Originally Posted by CHRIS-CBRPerformance

Ok guys I will try to answer some of your questions and post some facts about the kit.

My goal when I started this was to give the customer a kit that would offer them the most
flexibility in turbo choices to meet any power goal from a stock motor to big cube monster, while leaving the cooling system and AC unobstructed and in it’s stock form, and not affecting the outer appearance of the car in any way, for example, cutting the bumper cover and removing the fog lights.

Our target customer is someone that wants a wicked, fast, clean daily driver that they can drive without the fear of it running hot and sweating there butt off sitting in traffic and praying for the light to change and watching the temp gauge climb out of control.

The performance of a street car means more to me than laying down a big number.
It is a balance of all these things.

This kit will accept any turbo with a 60 series compressor cover (4” inlet 2 ½ outlet) with a T4 tangential turbine housing with a 3” V-band down pipe hook up or any T4 turbo with a E compressor cover (3’ inlet 2” outlet)

With a maximum of a .96 A/R on the turbine housing, the .96 A/R has about 3/8” clearance
from the starter. Any larger A/R and the turbine housing may touch the starter.

Now think of how many compressor wheel to turbine wheel combinations vs A/R you can
come up with. I think you have enough combinations to suit most any engine combination.

If your not familiar with the 60 series compressor cover T4 turbo I’ll shed a little light on it for you.
The TC78 and 76 that most of you run as a single that is so popular is a 60 series compressor cover T4.

Now for the log manifolds that has some of you concerned.
I would refer to them as fabricated manifolds, because that’s what they are.

If they were cast like the APS manifolds no one would ever question there
capabilities but the flow path wouldn’t change much, if any.

Will the fabricated manifolds make the same power as full on race headers that were optimal
for an 1800 HP max effort race motor? NO they will not.

Intercooler:
The A/W has it’s advantages and disadvantages, but given the constraints of the F-body
and my goal for the kit it is a win-win for everyone.

Most people think an A/A works like a radiator….well it kind of does.
If you have ever seen a data log of IAT’s on any forced induction car the temps start out
low and climb as the car goes down the track. And this is true for an A/A as well as an A/W system.

So if the A/A works like a radiator why do the temps go up as the car gets faster?
Well I’ll tell you why, your A/A is more of a heat sink than a radiator.

To sum it up you are putting more energy in than the 135,150,160 MPH air can remove.
I have read where some companies sell A/A intercooler with almost no temp rise at the track.
No magic in those intercoolers, you just have a heat sink big enough to absorb the heat.
Come back around and hot lap it and you will find out that the intercooler is saturated
and this next run won’t yield the same results.

The A/W is not exempt from this either. But it does have an advantage over the A/A.
This is water. Water has the ability to absorb a tremendous amount of thermal energy.
Think of it like this, the intercooler is one big heat sink and the one with the most mass wins.
With a A/W system you have the option of putting ice in the tank, something you can’t do with A/A.

Some one had concerns about the heat exchanger. It is not a trans-cooler.

It is a copper/brass heater core that is 10 ¾” x 11” x 2” thick.
Copper/brass has about twice the thermal transfer rate of aluminum.

The nipples on the heat exchanger are 3/4” and the pump is a Rule 2000.

The water tank will hold 6.2 gallons.

To sum it all up the only way to have a perfect turbo system on a wheel driven
vehicle is to have a dragster or altered racecar, other than that space constraints will force
you to compromise something somewhere.

Oh one last thing concerning the K-member design, I’ve spent over $8,000 with a patent attorney
and I don’t plan on letting any one copy it.

Sincerely,
Chris@CBR Performance Products

PS if you have any ?’s about what the kit will or won’t do call Rob.

Originally Posted by ModularTurbo

all of those turbos cost the same so it won't change the price. An A2A setup won't really change the price that much either.

Originally Posted by CHRIS-CBRPerformance

The K-member is 100% mild steel, no chrome moly anywhere.
The elbows that the turbo intakes breath threw are ¼ wall forged
steel. All the plate that makes up steering rack and control mounts
is 3/16 mild steel.

I chose mild steel because it’s easy to get, can be mig welded, and it is
not as sensitive to cracking and it’s about half the price.

People think 4130 is lighter, it’s not. It’s a lot stronger so you can use thinner
tube and that’s where the weight savings come from.

I don’t see the point in using chrome if it is welded to mild anyway.

It’s the design that makes a K-member rigid not the material.

I bought K-members from every major players in the F-body game.
I was not able to do what I done using there K-members.
Things were in the wrong place.

By me making my own K-member I have 100% control over lead time,
fitment and quality control.

By the end of this summer I will have my powder coating shop up and running.
My powder coater is a great guy, but it took him 3 weeks to get my parts
back to me.

One more reason to bring as much of this kit in house as I can.


I took features that I liked from all of them to help me with this new
design and I employed my own features like the fully boxed rear mounting
point for the lower arm and the hole for the bolt tab on the front mounting point.

This hole is a bigger deal than most realize. That hole is put there from GM
so the alignment tech can put a wrench on the head of the bolt and swing the bolt
back and forth though the slot to make alignments easy.

He can push and pull on his wrench and move the control arm ¼, ½ a degree or what ever
he needs just like the factory K-member.

Originally Posted by chuntington101

THanks for the responce and info Chris. However im still intrested to see is any actually testing has been carried out on the K-member. What is the rigidity of it? Hoe dose it compare to the stock unit in terms of strength? Do you have the confidence that this could be used in a true race Road coruce car and have no problems?

Thanks,

Chris.

Originally Posted by CHRIS-CBRPerformance

I’m a real straight up guy, I am not going to answer questions with thick words
or be misleading in anyway. To be blunt I don’t road race, I have not idea
until someone beats the crap out of this thing road racing it.

I am confident that it is as strong or stronger
than any K-member on the market today.


I don’t remember seeing a K-member dyno, so it will have to be tested.

I will say this, the K-member is about 5lbs heavier that the stock unit.
But the motor my motor mounts are lighter than the stock stands and mounts
so it’s a tit for tat on the weight.

Originally Posted by 87silverbullet

I saw the k-member personally and it looks just like a BMR k-member mutant. In other words if you trust a BMR k-member on your car you can trust this k-member. Just remember though, If you are road-racing you need to have the body stiffened up with sub-frame connectors and the such so there will very little flexing of the k-member underneath. You can't expect to go road racing with just the k-member on the car it breaks at a weld point and then say "this k-member is no good" when you haven't prepped the rest of the body and we all know these f-bodies flex like a SOB.

Originally Posted by chuntington101

But sometimes i have to task the though questions.

Originally Posted by skyhighsami

Because you've placed an order, planning to place an order, or self appointed forum jockey?

Originally Posted by chuntington101

Read the post above yours! Im not being a jockey just asking a VALID question!

Originally Posted by skyhighsami

But why? Do you plan on purchasing one? If not then your line of questioning is nothing more than forum jockeying to pad your post count. The fact that you said "I have to ask the hard questions" is a pretty self absorbed holier than thou statement. There has obviously been alot of time spent developing this kit to be superior as a bolt on kit versus the APS kit. This is way different than what Josh is building which is pretty much one off. The problem with forums is people think their opinion is valued and their input completes the threads. That's not the case, if you have a legitimate question because you are weighing your options then I believe you have a great contribution to the topic, if you're poking holes in the build or being critical of the pricing you should step away from the keyboard. Good looking kit and kudos for pushing the envelope.