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Old 01-28-2005, 02:06 AM
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SVXtasy SVXtasy is offline
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Turbo write-up

you can see the write up with pics hear ---> http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/771596

Turbo Project for a 1992 Subaru SVX

In this thread I am going to provide some history and technical details of my turbo SVX project as well as information on the associated modifications

History

I bought the car in June of 2002 from Small Car Performance in Tacoma, WA and drove it down to NM. Somewhere in Nevada it started to overheat. Through minimal investigation, I found out it had a bad fan (the fan was not even attached to the motor) and very low coolant levels. Just when I got the car back to NM, the axle popped out of the transmission. I had to drive it that way for a ~20 miles to get it to a place where it could be fixed. A few weeks after got axle fixed the center diff exploded because of driving it with one axle out of the transmission. Then the shift linkage broke, twice! With so many problems I figured the car’s reliability could not get any worse so why not turbo charge it.
So I started doing the research: I contacted Robert at Forced Air Tech; Terry, who wrote the SVX FAQ; and did a lot of reading on NASIOC. I am a chemical engineering student so I went over the project meticulously, made cost charts, did calculations on everything, etc. but I did not add enough contingency for all that subsequently happened. I started to buy parts and look for someone who could affordably make me a good kit. FAT's kit seemed over priced and they wanted my car for more then a month. It had no fuel management and did not have an intercooler so I started to look elsewhere. I found a company in Colorado called PDM. He said he would do all the work for less than $2000, and he would not need my car. So we set a date and I started to send him parts and $. He said he was working on my exhaust system but I got no results until I went up there to pick it up and he had not even started on it. He assured me that we were still on track for everything and he would build my exhaust system ASAP. Three weeks later, I got it. It is a great exhaust system; well worth the wait. At that time he had lots of my parts and a small amount of my money and right then his company folded! I worked hard to get my parts back. It was awful. I had to threaten to take legal action. I did not get all of the parts back, but it did get the turbo back. So I tried to sell the car with the parts. I was very upset with my experience, I wanted to get a WRX and be done with it. I found someone wanted the car and a few of the parts to carry on the project. The deal fell through and once again I said what the hell I’d give it another shot.
So this time I decided to do the work myself. I restarted working on it about March 2004. It was a lot more work than I could do, so I asked Solid Technology in Albuquerque, NM to finish it. It took them from about July to September for the fabrication (originally they said it was going to take 3 weeks). Once it was all done, I took it out on the road to test it and found that the turbo that I bought had the wrong bearings in it; so it needed to be rebuilt. I had the turbo rebuilt and now, finally, the car is performing!(kind of )

Technical

So with this preface of how much of a PITA this was, I can now write about the technical side of it. In my research, I found out that the FAT kit was not producing much power gain at all, in fact some said that it made no power over stock. So I wanted to find out why this was happening and how to avoid it in my own setup (this also made me think twice about doing the project at all). I think that there were a few things that FAT didn’t do right on their kit (this is my opinion, don’t flame me for it). First, as I understand it, they used the stock injectors with a RRFPR for fuel. I don’t think this is enough fuel for my needs. I want to go big HP eventually, so I need more fuel. Second, they did not use an intercooler. Having a high density charge was paramount for me, in my setup this is extremely important. Third, the pipes they were using were way too small: I want big HP, so I need big pipes. Last, the pipe route they chose and the placement of the turbo, limited them to small pipes and turbo. Again I wanted big pipes and a big turbo, so I had to figure out my own route. (Robert of Forced Air Tech is a good guy. He helped me out with this project and would answer any questions that I had, I am not trying to bash them. I am just expressing why I did it the project the way I did).
The next person I contacted was Terry, the guy who wrote the SVX FAQ*. In the FAQ he says “I have extensively researched putting a turbo on my own car and have definitely proven that you can mount both a single and a dual turbo setup in the car.” So I e-mailed him and asked him about it. I do not know why he never put out more info on his car but he said he had an SVX-T with a CR of 8.5:1 and a T-66 turbo. He ran a 12.9 in this car with a bad transmission. Yes, this is unbelievable but I think it is true. He and I e-mailed back and forth for a week or so and then he stopped replying (I was probably bugging him to much). He knows his sh!t about this car and about turbo charging it. He was the main inspiration for my project: he said it could/has been done and it is extremely fast! I went “all in”. I could not get a T-66, nor could the T-66 run the 6 or so lbs of boost I wanted while I gathered up the money to lower the compression. So I got the biggest turbo I could afford with an internal wastgate, a Stage 5 T3/T04E with 57 trim .63 A/R oil and water-cooled.

Hardware

For the up-pipe I used 2” schedule 40 (yes, very thick) pipe with welding ells (you can get these at any piping store). I wanted to use the thick pipe because it was easer to weld and it would hold the heat better. Making the up pipe was time consuming. I cut the stock flanges off of the exhaust system and used them with the 2” pipe. The route I chose was to go between the passenger side axle and the steering shaft. This made it so I could put the turbo into the location of the stock air box and windshield wash tank. This location for the turbo was good because: 1) the turbo could be easily upgraded to a larger one; 2) the down pipe is simple and large; and 3) it made it easy to make a true cold air intake. The 3” down-pipe comes out of the turbo makes a small bend and goes straight underneath the car, connects to a 3” high flow cat that is in the stock location, which is in turn connected to the custom 3” PDM exhaust. The intake route was a bit more complicated. I wanted a front mount intercooler so a round hole was made in the sheet steel next to the ABS system. The 2.5” IC pipe went through this hole and followed the curve of the body to the front of the car. The bumper beam was hacked to fit the intercooler that I got from Jonnyracecar.com. I was a perfect intercooler for the SVX: it is thin and long. The intercooler fits nicely under the stock bumper with a little cutting. After the intercooler, the pipe comes around and up though a hole cut in the center of the stock battery location (which is relocated to the trunk). The Blitz BOV is attached to the pipe a few inches after it comes out of the body of the car. It does not look like it is possible, but there is room for a 2.5” inch pipe to snake its way up to the throttle body around/under the fuel-line and wire harness. I had a custom air splitter made for my project because I have mounted the additional injectors in it, but I think you could hack up the stock splitter and use it. So for piping that is about it. For the PCV, I put a breather on one side of the case and routed the other side through a catch can to the intake side of the turbo. For an oil supply for the turbo, I used the over-priced Greddy oil filter block adapter. I am sure there are cheaper options out there for pressurized oil, but I could not find them. Nor did I know of another place where I could find pressurized oil off of the block so this was the easiest way for me to do it. From the adapter I routed the oil up to the turbo. I found out after running the car for a few days that I needed an oil flow reducer. I got one from ATP turbo (ATP-OIL-022). As for the water cooling supply, I just took the water from the throttle body and routed it through the turbo.

Fuel/Vacuum
As stated above I am using additional injectors for extra fuel. They are mounted right before the throttle body in the air splitter. The fuel is just spliced off of the stock fuel line and split to the two injectors. The injectors are from Simple Digital Systems because they have a barb fitting for attaching directly to fuel line; they also came with weld on bungs. The vacuum that I am using for the boost pressure sensor and the BOV is just spliced off of the line that goes to the FPR. I would like to get better vacuum for the BOV but that will have to wait in till I lower the compression.

Electronics /management /data acquisition (This is the fun part)

To control the additional injectors I am using a HKS AIC III. This gives the greatest control over the injectors for the price (you can get one on eBay for less then $300). The AIC gets its pressure information from a 2bar HKS pressure sending unit. The AIC is also connected to the RPM signal that goes to the ECU. For timing management, I am using the super cool ECU Tune Stage One chip. This chip has code in it to run 87oct fuel thus reducing the timing and adding fuel. It is a great, safe way to run the car. Michael from ECU Tune said that at WOT on the 87oct map, it reduces timing by -5 deg. Thus lots of room for boost. For data acquisition and gauges I am using the HKS CAMP system. With this system I can display all kinds of stuff including injector %, EGT, boost pressure, AFR, and many others. This system connects to wires coming out/in of the ECU and reads out the information. This is by far one of the coolest things in the car it can do so much stuff. Interfaced with the HKS CAMP system I have an in-car PC for data logging and graphing as well as music, navigation etc. (I will do a write up specifically on the CAMP system because some of the stuff I am doing with it has no documentation that is easy to find in English and some of the stuff I am doing with it has not been done before in the USA i.e.: AFR). The PC is mounted under the passenger’s seat. There is lots of documentation for in-car PC’s so I will not get in to that.
For entertainment the PC (and CAMP) is connected to an Alpine LCD mounted in the location of the stock radio. I have an amp in the trunk running Polk Audio tweeters and midrange mounted in the front stock locations. In the back deck I have two ScanSpeak 18W Kevlar woofers wired in parallel. With a tuned port, these speakers act as the subwoofer. My dad, who worked for Los Alamos as a physicist, now retired, builds speakers; he designed the audio system for the car. It sounds phenomenal. It does not do big thumping one note crap, it is pure, solid and crystal clear. By far the best audio system I have ever heard in a car. So much different than anything I have ever heard in any car audio shop.

I believe I have made the most unique SVX. This project is still in its beginnings the future will show how things turn out. Thank you for looking.

I am sure there are things I am missing and if you have any questions contact me: sthuot at nmt dot edu <--- (I am sure you can figure this out, I don’t want to get spam) Thanks to all my friends: Jeff, Dave, Robbie & Rob. Thanks to Mom, Sean at Solid Technology, Robert at Forced Air Tech, and Terry from the SVX FAQ. And a very special thanks to my Dad and NASIOC.

*The SVX FAQ is sadly not available on the internet anymore. If you need a copy contact me.
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  #2  
Old 01-28-2005, 05:15 AM
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SilverSpear SilverSpear is offline
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COOOOL setup buddy, amazing and sweet. but what if you installed the Legacy 2.2L turbo pistons, could you run on higher psi ?
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  #3  
Old 01-28-2005, 06:46 AM
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Chiketkd Chiketkd is offline
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Nice write-up Svxtasy. Thanks for sharing the info.

-Chike
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  #4  
Old 01-28-2005, 04:30 PM
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intellibomb intellibomb is offline
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good write up!

that is one sweet set up by the sounds of it.

BTW you can get the FAQ (i believe its the same one)

right hyah:

http://my.voyager.net/~tmclane/index.html#_Toc482082554

good luck with the beast!
jj
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  #5  
Old 01-28-2005, 04:37 PM
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so cool i could not find it anymore.
Thanks
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  #6  
Old 01-28-2005, 05:33 PM
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I also have a copy of the FAQ on http://svx-iw.com/

you wouldn't happen to have any sound clips of your turbo spooling up would you?
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Old 01-28-2005, 08:27 PM
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Chiketkd Chiketkd is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by Earthworm
you wouldn't happen to have any sound clips of your turbo spooling up would you?
Now that would be sweet. An SVX-T on boost!

-Chike
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Old 01-28-2005, 10:45 PM
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I just have to add a few things... and Svxtasy can hate me for it later.

He never mentioned all the little things that kept going wrong like the power steering system that gave him fits for months.

Or the car PC he built for this car that went through at least 2 prototype configurations before reaching the stage its at now. Plus all the fuss with which screen to buy that would fit properly and work well.

Or how close he was to purchasing not just any WRX, but a Cobb stage III WRX wagon that actually had the oldschool Cobb APS turbo kit and FMIC. That car was a beast.

Or collecting all the various bits for that HKS CAMP system which was frustrating and time consuming because speed shops just don't like it when you walk in and start rattling off HKS part numbers.. So he ordered a lot of it directly from JAPAN.. TF&TF jokes aside.

Or how he fabricated his own collectors BY HIMSELF with the schedule 40 pipe, weld els, a grinder, and a tack welder all in Dave's garage and somehow managed to keep the garage clean.
I'm baffled that he stayed sane through it.

Or how he'd done a HUGE ammount of research on air to water intercooling because all the naysayers said it was impossible to do an FMIC in a SVX. His research proved fruitful in our friend Robbie's project Saturn SC2 which now benefits from a laminova air to water intercooler and has a GT28 huffing air into that intercooler.

Or how much of the SVX community told him it was impossible, that he was stupid for even trying, that it would never work, etc etc etc etc.
I don't know who was saying what or if they are even still around. All I have to say to the naysayers is "neeneer neeneer neeneer! "

Or how he was seeing a girl for the better part of a year (was it more than a year?) that didn't like the sound of my turbo after he took her for a spin in my Supra.
Funny how the relationship didn't work out.. hehe

Mind you, through all of this he's going to classes full time at one of the toughest tech schools in the nation shooting for a degree in chemical engineering and working at a nearby govt research and testing center.
At first I protested his taking the car to any shop to finish up. He had done all of the hard work, all of the research, collected all of the components, only to spend a chunk of money to have another shop finish the tedious task of fabricating the intercooler piping. Only after SVXtasy and I discussed it over dinner could I understand his reasoning. He just showed me one of his 5 textbooks for his classes for that semester and it was so scary I wanted to just flip burgers.

I firmly believe that this is just the beginning for this car. This isn't the endgame, this is the first installment in a series..
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Old 01-29-2005, 06:04 AM
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Thumbs up Outstanding!

SVXtasy,

You've done an outstanding job. In my experience, a good number of naysayers are that way because THEY can't accomplish what others try to do and they'd rather not see you succeed.

Now, when can we expect the turbo kit so that we can bolt this up to our cars?
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Old 01-29-2005, 10:07 AM
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Nice!

This old fart would love to see it sometime when I am in Alb getting my ticker checked. Maybe something can be arranged sometime and I will bring one of mine down.

Sounds like a huge amount of work and thought. Great work!!

Lee

SVXx5
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  #11  
Old 01-29-2005, 10:32 AM
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Now that is what I call a labor of love! Good job, and congratulations for sticking with it. I am still shaking my head over what you have gone through. Good luck in the future and keep up informed.
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Old 01-30-2005, 01:27 AM
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Thanks for your write-up!

Good job!

Keep us updated!
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  #13  
Old 01-31-2005, 03:15 AM
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Quote:
He never mentioned all the little things that kept going wrong like the power steering system that gave him fits for months.
ya I forgot about that. let me tell you it sucked.

Quote:
Or the car PC he built for this car that went through at least 2 prototype configurations before reaching the stage its at now. Plus all the fuss with which screen to buy that would fit properly and work well.
ya I put 12v through the ground plain on the laptop but dad was able to fix it

Quote:
Or how close he was to purchasing not just any WRX, but a Cobb stage III WRX wagon that actually had the oldschool Cobb APS turbo kit and FMIC. That car was a beast.
I still think about that car. What a different world it would be

Quote:
Or collecting all the various bits for that HKS CAMP system which was frustrating and time consuming because speed shops just don't like it when you walk in and start rattling off HKS part numbers.. So he ordered a lot of it directly from JAPAN.. TF&TF jokes aside.
lol I never got any parts form that guy he would just roll his eyes very time I came in. The parts are cheaper form Japan anyway but you have to decipher the e-mails. They also sent the stuff wrapped in Japanese news paper it is such a trip!

Quote:
Or how he fabricated his own collectors BY HIMSELF with the schedule 40 pipe, weld els, a grinder, and a tack welder all in Dave's garage and somehow managed to keep the garage clean.
It was not that bad just a crash course in welding.

Quote:
Or how he'd done a HUGE amount of research on air to water intercooling because all the naysayers said it was impossible to do an FMIC in a SVX. His research proved fruitful in our friend Robbie's project Saturn SC2 which now benefits from a laminova air to water intercooler and has a GT28 huffing air into that intercooler.
I am glad I went air to air it looks so much better

Quote:
Or how much of the SVX community told him it was impossible, that he was stupid for even trying, that it would never work, etc etc etc etc.
Thank you Jeff. Truly I was not even going to do this project because of what the community had to say about every not working. To may nay Sayers and killjoys so I to say neeneer neeneer neeneer

Quote:
Or how he was seeing a girl for the better part of a year (was it more than a year?) that didn't like the sound of my turbo after he took her for a spin in my Supra.
It was 10 months I think. And she did not like turbo cars so she had to go

Quote:
I just have to add a few things... and Svxtasy can hate me for it later.
I love you man you say things I could not. Thanks dude
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  #14  
Old 01-31-2005, 04:35 AM
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What a great effort! I keep asking myself - "where is this guy getting the money to keep this effort going? He's either living off of "mac'n'cheese" or he's got family money to burn!"
Keep up the great work - you've got a significant accomplishment on your hands now!
-Bill
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