Yes his car was off and had been off for about 4 hours that is why his insurance company is flipping out on him. They (the insurance adjuster) said that the msd box he had in his car was malfunctioning as that was the source of the fire. TPS (the place he had it installed at) said everything was done and working correctly and they don't want to cover it. I will ask him for some pics for you guys. Just hope someone covers it for him because after all that money he spent on it I would be pissed if no-one wanted to take responsibility.

 

So, what if the turbo was mounted on the downpipe and not the manifold? it wouldnt be against the firewall and it would still be as effective as a normal turbo setup right? There is enough space in there plus add some heat shielding to the car in that area. Anyone see any prob with that?

 

Please Please

Don't listen to propaganda

First of all, just think about it (not attacking you but stating), how many turbo cars are produced even still in 2008? How are they mounted?

Ok we got that

Now lets think...how many fires do you hear about from a turbocharged car? Hell, look at a SRT-4 engine bay, pretty damn close to the firewall yet people are still putting on GT series turbochargers with 0 problems.

Hell, there are shittier cars than a Cobalt that have been turbocharged, cars with tighter engine space than you guys have and they make it work with 0 issues.

Also avoiding the firewall is always possible...it's called proper planning.

The other problem I see in this thread is everyone is talking about "less heat" as a reason to do this. It's complete BS that you think that is the only way. It's called coating. You could easily send your exhaust housing to be coated as well as your manifold to be coated to lower the engine bay temperatures. There are lots of things that play effect and no matter what, you're going to have a hot exhaust system, a turbocharger on the end of it isn't going to make it super extreme.

I wasn't going to originally say this but **** it

With turbochargers, you need to have the center section clocked properly. What that means is that the center section inlet and outlet (feed side and return side) must be vertical because gravity is forcing the oil back into the oil pan. Also, your oil lines are short on both sides, short line from a oil gallery and a thick short oil line back to your oil pan. That's it. With a STS setup, your turbocharger is alllll the way to the rear of your vehicle. This effects how well the oil flows and everything. From my understanding, they supply you a oil pump to keep the pressure up but why go through that if it's not necessary?

Another issue (and why everyone is saying it's NOT efficient) is that the longer the distance compressed air has to travel, the more of a pressure drop there will be. So ladies and gentlemen, inside the compressor housing (for example) it builds up 10 PSI of air pressure and starts to send it off and on top of that going through a intercooler (which can also most likely cause a slight pressure drop as well)...you get the idea. Granted, your wastegate is relative to manifold pressure, a vacuum line as well has to travel that far too so (I'd imagine) the accuracy of things will go down.

When exhaust is being pushed out of the cylinder, it's traveling at it's fastest rate and will be at it's slowest rate (depending on the size of the exhaust system though) by time it reaches the end of the system. They normally set you up with a smaller turbocharger or a turbocharger with a smaller a/r turbine for the specific reason of it's response time going to suffer...by how much it depends.

There is so much to go into and the necessity of putting your turbocharger in that specific location is not there.

But honestly, it doesn't matter what I say...there will always be disagreements which everyone has their right to but all I'm saying to the people reading this thread who think it's a super great idea to install a "universal" turbo system, think before you buy and read between the lines. Challenge what people say and don't accept everything for what it is...hell...challenge me but as long as you understand and it actually makes sense to you, don't jump on the "buy it" or "it's dope" bandwagon.

That is all.

 

While I have no intentions of getting into this really stupid arguement I will say that the fire issue is just dumb. It is totally assinine to use that as a reason to go with an STS turbo. There are hundreds of thousands of cars with turbos under the hood and I've never heard one person say it caused a fire. If that was a real issue Benz, BMW, and other automakers who use one or even two turbos under the hood would not do that.

I'm not a fan of the STS turbo set up, but I have my own reasons. I'm not going to argue it with anyone. If you guys want to run an STS turbo more power to you, but do not say under the hood fire is a valid reason.

 

never done a turbo before so Im just throwin my thoughts out and learning. My plan as of now is to wait till AEM makes the plug & play harness for the F/IC then prolly the Garrett kit

 

+1 the dark skinned man with the danceing zombie **** is right

As is 06black

I agree with both of em and have an engineering degree and experience of turbocharging my saturn ion redline as knowledge to back it up

 

+1 for the dan-man

how did you get your old name back on here?

 

I have friends...and i won my court case

 

wait.... if its raining and you drive over water and your turbo goes off....what do you do?
thats like rust on your turbo waiting to happen cause that is a metal turbo on there right?


btw im not trying to make fun of you, you should put a splash guard on it jsut incas you know bro.

 

not all metal rusts.... and what happens if your turbo get's wet in the engine bay? It wouldn't get as wet, but water splashes up into your engine bay all the time. Turbo's reach temperatures way too hot for water to really even touch. It evaporates as soon as it hits that thing, so unlesss it is raining up or you park with your whole car in a puddle there is nothing to worry about when it comes to water.

 

you NEVER want a turbo to get wet....it will happen occasionally...but try your hardest t avoid it....hot metal that gets wet and cools too rapidly becomes brittle.
likewise, never cool your engine or especially rotors with a hose......next time you hit the brakes your rotors might crack
this is also why you run the hose over your radiator with the engine on when cooling off a car instead of directly spraying the engine

 

It's all about increasing chances. It will be closer and more exposed to all the elements.

 

see, i knew it wasn't safe down there =P

 

Im ordering the STS kit in september and having Hi-Tuned Performance here in st.louis fab up my piping, some of you may know of the shop, they build 500+whp DD eclipses/talons around are area and have the fastest 16g's probably in state of Missouri easily. So my kit will be mounted very nice and have amazing welds on the piping. The hahn kit just seems like it will generate way to much heat and the piping is all funky in the engine bay which is a turn off. Plus when i called them....No answer? I called STS and someone talked to me and was very helpful.

BTW a custom splash guard is very easy to make...........

 

it's completely safe. NJHK, i know at least you know how hot turbos get. If you think water splashing onto it is going to do anything to the structural integrity of the housing, you are mistaken. The only way i can see it being an issue is if the turbo were actually somewhat submerged. Splashes would be a non-issue, but if you actually had some of the turbo go under water it could cause problems. But, like i said before, and what njhk also just said you are just increasing chances of issues for no reason. I'll repeat what i said earlier-
unless you are doing this to have a unique setup or you have a show car, there is no point. You are just getting similar performance to your traditional setup with chances for more issues.

 

Perfectly said.

 

read my previous post about splashing the turbo...though i do agree with the rest of this comment

hot metal + water = brittle cracking

 

but again, like i said, the water will evaporate so quickly at the temperatures turbo's reach that unless it is partially submerged, it will effect nothing.

 

I read a little of this and it seem u guys might b interested. I figured I'd chim in and let everyone know the performance shop I work for is a dealer for STS and a stage 1 universal kit runs about $2,000.00. If anyone wants more info on them send me a PM and I'll send u a phone number that u can contact us at. Also we will have HP Tuner next week.

 

..it doesnt have ti stay wet....evaporation causes a heat loss...which is why we sweat....sucking out enough heat to vaporize 2 ounces of water will rapidly cool the turbo....rpid cooling of metals is not good

 

u guys are saying that the heat at the manifold and the heat at the exhaust are the same when infact there not start ur car up and touch ur exhaust manifold, then touch ur exhaust tip and see which one burn off ur skin. the exhaust temps cool down quit a bit before reaching the turbo, and the intake temp cools even more going throgh such a long charge pipe. thats why a stage 1 kit dosn't come with an intercooler. iats are allready low enought.

 

umm doubt that's the reason my friend.

It's a universal system. They logically can't offer a intercooler or even charge pipes when they don't know what application it's going on. Every intercooler can't fit on every car.

Also, as long as the turbocharger is within the efficiency range, low pressure applications will yield lower IATs non-intercooled.

Plus, they leave all the piping (charge pipe and exhaust system) up to you...they give you what you need to bolt on the turbocharger. The kit is not a true kit. Kits are worry free, installation simple for YOUR application. Anything universal like this is not a kit. You still have about a grand to spend on top of what you're going to be buying from them.

 

The only thing u have to worry about is sucking water or "elements" into the turbo! That is why sts sends a "snorkel" for thier turbos. As far as the water on the turbo goes, we work on 18wheelers 24/7 and if a little water or "elements" is gonna hurt anything it definitely will when a 6cyl diesel turbo has been working its ass off for 10 hours straight then sprayed down with a pressure washer! If you ever get a turbo wet, you would realize that there is nothing rapid cooling about it! So a little mist off the roadways isn't going to hurt anything. If you want to do a inexpensive turbo setup, sts is the way to go in my book. You can keep most of your previous upgrades like headers ect. The turbo is set so far back the piping acts similar to an intercooler. As far as a universal kit goes the stage 1 is a good starter "kit". There is a lot of intense labor and engineering that will take place installing this "kit". This "kit" is not specifically for a cobalt (universal) but it will definitely get you pointed in the right direction. Just get a good tune and you should be good for around 6-8psi non-intercooled which should be enough for a stock 2.2, 2.4. If anyone is interested in a "kit" send a pm to contact me.

 

How is it a good starter kit when it's incomplete? It's not a kit.

So...you keep your header...or you could take it off and sell it like any other person. OR you could not buy a header at all, that's why you plan things before you buy them.

Another thing, how is it a good starter kit if there is going to be "alot of intense labor and engineering"? Starter meaning for beginners. Most beginners couldn't tell you what a/r means never the less engineer a turbo setup. Matter of fact, I could only see a beginner being honestly interested in such a setup. If you read in the previous posts, DJT has a Engineering Degree and fully agrees that it's a very inefficient setup.

If you want to get it for your car, that's fine with me but your statements on how great it is is really lame (sorry to say).

And for the last time, it's not meant to be non-intercooled...IT COMES WITH NO PIPING OR INTERCOOLER. You do everything. You make it intercooled OR not intercooled.

You're spending $3,000 on something that is incomplete. Super.

 

Maybe you dont get a kit when you order directly from STS but if you goto a STS dealer they customize the kit for you. The local shop that did my first car is called Texas Rear Mount Turbos.