View Poll Results: Which kit would you buy?
APS
21
27.63%
TTi
15
19.74%
other
40
52.63%
Voters: 76. You may not vote on this poll
What turbo system to go with and why?
12-27-2008, 07:19 PM
#1
What turbo system to go with and why? I am wanting to turbocharge my car soon and want to get some opinions. I have narrowed it down to the APS and Turbo Technology kits. I want to keep my a/c that is why I chose these two companies. If you have any of these two kits, I want to know why you chose it. So let'em fly guys.
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12-28-2008, 12:18 PM
#8
I have an aps kit. There were/ maybe still are some issues.
The inlets tubes sucked shut much past 10psi. APS is selling newly revised inlet tubes to previous purchasers. Not sure if the revised tubes are included in the newest kits.
It should be possible to stent the tubes without too much trouble. I likely will just buy the new aps tubes. Not happy that have to buy them but did get my kit for pretty good initial price.
There are problems especially on lowered cars with the sway bars hitting the intercooler pipes and denting /damaging the pipes. Some guys are running no front sway bar. Some have simply made up spacers and shortened their endlinks to fix this problem. Another solution is likely to just cut the steel intercooler tubes and put in silicone sections.Currently I am running no front sway bar.
There were some problems with some guys having defective turbos or oil coming out inlet? or outlet? Usually this is not the fault of the turbo but something else causing it. Too much crankcase backpressure...possibly from not doing the aps manual pcv setup.
Possibly excessive blowby some guys are running pretty high boost on stock engines maybe they have damaged rings and ringlands stock pistons are crap for FI.
Some turbos possibly have bad balancing issues?
I have a dud turbo. It has an internal crack in the housing letting coolant pour into my engine oil. I ran it only for a week or so with no water lines connected and at very low boost . I will be sending it off for warranty or replacing it and possibly both with new center housings maybe upgraded turbos offered by aps or modified by some other shops on here.
I suspect some kit problems could be do to things like some guys might not remove the shipping plugs on the oil return ports. This would cause big time oil comign out the turbos. Some guys might not do the pcv mods. This would also likely cause oil out the turbos.As said inlets sucking shut can cause oil out the turbos.
Some have reported some overheating in really hot places and weather. I saw none but temps where I live were not that high at the time of year got my kit on and running.
Its possible to forget the shipping protective intercooler cardboard when installing intercooler and that would really make the car overheat. I plan on possibly an upgraded rad and high flo water pump if necessary see how it goes next summer.
On the positive side. The kit was very complete, good manual, extensive install but it all fit and went together well. Quality of welding looked very high on the inlet pipes, intercooler pipes, downpipes. The intercooler fit great and is very serious intercooler.
The coolant overflow and windshield washer bottles are billet works of art. The kit lets me keep my air and dind't have to relocate much at all. Alternator is stock location, battery stock location. Plug access is about same as stock. Turbos are a bit awkward to remove for servicing requiring dropping of the aftermarket k member.
After market k member is required and not in the kit. You also need to figure out exhaust I bought hooker ypipe that fit perfectly with my catback .
You need to buy fuel and tuning its a tuner kit. That stuff is not included.
Performance. .... I am very pleased with my kit so far .I did install it on a fully built forged 408 which is powerful on its own. Add boost on top and its a handful on the street ,getting some new tires very shortly it laughs at the current pretty much worn out nitto 275/17s at gate boost which is 7.5 psi or so. I didn't like the plastic aps bosch blow offs so bought turbosmart supersonics direct replacement for the bosch ones.
The standard turbos spool up fast and give a nice broad powerband. 408 also is reason they spool very quickly. The only real tip off the turbo system is in my car now is when you see the aps logoed inlet when you pop the hood. Otherwise the system is very stealthy.
On the subject of turbo problems I have seen zero problems on the boards for the c5 or gto kits which use the identical turbos as the f body base kit. So its weird to see quite a few f body turbo problems. As said some might be for reasons above and many who did a survey I did didn't even have aps kits on their car yet voted to say they had problems in the survey making the survey results useless.
The mits 20g that aps uses are normally super super reliable. I have extensive experience with mits turbos on my dsms. Seen many go well over 100,000 miles sometimes double that without issue.
Aps could have a bad batch or sloppy balancing or something.
One thing to add is lost 2000 bucks to GMR speed on turbo kit about a year or two back. APS shipped a week ahead of schedule and as said the kit was complete ,very well packed . I am very leary anymore of dealling with smaller or local shops for big items like this. There have been many members on here losing money from kits. Incon, Ofi,Hi flo etc. So sticking with the big established companies might be a good idea.
The inlets tubes sucked shut much past 10psi. APS is selling newly revised inlet tubes to previous purchasers. Not sure if the revised tubes are included in the newest kits.
It should be possible to stent the tubes without too much trouble. I likely will just buy the new aps tubes. Not happy that have to buy them but did get my kit for pretty good initial price.
There are problems especially on lowered cars with the sway bars hitting the intercooler pipes and denting /damaging the pipes. Some guys are running no front sway bar. Some have simply made up spacers and shortened their endlinks to fix this problem. Another solution is likely to just cut the steel intercooler tubes and put in silicone sections.Currently I am running no front sway bar.
There were some problems with some guys having defective turbos or oil coming out inlet? or outlet? Usually this is not the fault of the turbo but something else causing it. Too much crankcase backpressure...possibly from not doing the aps manual pcv setup.
Possibly excessive blowby some guys are running pretty high boost on stock engines maybe they have damaged rings and ringlands stock pistons are crap for FI.
Some turbos possibly have bad balancing issues?
I have a dud turbo. It has an internal crack in the housing letting coolant pour into my engine oil. I ran it only for a week or so with no water lines connected and at very low boost . I will be sending it off for warranty or replacing it and possibly both with new center housings maybe upgraded turbos offered by aps or modified by some other shops on here.
I suspect some kit problems could be do to things like some guys might not remove the shipping plugs on the oil return ports. This would cause big time oil comign out the turbos. Some guys might not do the pcv mods. This would also likely cause oil out the turbos.As said inlets sucking shut can cause oil out the turbos.
Some have reported some overheating in really hot places and weather. I saw none but temps where I live were not that high at the time of year got my kit on and running.
Its possible to forget the shipping protective intercooler cardboard when installing intercooler and that would really make the car overheat. I plan on possibly an upgraded rad and high flo water pump if necessary see how it goes next summer.
On the positive side. The kit was very complete, good manual, extensive install but it all fit and went together well. Quality of welding looked very high on the inlet pipes, intercooler pipes, downpipes. The intercooler fit great and is very serious intercooler.
The coolant overflow and windshield washer bottles are billet works of art. The kit lets me keep my air and dind't have to relocate much at all. Alternator is stock location, battery stock location. Plug access is about same as stock. Turbos are a bit awkward to remove for servicing requiring dropping of the aftermarket k member.
After market k member is required and not in the kit. You also need to figure out exhaust I bought hooker ypipe that fit perfectly with my catback .
You need to buy fuel and tuning its a tuner kit. That stuff is not included.
Performance. .... I am very pleased with my kit so far .I did install it on a fully built forged 408 which is powerful on its own. Add boost on top and its a handful on the street ,getting some new tires very shortly it laughs at the current pretty much worn out nitto 275/17s at gate boost which is 7.5 psi or so. I didn't like the plastic aps bosch blow offs so bought turbosmart supersonics direct replacement for the bosch ones.
The standard turbos spool up fast and give a nice broad powerband. 408 also is reason they spool very quickly. The only real tip off the turbo system is in my car now is when you see the aps logoed inlet when you pop the hood. Otherwise the system is very stealthy.
On the subject of turbo problems I have seen zero problems on the boards for the c5 or gto kits which use the identical turbos as the f body base kit. So its weird to see quite a few f body turbo problems. As said some might be for reasons above and many who did a survey I did didn't even have aps kits on their car yet voted to say they had problems in the survey making the survey results useless.
The mits 20g that aps uses are normally super super reliable. I have extensive experience with mits turbos on my dsms. Seen many go well over 100,000 miles sometimes double that without issue.
Aps could have a bad batch or sloppy balancing or something.
One thing to add is lost 2000 bucks to GMR speed on turbo kit about a year or two back. APS shipped a week ahead of schedule and as said the kit was complete ,very well packed . I am very leary anymore of dealling with smaller or local shops for big items like this. There have been many members on here losing money from kits. Incon, Ofi,Hi flo etc. So sticking with the big established companies might be a good idea.
12-28-2008, 02:07 PM
#11
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12-28-2008, 11:29 PM
#14
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Very interesting stuff, MYTAWS6 must be a guru. I'm turbo stupid, but reading that post, i undersrtand he should purchase from a popular dealership. Needin some more feedback, cause i'm in the market too.
12-29-2008, 03:03 PM
#16
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I spoke with Josh at Kentucky Turbo earlier, sounds like he has a hell of a kit for a street f-body. He stands behind his stuff too!! Also sounds eager to help out in any aspect of the turbo too. I may go with his setup for my car.
12-30-2008, 11:42 AM
#20
i think my99tsws6 response should be maybe shortened slightly and then stickied. pretty much answers the same questions that are asked over and over about the aps system. i think another year of history will tell the story of how they really hold up. btw, has peter from aps completely left all forums? haven't see anything from him which would bother me a bit if i was looking to purchase a new system from them.