as you accept that you'll need to spend circa 1.5k to get it to go properly, you won't regret it.

 

All that said, if Gwynny has no intention (ie good sense) of going above 280ish hp then he'd be perfectly happy with a 99 Turbo with PPP or ecutek/decat, it would be reliable, no significant need for much better braking power and you could drive around in that for years of relatively inexpensive motoring to the rest of us who've decided to go a bit bonkers.

If you have an attention to detail then see if you can get a MY00 instead, thats the last year they were made and had a few little extras like colour coded skirts and mirrors, which personally since mine arent coded up are really bugging me!

Happy shopping

 

reliable mods for a uk turbo


all of them as long as the car is mapped properlyive got every single mod you can think of doing to a car bar engine internals and my car is perfectly fine

 

steve, if you've got every mod thinkable then you'd have over 400hp and a ton of torque, do you own shares in a company which rebuilds gearboxes or something?

 

ermm got an RA gearbox and i would say im running a conservative 350ish and yes there is lots of torque

 

ah, suppose its not engine internals but its still a big cost, would you mind emailing me some details, thats where i'm going next i think!

I'd like 6 speed in mine tho

 

ra gearset was fitted for £600 sti 6 speed will set you back nearly as much fitted as all my mods andyf has just mapped my car and he says its running 1.6bar of boost midange i will find out as soon as all my sensors are connected up to my defi's next week

 

1.6 bar huh, that a td05/6 hybrid thingy or something?

Is £600 the going rate for an RA gearset then? Did you leave 5th gear the same, there cant be much torque left to damage it and you can retain a decent cruising gear?