Cliffs notes: after you've done all the little stuff, call Chad Block @ CBRD, and if time permits Bob @ Modern Automotive Performance for an insane port job and ceramic coating.
Heads up, I have a ton of pics to post here. I bought this turbo over the FP Red (which I've lusted after for a looong time) because of one thing: service. FP's wait times are a complete joke. I had a few friends on the 'inside' offer to help bump me to the top of waiting lists but imho that is completely stupid. Why should there be a waiting list for stuff that could be sitting on a shelf, ready to rock? Or furthermore is backordered for who knows why, since FP is reeeaaaaly good at making excuses. DO NOT GET ME WRONG: I LOVE their products, but when it came time to put down my hard earned cash, I just couldn't spend it with them. One of my close friends actually was SHOCKED I had ordered the BBK over the red, since I never STFU about it.
FACT: I emailed chad @ CBRD Friday, feb 20th, 12:35pm to check for BBK availability, with a fresh OEM core. 12:50pm, Chad responds, 'yes, it can ship on Monday.' 2pm we were on the phone (phone tag and I was busy @ work) for CC info and the deal was done. Monday, chad confirms OEM core was delivered to blouch, tore down, converted to BBK, and shipped out to me. Thursday, BBK arrives at my office. FP, eat your heart out.
Furthermore, Friday I deliver turbo to Bob @ MAP, its back in my hands Saturday at 7pm. This kind of turn-around from them I will say is not to be expected, I basically begged him to make this happen. EVEN if you have to wait his normal 2-week turnaround time, it is WORTH IT. See pics below.
Anyways, I put on my BBK this weekend and it is an absolute DREAM. I went 'all the way' with it and had Bob @ MAP do an uber awesome port job on it, then ceramic coat it.
THURSDAY:
Coming soon to an evo near you:
SATURDAY:
Got the turbo back from Bob @ MAP/FFPerformance Saturday night. He had assured me it would be done, so I pushed him a little to make that happen. I was originally going to get my turbine housing coated black then silver to match my buschur coated manifold and SS O2 housing, but he had a wedding to get to and could only do one coat, black. Well, I didn't want a silver manifold and o2 housing and black turbine housing, so I ran them over to him and he got them all re-done in black. He got it done, and the quality is truely EXCEPTIONAL. I went over a bunch of details with him ahead of time and he came through on all of them like it was a no brainer.
I took some pics as best I could, but with the black coating it makes it tough to see the detail:
All pics here:
http://www.scheides.com/gallery/evo-bbk/
Old vs new:
Ported compressor outlet (goes waaaay up in there!):
Stock turbine:
BBK turbine + ported outlet (portmatched):
Its gasket matched:
O2 Housing matches gasket as well (bob touched it up, normally there is a small lip that doesn't match):
Stock scroll #1 (I had done basic portmatch already):
Ported scroll #1 (there's a big wall that got cut WAY down in this scroll, this was one of the points I pushed bob on, and I'm glad I did. There's a lot of material to be removed!:
Stock scroll #2 (I had done basic portmatch already):
Ported scroll #2 (this one was impossible to get a good pic of, but the work here is amazing!):
All teh new hotness (errr, blackness?):
SUNDAY: All done! s2kracka came over this morning and we put the new blue hotness in. We had everything buttoned up and car started around 10:30am, then proceeded to putz with (gah I hate turbo swaps!) oil leaks. I had everything as it was with the previous turbo, same lines and everything, just oil was dumping *everywhere* out the bottom. After a trip to denny's I realized that I had taken out the stock o2 housing support bracket (it was in teh way of the o2/downpipe but just rubbed before) and one of the bolt holes led to an oil galley near the balance shaft.....DOH! Soon after that, I discovered that oil was leaking past one of the bolts for the oil drain/oilpan connection, so I begrudgingly yanked it, put a little rtv on the threads and back smooth section, and put it back in...making a mess in the process :P This solved all the oil leaks. During what we shall call 'leak testing' I had discovered that this turbo is everything its sold as. A direct bolt-on, stock-spooling, big-power-gains-up-top assembly of goodness.
I've been having issues with my alky kit lately and just on pump gas, torque in the midrange is up slightly, but power up top is just heavenly. Before I'd look for 6000rpms and then time it just after that to shift around 7k...now I'm hitting 7500+ and slamming in the clutch because its coming much quicker than I expect it. After we got the oil leaks figured out and we did some quick STi p0wn4ge, he kept saying, 'timing....timing.....more timing!' So we did just that. Added a degree across the board and leaned out the tune just a tad. Still zero knock and the car just puuuuuuuullls up top.
Now, big turbo guys, stop laughing. This thing is tiny, yes, it's probably not making 700whp...but on pump gas, I'm hitting full boost right around 3000rpms, and power pulls steadily to 8000. I don't want to make whp guesses right now, but I will say it feels up top as good or better than my alky tune before, which was about 360whp on DB's dyno dynamics.
Me likey.
All back together:
MONDAY: back at work, posting on evoM over lunch. If you have done everything else to your evo and are still on the stock turbo, don't wreck it with a laggy, expensive turbo kit. yes, 700whp would be nice, but guess what, I have power from 3000-8000rpms. This turbo holds boost up top insanely good, even on just pump gas. The taper of the stock turbo is simply non-existent. Logs show me holding 24.7psi from about 3500 (playing with this still) to 7800rpm, yes literally FLAT boost curve using my GM BCS and mrfred's mods on the stock ecu.
Dyno numbers coming soon.
**UPDATE***
Dyno numbers and further review on page 4:
http://forums.evolutionm.net/7325384-post48.html
D'oh!
