First STS Kit in Chicago Area

[XxantichargerxX]

Good to see that your getting everything straightened out. Benchmark does Great work!

[MyWorld]

Good to see that your getting everything straightened out. Benchmark does Great work!

Yeah,

I should of went to Benchmark to start with. They do know their stuff.

By the way I saw something VERY VERY interesting when I was at Benchmark today :wink:

[XxantichargerxX]

Yeah,

I should of went to Benchmark to start with. They do know their stuff.

By the way I saw something VERY VERY interesting when I was at Benchmark today :wink:

Mike from Benchmark knows a lot about putting together a turbo car.
Shhh!

[Orange5thGen]

Wink wink whos car was it hehehe......
Can't wait to get all of our Turbo'd cars together....Photo shoot and a race day at the track......

[MyWorld]

Just thought I would give you guys a status update since it has been a few days.

While fixing the problems with the boost leaks where the factory exhaust connects up to the STS kit, there are a few things that I wanted to improve upon:

1) The mild steel pipe and flange that connects the factory exhaust to the turbo.
- Exhaust gases are very hot, and they also contain a lot of water vapor as a process of combustion. Hot moist gases, combined with turning the car off/on in a cool Chicago climate makes for very wide temperature changes. Steel, no matter how it is coated will not last long in these conditions. I am replacing the mild steel pipe and flange that connects the factory exhaust to the turbo with stainless steel ones.

2) The Turbo is connected to the car with exhaust hangers.
- There are two reasons I do not like this setup. For one, if one of those rubber bands were to break, guess where my turbo would be? Second, it seems to be an impossible task to get my right rear exhaust tip straight. To address this concern, I am having a bracket made that will mount to frame to hold the turbo in place. The bracket will also be adjustable so that I can finally get my right rear tip perfectly straight.

3) I do not want to weld my factory exhaust pipes to the pipes on the STS Kit.
- I know Z Madness on Camaro5 is able to use the temporary clamps without a boost leak, but I don’t seem to be so lucky. It doesn't help that my original installer tac welded and used the temporary brackets in their attempt to fix the boost leak there. To address this concern, I am going to use V-Bands to connect up factory exhaust to the pipes on the STS turbo kit. Unfortunately this is not as easy as it sounds. We 1st have to cut through the tac weld that was done, and getting everything to fit properly.

One part was very difficult to get, and that is the Stainless steel Flange that will connect to the turbo. STS doesn't sell any stainless steel parts, so Benchmark had to go straight to the manufacture to get the part. The parts should all be in early next week, and with a bit of luck, we'll be able to fire it up, there won't be any leaks, everything will work perfectly, and minimal tuning will be needed to get near 400 WHP.

I'm hoping by the end of next week ~ 4/6 to 4/9

[HumanWiki]

Sheesh man

[MyWorld]

Sheesh man

I don't think it is really as bad as it may sound.

Do I wish the piping in the kit was stainless steel, ya sure I do, but I think just the piping going from the exhaust to the turbo is all that is needed. I do wish that it also came with V-Bands too. The welding thing doesn't sound like a smart thing to do. All of the things I am doing are just improving the kit.

I could of just welded it, not replaced any pipes, and just left the turbo on the exhaust hangers, and I most likely would be fine (and get near 400 WHP). I just want everything to be perfect though.

I still am optimistic about the STS kit. If if does for me, what it has done for others, I will be very happy.

As far as STS helping out... They did provide the part numbers needed for the stainless steel flange and also provided contact information to get our hands on one, so they are providing some support.

I don't want to knock, STS, because I don't think their kit is 'bad', but I do think there are some items that need to be improved upon. I like to think that I am reporting a fair and impartial report of how my install is going.

At the end of the all of this, If I am able to pick up my car at the end of next week, and it does make 400 WHP, I WILL be a VERY VERY happy camper.

[Orange5thGen]

You will be!!!! I hope I can see it on Sunday!

[MyWorld]

You will be!!!! I hope I can see it on Sunday!

I won't be able to make Millers Ale House this Sunday. At least not with my car anyway. Its at Benchmark still, because it is a huge PIA to pick it up and drop it off. I'd rather just leave it there and just pick her up when she's 100% complete. Soon, very soon she'lll be coming home though.

[Meengineer0128]

1) The mild steel pipe and flange that connects the factory exhaust to the turbo.
- Exhaust gases are very hot, and they also contain a lot of water vapor as a process of combustion. Hot moist gases, combined with turning the car off/on in a cool Chicago climate makes for very wide temperature changes. Steel, no matter how it is coated will not last long in these conditions. I am replacing the mild steel pipe and flange that connects the factory exhaust to the turbo with stainless steel ones.

I would def. recommend , if you can, to go with some type of ceramic coating. Stainless is very conductive of heat, and if your giving off that much hot gas, you may want to go with something ceramic dipped. JMO

Other than that, waiting with anticipation!!!!

[MyWorld]

It shouldn't be too many too many more days now.
The good news, all the leaks are fixed !!!!

The bad news it's still running rich :-( But it's not as rich as it was before.

I have some pics of my new turbo mount. It is super solid and attached to the frame of the car.... No more exhaust hangers.....
Because the exhaust needs to move a little bit, a flexpipe connecter was used to attach the flange to the exhaust pipes.

Here are some pics of the new turbo mount, the few flange, the flex pipe, the V-bands and the old flange (I think you can see why I wanted to change out to stainless steel)

[MyWorld]

318 WHP on a Mustang Dyno

OK, The kit is finally installed correctly. The Dyno that BenchMark uses is notoriously low. They use a Mustang Dyno, but it reads lower than other Mustang Dynos in the area. A stock L99 with a roto-fab CAI did 322WHP on this dyno if you want to use that as a benchmark.

When I brought my my car into BenchMark 4 weeks, the peak WHP was 256 and the lines looked horrible. Look at the Brown line in the 1st graph.

It took some time to fab a replacement pipe from the exhaust the turbo, and to build a bracket for the turbo. After all that was installed, and all of the leaks were fixed I was at 298 WHP, and the lines looked much much better. This was with the base STS tune included with the kit.

Vince got our data logs and made some tweaks, it is now at 318 WHP.

I was hoping for more, but after seeing what others were doing on the 1st runs after getting the base kit on correctly, I think I am right in line. Z Madness was at 342, Jim505 was at 341, elsololobo02 was at 342. I know Z Madness & Jim505 were on dynojets, I think elsololobo02 was too, but I don't know for sure. I think my 318WHP on a Mustang Dyno is equivenlt to these dyno Jet numbers.

Ok, for how the car drives.....

It is so much faster than before. My AFR guage no longer dumps when I slam on the gas and I love hearing the turbo spool up. But really, my butt dyno says this thing is excellent!

Here are my graphs:

1st graph - Brown line = 256WHP = Turbo has leaks at where the factery exhaust meets the STS turbo pipes & is leaking where the flange connects to the turbo

1st graph - Red Line = 298WHP = All the leaks are fixed, but it is running pig rich

2nd graph - Red Line = 318WHP = Vince fixed the tune

[Blackhawk]

Not sure if I said congrats on FB, so congrats! Woohoo!

[TonyNo]

Good to see progress!

[XxantichargerxX]

Congrats on the progress