Harleyd123
Choo Choo
So a few months ago i bought these Mamba turbos that popped up on Ebay out of nowhere.
They have a machined out Compressor housing to allow for a much larger inducer (sizing is in the listing) and have a stock wheel at the back, which many have pointed out as a bit of a concern, but I'm deciding to push forward with it anyway. Larger turbine wheels which have now become available here, I messaged the seller and they said they wont be included in the rebuilt turbos, they will always just be an option to buy separate and get the turbo assembled and re-balanced yourself.
Buying them:
Ebay, so nice and easy, they come from china so it took about a month for them to actually be dispatched, but arrived 2 days after DHL picked them up which is pretty wild.
Fitting them:
It was a solid afternoon job to fit them, I think the lesson was not to have friends help. For the front its best to remove the Front pipes, Y-pipe, radiator, inlet pipe, heat shields, waste-gate actuator, and any of the other intake stuff that gets in the way of whatever tools you have. once that is gone there are just a three bolts holding the turbo onto the header, they will likely be seized because of the amount of heat cycles they see, so hose them down with WD-40 or something and let it really sink in before attacking it with breaker, i was lucky and nothing snapped. You will 100% need a rattle gun to get the bolts off of the little dump pipe on the back of the turbos, new gaskets are a must too, mine all came apart as soon as there was no pressure on them. As for the rear, after nearly rounding the first heat shield bolt I attacked, I went for the option of undoing the V-band the holds the turbo together and pulling off the core and compressor cover while leaving the turbine housing in place, saved me decades of heartache and I suggest you do it too. The only thing that is tricky is getting the orientation of the turbo correct when putting the new core back in place, i found the easiest way was to get the V-band on and secure, then attaching the waste-gate to get it close to aligned, you can then leave the nut on the V-band a little loose so you can still spin the core until all the oil and coolant lines find their thread easily.
Total job time was about 6 hours, 4 ciders and minimal swearing.
Old Vs New
Rear with Turbine housing still in palce
Rear with new turbo in place
First drive:
Gosh you can actually hear the turbos spooling! It feels like it is coming on boost quicker, but it could be the sensory overload of the fun new sounds and the fact it was one of the first nice sunny days in a few months so I had the windows down and i was generally happy that it started and ran and their was nothing nasty dripping down. I didn't want to take any risks so I turned my EBC down to about 10psi, car is driving nicely, coming on boost smoothly, ultimate test is when it gets tuned at TME in a weeks time.
Tuning:
Not quite what we expected. waiting on Steve's feedback.
Current Modifications:
COP Kit
3SX fuel loop
Walbro 255
1000cc Injectors
RPW front pipes
100 cell ebay cat
Jasma approved catback (weird just under 3" japanese size)
Varex cannon
Turbosmart Bov
Grimspeed 3 Port
some Ebay spec 600x300x76 Inter-cooler
Stock balloon pipes
Stock "dumps"
They have a machined out Compressor housing to allow for a much larger inducer (sizing is in the listing) and have a stock wheel at the back, which many have pointed out as a bit of a concern, but I'm deciding to push forward with it anyway. Larger turbine wheels which have now become available here, I messaged the seller and they said they wont be included in the rebuilt turbos, they will always just be an option to buy separate and get the turbo assembled and re-balanced yourself.
Buying them:
Ebay, so nice and easy, they come from china so it took about a month for them to actually be dispatched, but arrived 2 days after DHL picked them up which is pretty wild.
Fitting them:
It was a solid afternoon job to fit them, I think the lesson was not to have friends help. For the front its best to remove the Front pipes, Y-pipe, radiator, inlet pipe, heat shields, waste-gate actuator, and any of the other intake stuff that gets in the way of whatever tools you have. once that is gone there are just a three bolts holding the turbo onto the header, they will likely be seized because of the amount of heat cycles they see, so hose them down with WD-40 or something and let it really sink in before attacking it with breaker, i was lucky and nothing snapped. You will 100% need a rattle gun to get the bolts off of the little dump pipe on the back of the turbos, new gaskets are a must too, mine all came apart as soon as there was no pressure on them. As for the rear, after nearly rounding the first heat shield bolt I attacked, I went for the option of undoing the V-band the holds the turbo together and pulling off the core and compressor cover while leaving the turbine housing in place, saved me decades of heartache and I suggest you do it too. The only thing that is tricky is getting the orientation of the turbo correct when putting the new core back in place, i found the easiest way was to get the V-band on and secure, then attaching the waste-gate to get it close to aligned, you can then leave the nut on the V-band a little loose so you can still spin the core until all the oil and coolant lines find their thread easily.
Total job time was about 6 hours, 4 ciders and minimal swearing.
Old Vs New
Rear with Turbine housing still in palce
Rear with new turbo in place
First drive:
Gosh you can actually hear the turbos spooling! It feels like it is coming on boost quicker, but it could be the sensory overload of the fun new sounds and the fact it was one of the first nice sunny days in a few months so I had the windows down and i was generally happy that it started and ran and their was nothing nasty dripping down. I didn't want to take any risks so I turned my EBC down to about 10psi, car is driving nicely, coming on boost smoothly, ultimate test is when it gets tuned at TME in a weeks time.
Tuning:
Not quite what we expected. waiting on Steve's feedback.
Current Modifications:
COP Kit
3SX fuel loop
Walbro 255
1000cc Injectors
RPW front pipes
100 cell ebay cat
Jasma approved catback (weird just under 3" japanese size)
Varex cannon
Turbosmart Bov
Grimspeed 3 Port
some Ebay spec 600x300x76 Inter-cooler
Stock balloon pipes
Stock "dumps"
