APS Issues and opinions?
Some people are saying they have issues with them and wha not. What issues are there? ive looked the kit up and it looks very clean and well made from all the pictures ive seen which is how i like to do things. What are you guys running into? Is there another kit thats more complete or better made? i have to keep my A/C (i live in the desert). Im also going to be combining this kit with some 6.0 truck heads and a trubo cam. what kind of power can i be looking at at say 8-10 PSI?
Older kits had inlets that collapsed under boost think past 10psi or so. Base kit is 7.5psi.
Fix is to buy upgraded aps inlets but woudl think the newest kits have them.
Or just buy 3 inch oval exhaust pipe and stent the inlet tubes.
Sway bar. The sway bar can hit the intercooler piping. Especially on lowered cars.
Solution space the sway bar and shorten the endlinks or possibly put silicione where they hit ,cut the pipe and put in silicone sections. I will be using the spacer thing first.
I went to 32mm sway bar and put my 35 mm hotchkis on my 96z. I am also raising my car back to stock height. Mostly because of our roads.
Some guys have oil from the turbos not necessarily bad turbos but possibly the gravity setup dont' work that well. LG who is expert here at upgrading the aps goes with scavenger pumps on the aps kit. I bought one and will be installing it. I think am blowing some oil out under boost. Smell some and my oil does seem to be going down pretty quick. So will install the scavenger pump and hope it fixes things up.
Some guys got dud turbos.I got one that leaked coolant into my oil. M solution and thank god caught the problem in first minutes of new engine start up was to run oil cooling only.The oil cooling is critical ,water cooling is not. Many mits guys run these turbos with the water ports not connected to water.
Peter from APS did tell me to send in my dud and they would look at it,even off warranty. But have been too busy driving my car so will worry about it end of season.
I plan likely on getting LG upgrades they are pricey but sound top quality and will give more power, carry top end power farther on an engine like mine .
Overheating. Up till today had none. I have driven the car on pretty hot days likely 85 degrees with no problems. But today had my air on and usually don't run the air.
It was maybe 80 today tops. But did overheat ,pulled over and shut the car down ,no apparent damage done.I will be installing bigger rad and high flow water pump likely over winter.I don't have to drive the car on really hot days but am a bit paranoid now. I was doing some tuning though so might have leaned it down a bit or maybe took out a bit too much timing. Not sure .Put things back to former settings and drove home and temp never went over 190 but also didn't use the air.
I have 160 stat, redline water wetter,set fans to come on like at 170 both fans.
Unless therm is sticking or have other problem like head gasket.
I am at standard boost right now. Actually have a tuning issue or maybe plug or wire or something and haven't been able to go wot so far. Car is still pretty fast at part throttle actually and have no traction in first and second really. I do have a built 408 though not a 346. And my engine is powerful even with no boost going into it.
Most of the aps kit is high quality. Nice exhaust manifolds, downpipes, intercooler piping, intercooler, overflow tank, washer tank. Kit was very complete, fit decently, manual was very good. install is extensive and long. Doable at home but takes some skills. the bumpers do have to be cut some but its pretty stealth when its done.
I didn't like the supplied recirced blow offs so bought some pricey turbosmart supersonics non recirced. They sound good.
Also cooked up plug wires went to pricey granatelli super high temp wires .They seem to work fine.
Few things would maybe do. Ceramiic coat the exhaust housings. Ceramic coat the exhaust manifolds. Aps should offer this as optional. And the supplied clamps are not great ,some quallity t bolt clamps would be better. Also they should supply spacer kit for the sway or mabye clearance the intercooler pipes or redesign a bit .
The water overflow hose was crap quality installed better one. The oil drain hoses get soft after awhile from heat . I am as said going to scavenger pump likely with stainless and an fittings.
So no kit is perfect and there really aren't any twin kits out there to choose from. I lost 2000 bucks from dealing with a smaller sponsored company on here that went under on me . APS shipped quickly and actually ahead of schedule. Some have had problems with Peter from APS but aside from his sometime habit of being a politician when answering questions I have had no problems in my dealings with him.
There is some doubts though over the base kit turbo quality. They should be bulletproof like aps says in their website if they are truly mits 20gs. I have had lots of mits turbos and they are very good .But there were quite a few bad ones on this forum so a bit leary of that now. The upgraded optional turbos might be better. I got the kit pretty reasonable but still by time add on k member which you have to buy and new ypipe if you don' go to true duals and the scavenger pump and upgraded LG turbos will have a lot more into it. A used aps kit might be best way to go if the price is right then you can upgrade the turbos to lg ones and total won't be too bad. Also you might need to spend more on new rad and high flo water pump. And you also of course need tuning and upgraded fuel system. You can go to single pump likely if you keep the boost down with 60 pound injectors.
You should see around 500 to 550 rwhp or so from the base kit on stockish engine.
There is lots of info and dynos,etc on the aps kit if you do some searching.
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I got some spare center sections for pretty cheap and can use them if want to but do want to upgrade now to the LG ones. I paid 5500 shipped for my original kit. Not too bad most twin kits were quite a bit more. Most turbo companies on here have gone bye bye with big money. OFI, Incon, GMR, etc.etc. so always a risk. As said at least APS shipped me product. I don't think its all substandard either. the piping is very nice. exhaust manifolds,most everything but the wild card on the turbos question. I was offered to send mine in for possible replacement and repair even though didn't install my kit till way after warranty period.
But yeah if Josh or someone offers a nice twin kit that can keep the air and give good access to plugs and stuff and no require huge hacking or relocating then it could be a good option for guys that want a twin kit.
Single are simpler and sometimes wish just went with one but have singles on my talons and wanted a twin on my TA.
I am still driving my aps car pretty much daily .Have a couple thousand miles on the kit. I have not had my inlets sucking shut at shipped gate pressure which am still running. I took off my sway bar and don't really miss it that much but am putting one back on shortly. Also going back to stock height. Again sway bar is simple fix anyway.
I have had that turbo putting coolant into my oil but since not running the coolant lines
no problem there. I have got some smoking though and think the gravity system is maybe not the best. I do think that you my oil is minimized by running a quart or so low.
Gravity is simpler but not that great. scavenger pumps are pretty cheap at least.
I did get overheat incident today first one. And was running air .It was not that hot out and was messing with tune a lot so maybe leaned things too much or something and made the car run hotter It was back to normal after reflashed my previous tune but usually don't drive with the air on.
Anyway guess still saying I mostly like my kit. But of course YMMV.
There have been some with next to no problems..Hugger z has lots of miles on his..Kelliente..few others. But others have had problems. Heck early sts kits are pretty junky too .
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what kind of numbers anyone puting down with 317 heads and cams?
I KNOW I am near the limit for my stock bottom end. People say they are OK up to around 550hp and I am more like 620hp at the crank when at full boost. I put 538rwhp down last month at a Dyno challenge at a carshow and won!
Bunch of mustangs there all in the 3xx and one at 422 so I decided to put mine up as I knew I was higher. 
The car rides and drives great. It is normal when driving easily. And if you want an extra kick in the pants, just put your foot down and prepare for the freight train pull of g-forces pushing you into the seat.
Issues: 1) Sway bar contacted the charge pipes. I had dents on both sides from the sway bar contacting the pipes. I have a spacer and shorter end links to take care of that. We'll see what happens when I lower the car. 2) ran hot one day last summer. 95 deg out and had A/C on. Turned off A/C and temp went back down. I kept discovering my coolant was low as well on that trip. Finally figured out the overflow tube was dry rotted and seeping fluid out. Finally caught it dripping when I opened the hood and saw the drip. Changed that hose and that fixed it.
I am running stock boost, racetronix in tank pump, 60lb injectors with a safe 91 octane tune. I only upgraded valvesprings to LS6 ones and pushrods to hardened while I was in there. Turbo's went on at 89k and I rolled 110k this past weekend. I did the install myself in 2.5 weeks in my garage. If you search, you can find my install thread. I took lots of pics along the way.
Overall the kit is very complete and a well built kit. It comes with every nut, bolt, and zip tie you would need to install it. I am happy with the purchase. My goal was a fun, reliable car that could be daily driven and I would say I am there. Granted I still need to eventually rebuild my trans and upgrade the rearend to make everything bulletproof. Hence the reason I am on street tires and not something stickier. Hopefully more upgrades will happen in time or as things wear out.
Nothing is perfect. Just do your research so you know what you are getting into. Good luck.
I blocked the aps setup into the intake and just running a single breather right now to test if getting oil from the turbos thru the intercooler and into the tb. I did have a bit in my tb so figure if its not coming thru at hose then it must be thru intercooler .and again scavenger pump could help that problem if turbo is ok just not getting all the oil out fast enough.
LG did say he found like 10/12 aps cars needed a scavenger pump so did get one.





