Well thing that is all a bit harsh. I have on this board for years. I have seen people totally burned time and time again from sponsors on this board. I have lost 2000bucks to GMR speed, former sponsor and there are lots of other little and not so llittle turbo companies that have gone under or screwed people over huge on this board if want to name names.

At least aps shipped my kit, ahead of shedule and if you looked at the kit you would see quality in spades in the tig welding, the cold side pipes, the hot side intercooler piping. The intercooler is very nice and fits darn good in there, the coolant overflow, battery tray and windshield washer reservoir are
works of art. The exhaust manifolds are much better than many kits that use log types that crack apart. There is decent access to the plugs, you get to keep your air, no alt needs to be moved. You do need the different kmember but it does take off some weight and give better access to things. Great manual for install and every nut and bolt supplied ,clearly identified. Install is pretty long if you aren't doing them every day but is doable by home guy with normal intelligence. I likely did take extra time and care than most would.

There are the things wrong with the kit. The intake tube upgrades should be free. They should be sending out spacers and shortened endlinks for the sway bar clearance problem. Don't think there is much else to cry about except there have been too many bad turbos. Although took a survey and had people answering that didn't even own an f body! My survey was all messed up by idiots so deleted it. And some of the problems claimed with oil burning may not be the turbos at all. Now bad scraping sounds or turbo wheels grinding themselves to oblivion would for sure be bad turbos.And my dud turbo is definitely a dud turbo with internal crack between coolant and oil sections possibly it was dropped at some point in shipping.Epp had one with same problem.

I am hoping aps replaces my dud turbo even though it was installed think past their warranty period. They don't have to replace the entire turbo just the bad center cartridge which should cost them maybe 300 bucks since I got one for think it was 400 bucks US. They should be doing it for good pr especially when these seem to be manufacturing defects.

I paid 5500 shipped for my kit. Check out the latest price of prochargers. They are hardly the perfect setup. At least they weren't even a few years ago. Belt slippage, head unit problems, warnings on the procharger pretty sure about low temperature use. And some of the other kits in past have been pretty horrible with lots of problems. Buddy with paxton super has had it in more times than you can count for repairs. And then there was powerdyne ,are they still around? and sts until recently had lots of goofy things that weren't so good with their kits and their kits are not cheap anymore either. incon..yeah realize Dave inall works at APS.. thank god he isn't running the company. hi flo..did guys get their kits..ofi..? gmr..?
seems hard to find aftermarket turbo companies that even ship a kit don't just keep the deposit or all the advanced money.

And some of these little company kits that have seen sold on board look homemade and amateurish and some have had numerous issues with fit and various problems, no air conditioning anymore,relocation of stuff, terrrible plug access, hood burning and other parts cooking..

And not everyone can fabricate up their own turbo setup.

So yeah their is good and bad with this kit. I am not APS salesman but think for the most part the kit is a good one. And no idea why it seems that the highest percentage of turbo problems is on this board. I have scoured the gto and c5 boards and asked questions to the guys with same identical turbos..and found not one reply or post on there about defectives. And the garett aps kits seem to be fine but personally do like garett.

Mits 20g are normally reliable. Did aps get or use Chinese knock offs? Well lets see some reputable shops dissect some more of these dead ones.That might give some answers. Louis has found a lot of defectives it seems but likely has his reasons for not showing what he found on the bad ones. He is still aps dealer for one reason.

At least the good news is the center housings are common enough to get replacements for. I was originally very worried they were some totally oddball center cart. But its just the exhaust housing that is aps unique.

And at least we now have options like LG or this australian billet company that can make ball bearing replacements.

I am going to stick with my kit , get new centers off LG maybe next season and really there is not much else in the kit to worry about. I can fix the sway bar problem currently running no front sway bar. I can stent my intake tubes or get some upgraded ones.If my car runs hot and not sure on that never drove it in really high temps will get better rad or water pump. The manual mentioned that might need to upgrade the cooling system.

 

The main issue here is that the CHRAs are of unknown origin. That is the reason I wont stand behind a rebuilt turbo of theirs. I start fresh with KNOWN quality parts, plus you have no down time.

The reason these turbos are dieing, and 100% of the broken ones Ive torn down, are all overspun.

Remember, this turbo originated on a 2.0L Mitsubishi engine. Its a medium turbo for that displacement. What we are essentially doing is strapping a 20G onto a supra, and hoping to make big reliable power.

All of the cars that have APS TT kits on them with OUT dead turbos are all running at stock, factory 6-8 psi levels on stock/stock size engines. 500-550 rwhp. Crank it up, and you are on borrowed time.

At this point in time, that is all that I have to offer as far as trying to keep your stock APS turbos together.

With the upgraded turbos, you keep shaft speeds down and still maintain the flow for 700-900 HP. Thats the key to keeping them alive.

 

So when will the ugrades be available Louis?How much are the upgrades from you guys? I take it you replace the ENTIRE cartridge and wheel? I just want to know that when I get this thing replaced/rebuilt it won't come apart again.

 

I agree with you Louis, but the origin is not to unknown as I am surprised the kits are not drop shipped from China with out skipping APS on the way lol.

Also MY99TAWS6, I hear you loud and clear. I love the manifolds and the design of the kit it is nice. Although the non gravity return on the oil is PITA. For the price I would work with LG on getting the turbos upgraded.

I would like to know how dealers sell these things when APS them self under sell all of there dealers too????

Sorry for the APS rant though but every one is usually pretty quick to bash other China products so I don't feel so bad for getting after them.

 

Ive had to add a scavenge pump on 2 builds so far, the gravity drain is marginal, and the hose is pretty weak when hot.

As far as it being made in china, sure. I dont argue that. Its really high quality, the only issue is the turbos, and its only an issue if you crank it up

The upgraded turbos are done, ready to go. Working a little lead time now, but not too bad. Ive been trying to get some pics and update the website, but I have not had a chance to yet. Give us a call if you are even remotely considering it, you will thank me later

 

Well keep up the good work there Louis!
So maybe person should run stainless drain lines? Hoping don't need a scavenger pump ,that was one reason that liked the aps is it didn't need a scavenger pump.

But if you put it on two would think its needed on all? I thought the upgraded turbos solved the oil problems?

I would hardly say the rest of the kit is ebay crap quality. I know good welding and fabrication when I see it. My kit fit pretty darn good.

 

i havent got my kit on yet. is there anything that i can do with the oil drain. i thought about using a moroso pan and tie it into the oil cooler line?

what you think?

 

The APS turbo that we had this problem with had a bad seal in it. Luckily for us we had an electric water pump on this car, and we ran it before firing up the engine to purge air out. We then found the dipstick full of water before ever firing the engine. APS overnighted us another turbo. Here is a link to this Firehawk. http://www.exoticperformanceplus.com...Car.php?car=39

We don't sell the APS turbo systems, there simply is not any money in carrying their products. They do make very good quality turbo systems and ship on schedule. Bob

 

Louis - based on what you have seen could the kit be used with different turbos swapped into it? And are the turbos different in anyway in the "high power" kit they produce? Their page doesn't give any info on the turbos in the upgraded kit. I have been looking at a few different ways to get TT power and the aps kits seem to be well made from what I have heard with the exception of the high percentage of turbos that are dying.

 

If most of the turbo failures are due to overspinning or pushing the standard turbos too hard then the upgraded kit should work fine. The quality of the kit is pretty high. But there are things mentioned in many previous threads that will need some attention or tweaking. You may need to go bigger rad . You may need to mess around to get sway bar especially bigger aftermarket sway bar to work with the kit.

If was doing it again would get the upgrade kit. But can upgrade my current kit as another option. Only diff in the upgrade kit is the bigger turbos. They also require buying a different starter for clearance. They have different intake tubes which hopefully don't collapse like the standard ones did. New standard kits should have the upgraded inlet tubes.Old kits you can buy the new upgraded tubes..still figure these should have been free to owners of the old kits...or you can stent the tubes with 3 inch oval pipe pieces.

I have zero complaints for the piping ,weld quality, fitment, instruction manual, intercooler, pretty much anything in my aps kit except for the turbo reliability question? fact had a dud turbo not overspun but internal crack or seal problem letting coolant into oil. I have not contacted aps about it yet will shortly. Kit was installed after warranty period unfortunately so they may not cover it. I got upgraded ebay centers to try for now and likely get some LG upgrades sooner or later.

 

that's why i'm leaning toward the aps when my motor gets done. everything looks top notch even if it is china built. I especially like the fmic in the kit. even with all the turbo issues i'm planning on snagging one and if the snails die then ill just have to see if i can squeeze a garret or tn unit in there to get better reliability. fortunatly for me im still in the "draw it all up on paper" stage of the process so i really apriciate any and all info you guys who have ran these systems before can give me

 

I highly doubt the entire kit is made in China. The tig welding and all that is as said top quality workmanship. I think the question was were the turbos chinese knock offs as there are knock offs out there.

 

I think that the biggest kick in the nuts is the labor and time invested. This kit is far from easy to swap parts out on and a lot of dissaembly is required to pull the turbos out. It really pisses me off that I have to tear half my car apart AGAIN to swap out turbos IF and WHEN I have the money to replace them after I just finished it up!!

 

Tomz28 told me he pulled his turbo out by loosening off vband at exhaust housing and then of course taking off ypipe on downpipe. Changing a cartridge is simple. Now dont see why aps would need you to send in exhaust housings when only a cartidge is usually required.Course if the housing was damaged from excessive shaft play then you would need to send more back. I will be seeing how hard it is to do shortly when put in both of my different center carts.Defnitely the aps setup is not that easy to do turbo swaps on.
Not like some more top mount designs. But every setup has its pluses and minuses.
Of course the aps website tellls how bulletproff the turbos are so you would think they wouldn't be needing repairs at such low mileage.