harvey_smith

All the MBC does is require a greater pressure before the waste gate actuator opens to release boost pressure. Locate it in the boost feed pipe to the WG Actuator.

Why not compare it with the Hybrid GT £270 and the Hybrid GT 2 £290.

The Hybrid HDi kit consists of four hard pipes. The one on the battery/washer bottle side is a continuous polished aluminium pipe all the way from the throttlebody to the plastic timing chest cover. Both kits are very similar and according to Hybrid, the Autobahn is a copy. If you examine the cores you will see differences in the internal core design.

Here are some photographs of OE headers ported and wrapped with DEI 2" exhaust wrap and wire tied.

There are two main types of heatwrap, the white woven fibre glass material that is applied dry and another product, usually light brown in colour applied damp but NOT wet. I use a lot of heatwrap and have tried all types I have come across but settled on DEI. Applied damp and left to dry out overnight close to a boiler. Another advantage with DEI is that it has a marker down each edge about 5 or 6 mm in so that it is easy to judge the correct overlap. Unlike some wrap, it is close woven and does not opwn up when pulled tight. The wrap must be kept tight for a satisfactory result and longveity. Do not double wrap or you may cause problems with the material you are wrapping as too much heat is retained. For a 3" Classic downpipe you will use around 3/4 of a roll of 2" wide X 50' DEI. I used to spray the wrap with an aerosol, also from DEI but stopped doing this when I found it caused the wrap to go brittle at an earlier stage and then flake offcausing premature failure. Tie wire, stainless, 302 grade, around 32 thou" or .81mm is best for me and far more economical than clips. A good tie tool is expensive so unless you are doing lots of wrapping not a cheap solution but it does make the tie process far quicker and consistent. The reasons for wrapping are to reduce under bonnet temperatures and retaining heat in the exhaust gas improves flow. This results in quicker response and earlier spool. On a downpipe on its own, that may not be noticable but if you wrap D/P, up-pipe, headers and turbo exhaust housing (NOT compressor turbine) you will notice a quantifiable benefit.

Because the tube and fin is lighter ie less aluminium mass it does not have the same heat sink properties. However if the core is sufficiently large to control the charge temperature adequately it has a number of advantages. 1)Less pressure drop. Abig advantage. 2) Less weight. If you compare FMIC cores currently on the market you will find that the bar and plate and tube and fin are usually similar dimensions but the tube anf fin are noticably lighter. Having experienced both bar and plate and tube and fin on the same car I have absolutely no doubt that an efficient tube and fin is the way to go. It also happens to be the core chosen by Paul Blamire for his Zen car with proven results. I suspect the article above from MRT is quite old and does not take account of recent developments and the pressure drop inherent on a tube and fin set up.

P.S. Also look for a hair line crack from around the over tightened filling or drain bung.

There is a gasket from your dealer.

Just had this drawn to my attention again. Porting the O/E up-pipe must help but the up-pipe is a constriction and is best replaced with a purpose designed up-pipe to suit the ported headers. If properly heat wraped with good performance material there is no point in trying to refit the heat shields. Indeed it is good practice to remove the lugs and brackets that attach the shields. There is more to it than just openning the ports out or bevelling them and to do the job properly, using carbide burrs for roughing out, removing lugs and brackets with air tools, caustic hot wash to remove particles, wrap and wire, hydraulic ramp and air or battery driver tools for re assembly/installation is a long, hard, full days work. Without air tools and hydraulic ramp it will take up a good part of the second day.

Some are easier to do than others. A typical time with ramps and proper tools is under 2.5 hrs. Some may be less than 2 hrs while others can be 3 hrs. Fixed price here is £70 to swap O/E for ported. The up-pipe with CAT or heatshield can be a problem on some cars. Easy solution is to undo the two engine mounting nuts, put a bit of wood under the sump and jack the engine an inch or so and the up-pipe drops out. Spraying the fasteners with WD40 or similar, the night before and again before the job starts is worthwhile and will make the job easier.

Having tried many brands of exhaust wrap, I have settled on DEI which I buy in frequent batches of ten rolls, 50' X 2". It is not the cheapest but is economical to use. It has a stitching down the side which makes judging the overlap easy and consistent. It is applied damp, not wet. I stopped spraying the wrap because I found it made the wrap brittle after a lot of heat recycling and was then prone to flaking.

Last set I got came from API if that is any help.

I did a test on four pannel filters, HKS Green foam, O/E, K+N, and STi. The difference between best in terms of power, (HKS) and worst, STi was only 2 bhp. The results were not what was expected so they were repeated the following day with exactly the same outcome. The O/E and STi are disposable. In subsequent tests I found the filtration from the HKS was not very good and it would allow through quite big particles compared to the other three. I have now settled on K+N oiled pannel as it is reusable with good filtration. This talk about K+N oiled doing in MAF Sensors is just another piece of disinformation floating about the Scooby community. Follow the instructions for cleaning and oiling and everything will be OK. The filter comes preoiled and ready to use so you do not need to think about cleaning it for 10-15 K miles anyway. I have a complete, new CAK with silicon joiner, clamps and K+N filter for New Age if anybody is looking for a CAK.

The car in question has had everything done to it, everything that you would reasonably expect for that sort of power output. The owner has spent thousands and having been promised 450/480 and having 427/436 he is understandably miffed. Hence my question. A couple of people have spoken highly of Owen's to me and I am looking at one of their turbos now.

Cheers Peter.[] Now you know I would only give you the best.[H] 300 mls per bottle. Effective at 1ml per litre. I have found that the effectiveness tails off after 2ml/litre and there are no gains to be had beyond 3mls/litre. It helps to get a plastic 50 or 60 ml measure from the chemists, local hospital or whatever.

I have tried every octane booster I can find and after lots of tests, settled on the Nitrous Formula (NF) available from Roger Clark Motorsport, next day. Even although it is expensive, it is very cost effective as one bottle does 5 or 6 tanks. From the tests on Optimax at the time it was clear that more ignition advance could be run. This was the actual test, how much more advance could be added. Several had no effect at all.

BTW. Consider 10/40 for winter use and on a New Age, even 5/40 or 5/30.

I get my Motul from Alyn at AS Performance by post next day and his prices are always very good. With an oil and filter change, you will use around 4.5 litres plus and you may need some until the next change, typically .5 to 1 litre on a standard car so stop being tight.

For value for money you will be hard pushed to better a Hybrid FMIC and it is streets ahead of any TMIC. I have a Hybrid on my 95WRX Wagon and an APS on my 00 STi Wagon. Ambient and charge temperatures are measured on both and the Hybrid seems to outperform the APS but that may be as a result of different power outputs.

Very interesting comparison of figures and nice to see the progression. Good figures for a Sports Cat. A TD04 hybrid would retain the early spool and give you a bit more. A good turbo IMHO if you are not chasing figures. The VF35 will have the potential for quite a big step up but will not be as responsive as what you have now. You could counteract this to a certain extent with ported headers. I assume you want to retain the sports cat and not go for a purpose designed decat up-pipe. What injectors do you have because the VF 35 will operate comfortably at 340 bhp without extreme measures.

If you are still stuck, have a word with David Reid at DR Motorsport.

I have no idea how long you have to disconnect the battery and it may vary so you could be in some doubt as to whether the ECU has actually reset. Doing it as set out above means for sure that you have actually done the job properly because you see the flashing check engine light and if a fault still exists, you know what it is from the read out. All OK is indicated by flashing half a second on and half a second off. You may have to run the car over 11kph for two minutes for the coolant to warm and the CEL to function. To read historic ECU faults before clearing as outlined in the original post, connect the two black jumpers only and switch on ignition. Long flash=10 and short =1. Switch off ignition and disconnect the jumpers. A D-Check can then be run in exactly the same way but with the green jumpers connected only instead of the blacks. Sometimes finding the black and green jumpers is difficult. Good lighting helps. The greens are easier as they are bigger and the only greens there. There could be several black plugs loose under the dash near the steering column but only one pair go together and activate the CEL. Sometimes the pugs are still taped together and out of the way as this proceedure has not been used on that particular car since new.

Are there many owners with MD321T turbos producing 450 bhp? Is 450 bhp the norm or the exception? I ask because I am involved with an owner who was promised 450 bhp and 480 ft lbs and is upset with his 427bhp/436 ft lbs.

Depending on the M/Y of your car and Al's, it may well be that when you are giving it large, the ECU is detecting something it does not like (DET) and is pulling ignition which makes the car feel flat. In time, providing there is no excessive boost or more DET it will go back to its "normal" setting. Al, try an ECU reset and see if you then have full /normal boost. do not give it full throttle immediately but see just how much boost you have gradually. There is no need to leave the car ticking over after a hard drive, just drive the last couple of miles or three minutes normally, and off boost and switch off like any other car. On start up, drive off normally staying off boost. Letting the car sit ticking over from cold is neither necessary or desirable. Remember that although the water temperature can show normal in a mile it may be 6-10 miles before the oil is at normal working temperature. Booting the car cold is a BAD thing as is booting it after a period sat ticking over because the heat soak can result in DET which is also a BAD thing. Give it half a mile for the intercooler to pull temperatures down and remember that at 30mph there is not a lot of flow to the intercooler.

Hi Kaz : I assume your car is a M/Y 00 with TD04 turbo. If it is not, then this advice may change a bit. Getting 280 bhp will cost a bit more than something like 260bhp and 260 ft/lbs and over 300 bhp a lot more expense is required. For 260/260, here is what I did on a M/Y 99 UK recently. 3" Revolution exhaust and downpipe. This made a noticable difference. Ported O/E headers and matched up-pipe. Again, a noticable difference. Generally at this power level/turbo, tubular headers will possibly loose power and add lag/reduce spool. Stay with the O/E air box and snorkle. The O/E filter is good but disposable. If you want a reusable go for a K+N but it will not add any power. Now for cheapness and ONLY if you have access to someone with a wide band lambda, that knows what they are doing, you can fit a GBE valve, cost under £35 posted. This allows the boost to be raised but the exhaust system and ported headers will already have freed up some boost anyway so you may need a fuel cut defender (FCD) to allow boost to be lifted further. How far you lift boost will depend on fueling but personally I would not exceed 1.2/1.25 bar ASSUMING fueling was good. The FCD will cost around £90 posted for an HKS for example, plus fitting. It would be handy to have a boost guage, reading to 1.5 bar. Guage and pod cost is around £40-£50 posted and a Knock Link at £125-£150 posted is also a good idea. Now a GBE valve and FCD is a crude but cheap way of achieving the power and if your car is M/Y 99/00 you could go for an Ecutek remap. This will cost in the region of £600 first time but you would not have the GBE and FCD and the boost guage and K.L., while desirable, would not be essential. With the Ecutek remap the ECU is set up specifically for your car's mods and you would get a bit nearer to your target. Running Shell V-Power plus 1ml/litre of NF a couple of tank fulls in advance of you remap or even with the GBE valve will release still more power but you have to then run that fuel and NF permanently. (or drive gently when not) I hope this is helpful.