Ignore these haters. They are all just jealous of your idea for low dollar power. They all wish they had thought of it first. You are a winner and not a loser and we can all innately sense that. Push onward to greatness and show them all their foolishness.

 

A tdo4 will work fine for low to moderate boost levels, but be aware that you will need something bigger for big hp.
Im using a td04, but im making the manifold/downppipe etc all myself so it will be easy enough to change later on if I want to change to a different turbo! Not so easy if you can't weld though!
Go megasquirt at a minimum, it will just make your life so much easier. By the time you buy a decent FMU (Begi) and maybe an ignition retard controller (Bipes or sim) you have spent the same $$
Read as much as you can on here!

 

Stuff I have bought towards my turbo:
In order.

Megasquirt pnp (not built by me, I am not electrically inclined)
Wideband
Guages ( I got a deal on egt, oil temp and pressure guages )

The plan after that was a decent laptop, learn to tune. Then id1000 injectors and ls2 coils.

All before boost.

But I bought a wrecked trubo car. So timeline shifted a bit. I still plan on getting the.injectors amd ls2 coils on the car before boost.

Just think of any gauge ( amd reading them ) as engine protection. Same thing with a good tune.
A little more time and money keeps the car reliable.
Less problems means more fun.

 

It's not that it is a TD04, but a TD04-9B. The standard WRX uses a 13T. Count how many letters there are between B and T and that's how many generations of refinements have occurred in wheel design and efficiency (read heat), not to mention the size difference, which is huge. Why spend the money and time for 40whp when you can have 100whp for the same effort? Inducer: 34.9. Exducer: 49.00. Really? My inducer is larger than that one's exducer, lol. There's a reason it was free! If it wasn't such a bad turbo to start with you could just about run two of them because it is so small.

 

I dont think the effort required for 40 or 100 hp is really an issue everything is so cheap these days.
My MX5 cost me less than $3k NZD to buy, to turbo it with me making virtually everything will be another $2k NZD this equates to $4k USD total. Not exactly big bucks!
If I choose to add a different turbo, I can cut the flanges off the manifold and downpipe and remake to suit the turbo. $100 tops. If you're paying someone to do it, it would be considerably more expensive though.

 

I have a set of denso 1000cc injectors for a steal of a deal PM me if interested. Good luck!!

 

TD04-9B turbo.. don't do it unless you have it in kit form and it was very cheap like mine.. get any of the garrets and make all the effort worthwhile.

 

I see. Thanks for clearing that up. Where is everybody getting thier garrets? Ive been scowering ebay and craigslist for a gt28 but havent been successful yet. Are the more current td04s worth while?

 

I don't understand the atitude here. My car runs a td04 at 6psi (ish) and while i don't know the particular code, it runs fine. Great fun, KILLS bigger more expensive cars on the track days we run at...and is considerably more fun to drive than our non turbo one.

For a cheap setup to get going with and while you learn what you do and don't know why not..?

I know this is blasphemy here (and no doubt will get negative feedback) but not everyone has high boost requirements...

I completely agree with the Engine Management and Wideband comments though...waste of time without those. In fact, a waste of time would be to get off lightly....expensive is the most likely out come.

 

exactly mx5-kiwi and up to 10psi should be enough for most and entirely possible with a tdo4?
I'm not going for massive hp maybe 200 or max, I want a reliable streetable car with good power, if I wanted outright performance I would prefer to stick to my motorcycles thanks

 

Simjen, where in NZ are you? Are you on the nz mx5 forum?

Vrrmmpsh, My down pipe was wrapped when I bought the car and it was not the best for it, it had started to crack and the metal started flaking. You may have better luck but just thought I would give you a heads up on probs I had....

 

Well said.

 

Kiwi,

There is a huge difference between the 9B and the 13T and the 16G in lbs/min of flow and efficiency. Those are my two biggest problems with it. Good used 13T's (WRX) are about $50, and I know 16G's (Mitsu Eclipse?) are cheap and plentiful, too. The moral to the story is you don't pick up an odd turbo off the ground for free and base your entire build around it when other, better choices are dirt cheap. You pick the turbo for the purpose, not try to find a purpose for a junk turbo.

I am using a cheap Chinese Garrett knockoff that was purchased brand new for $250, but I picked the specs I wanted. I have several T3's, T25's, an IHI, and a couple of Holsets lying around that I could have tried to use but none of them would have been wise to base my build around. If we are going to the trouble to do it, size it right.

 

use any of the td04 except the 9b version. The 9b has a weird bolt pattern and therefore cannot be upgraded. it is also the smallest of the td04 turbos. WRX turbos are so cheap that i would not hesitate to use one of those but im stuck with the 9b.

 

thanks mate. i actually made the dump myself so ill see how it goes. if it cracks ill just make another one out of thick gauge steel.

can i ask what mods have you done for your setup and what rpm does it start spooling? for such a small turbo mine doesn't get jiggy till 4000rpm.

 

To be honest I haven't paid that much attention to when the power comes on. I know it has way more torque and power than our N/A 93 everywhere.....and pulls beyond the redline which I have set at 7300, which may be a bit high....?

Car came built with td04 etc, link g? (a bit confused here, it says G1 but link say g2 with g3 software...) larger alloy radiator, GTX 360cc injectors (reading around here they apparently flow about 10% more than the 360 rating).

I have added a wideband, 2.5" exhaust system, HSD suspension, cert'd roll bar, re route kit, brack ducts and inlets, 15x7 wheels and for track days have a spare set with Dunlop direzza 03g 205x50x15 (which i like, but have no comparison as I am new to car tracking /racing, all my experience is national level road and MX bike racing..).

Most of what I have done is to aimed at improving the current package in terms of reliability/longevity but my next step is to up the boost and chase that tail for awhile..

Despite the TD04 turbo ..... I am really happy with the car, it boxes WELL above it's weight and the driver has plenty more to learn. As I say very happy so far..

Hope that doesn't jinx it!!!

Sixshooter, I understand what your saying and it sure does have merit. Just that sometimes using what you have is just a way to get started, starting is often the hardest part. Especially when your not in the U.S., the range of parts and pricing is hard to fathom down here where everything is either simply not available or double / triple the price.

I just wanted to pointout that a TDO4 may not be ideal but it can work if done with care and not an unrealistic expectation....

 

mx5-kiwi I'm curious. Which td04 are you running?

16t- 435 cfm
13t- 390 cfm
9b- 265 cfm

 

I would love to know myself, i have truck loadfs of numbers but none that look like any you listed...Where do you look to see this info?

Also, don't forget i'm running a 1600 so the demands may not be as high as an 1800.

 

If you post the numbers and a picture someone will probably figure it out.

It can also be narrowed down by the mechanical features.
eg wrx 13t has 3 bolt inlet flange, volvo 16t has recirc valve, some greddy turbos have 4 bolt downpipes, etc.

 

I'm in Cambridge, and yes I'm a member of the NZ Forum, not really posting much on there though.
Mines a 13T by the look of it, it has a 90 degree inlet on the turbo and a 3 bolt exhaust inlet. My manifold will be able to be changed for anything I like in the future as its only a case of cutting off the flange and chucking another on. While its a cheap turbo to start with, it has reasonable characteristics and should work well enough for a start and up to 10-12 PSI.
Mines still in the early stages, will be getting a MS soon and setup as NA. Once running and mapped as NA I'll fit the turbo kit and setup with the turbo wastegate open so I can drive it to a dyno and have it setup right!