sts turbo anyone
03-31-2009, 03:07 PM
#12
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location:
Posts: 2,257
You have 4,834 posts on here and you are asking what the difference between a s/c and turbo is? If it wasnt a joke then use the Search button.
I heard through the rumor mill STS was having some problems. Wild Bill stopped working for STS and signed a contract with Bullseye Power not too long ago.
I think the STS kits work a bit better on the GM's because of the bigger displacement. There is some lag while in a front mounted setup you experience no lag with the same size turbo. No room for upgrading the turbo because of no room and small charge pipes. You cant make them bigger because you need the extra velocity. I have also heard of tuning issues with several kits but I didnt have a problem. Rick Squires does the "canned" STS tuning. The reason I got the kit was because I lived an hour away from them.
I sold my kit to a guy on this forum and he hasnt had any problems. I had plans to go for more HP in the future so I switched to a front mounted turbo. HP Performance with a Bullseye S366 turbo. I went through 2 setups and 3 turbos to find what I liked and wanted.
I heard through the rumor mill STS was having some problems. Wild Bill stopped working for STS and signed a contract with Bullseye Power not too long ago.
I think the STS kits work a bit better on the GM's because of the bigger displacement. There is some lag while in a front mounted setup you experience no lag with the same size turbo. No room for upgrading the turbo because of no room and small charge pipes. You cant make them bigger because you need the extra velocity. I have also heard of tuning issues with several kits but I didnt have a problem. Rick Squires does the "canned" STS tuning. The reason I got the kit was because I lived an hour away from them.
I sold my kit to a guy on this forum and he hasnt had any problems. I had plans to go for more HP in the future so I switched to a front mounted turbo. HP Performance with a Bullseye S366 turbo. I went through 2 setups and 3 turbos to find what I liked and wanted.
03-31-2009, 03:35 PM
#13
6th Gear Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Long Island, moving to arizona soon
Posts: 7,386
thanks dex, haha i know the diff but which you guys think it better i never had either of these set up so i dont know meaning a turbo or sc but seems like the front mounted turbo is the way to go if i went the turbo route
03-31-2009, 04:10 PM
#16
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 486
well unless your building a track monster...id go for a twin screw for the streets...the sts is cool but for the money and time i invested it wouldve been much cheaper for a supercharger...its much easier to live with
03-31-2009, 05:59 PM
#18
2nd Gear Member
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Billings, MT
Posts: 462
I almost pulled the trigger on the STS twin for the mustang at Sema this year, but held off. My brother went ahead and got it for his vette, and it is impressive.
In the vette, the return pipes tuck in to the body really nice and dont hang low at all, but in the mustang they are low.. I also don't like how that rear brace has to come off for the return pipes to fit (might be on convertable only).
Install was fun on the vette. A good friend who happens to be a very experienced turbo guy here in town did the install. We took it very easy on the data logging and verified everything before getting on it since we were using the canned tune. Had a few bugs to work out but nothing serious. I have driven a few fast cars before, but nothing that pulled like that vette does.. it's impressive. The tune is spot on and no problems whatsoever with it.
Here are a few things we dealt with: Many people complain that the oil lines leak. The problem (we think) is that the kit came with some teflon tape for those connections, but they shouldn't have anything on the threads (don't know the name of the connection type, but it has a rubber seal on the tip of the male connector and that makes the seal). If people used the tape then it would leak.
The oil pumps are LOUD. Sounds like the radio is tuned in to an AM station that is nothing but static..
One turbo was leaking a little oil on the output side, but it went away.. we figured it was some oil left over from assembly and dripped maybe 3 drops before it stopped. perhaps the bushing just needed to be broken in a little. There is still a nickel sized film of oil at the bottom of it, but not enough to drip.
One of the 4 exhaust ends was flared 1/4 inch too large and the chrome tip wouldnt slide over it. At first STS didn't believe the mechanic, even with pics, but in the end they told him to take the chrome tip to a muffler shop and flare it to match.. it was a six inch piece of tube they could easily have grabbed and sent out.
The blow off valve was a cheap model, and took a little oiling to get it to operate smoothly. The turbos were a very good brand, but the waste gates were moderate in quality.
It took them almost five weeks to ship after Sema, which isn't too surprising, but still, kind of long.
Overall, my brother is VERY happy with it.. making about 585 rwhp.. he put the widebody fenders on it and the 385 tires (14.5" wide.. insane traction).
The boost is a little later than I expected.. I figured it would kick in at about 3500 rpm, but it really doesn't get there til 4k.. not a problem with the tall gears in that car - you are in boost forever.. what an experience too.. makes my Mustang seem like a four cylinder in comparison.
The reasons I didn't go with it for my car are numerous, but there are a lot of reasons to try it. I heard about problems with the canned tune on the Mustang (mostly from Dex's posts I think) and that was a turnoff because there isn't a dyno within a days drive of here. I trust my mechanic to tune it without.. he tunes 8 second ricers all day, and knows his way around turbos, but still, I don't want to take a chance with something I can't feel comfortable is safe from the manufacturer. I don't like the way it hangs so low on the mustang, I will only have 3.5 inches to the exhaust as it is when my springs go in this weekend, and from the install pics at STS it looks like the return pipes sit lower.
On the other hand, mounting the turbos in the rear is good, helps with weight distribution in our cars, the system sounds mean as hell (no mufflers with that turbo whine.. priceless), and you don't have to change any appearance mods under the hood.
This is one thing I wouldn't try to install in my garage though.. STS is way off on their labor times.. said 24 hours on the vette and it was closer to 36 (actually went to about 46, but they took their time because my brother is super **** and demands perfection, and they delivered).
BTW, the kit is tuned for 7 psi, but at 5k rpm I hit 10psi on the first WOT test because the inlet and outlet on the waste gate was backwards (2 minute fix, oops). Should be able to do 13-14 psi with the twin kit if you wanted to build an engine.
Hope this adds some insight..
All things considered, it is still tempting to go with them, but I don't want to have the same thing as my brother, I want a supercharger instead..
In the vette, the return pipes tuck in to the body really nice and dont hang low at all, but in the mustang they are low.. I also don't like how that rear brace has to come off for the return pipes to fit (might be on convertable only).
Install was fun on the vette. A good friend who happens to be a very experienced turbo guy here in town did the install. We took it very easy on the data logging and verified everything before getting on it since we were using the canned tune. Had a few bugs to work out but nothing serious. I have driven a few fast cars before, but nothing that pulled like that vette does.. it's impressive. The tune is spot on and no problems whatsoever with it.
Here are a few things we dealt with: Many people complain that the oil lines leak. The problem (we think) is that the kit came with some teflon tape for those connections, but they shouldn't have anything on the threads (don't know the name of the connection type, but it has a rubber seal on the tip of the male connector and that makes the seal). If people used the tape then it would leak.
The oil pumps are LOUD. Sounds like the radio is tuned in to an AM station that is nothing but static..
One turbo was leaking a little oil on the output side, but it went away.. we figured it was some oil left over from assembly and dripped maybe 3 drops before it stopped. perhaps the bushing just needed to be broken in a little. There is still a nickel sized film of oil at the bottom of it, but not enough to drip.
One of the 4 exhaust ends was flared 1/4 inch too large and the chrome tip wouldnt slide over it. At first STS didn't believe the mechanic, even with pics, but in the end they told him to take the chrome tip to a muffler shop and flare it to match.. it was a six inch piece of tube they could easily have grabbed and sent out.
The blow off valve was a cheap model, and took a little oiling to get it to operate smoothly. The turbos were a very good brand, but the waste gates were moderate in quality.
It took them almost five weeks to ship after Sema, which isn't too surprising, but still, kind of long.
Overall, my brother is VERY happy with it.. making about 585 rwhp.. he put the widebody fenders on it and the 385 tires (14.5" wide.. insane traction).
The boost is a little later than I expected.. I figured it would kick in at about 3500 rpm, but it really doesn't get there til 4k.. not a problem with the tall gears in that car - you are in boost forever.. what an experience too.. makes my Mustang seem like a four cylinder in comparison.
The reasons I didn't go with it for my car are numerous, but there are a lot of reasons to try it. I heard about problems with the canned tune on the Mustang (mostly from Dex's posts I think) and that was a turnoff because there isn't a dyno within a days drive of here. I trust my mechanic to tune it without.. he tunes 8 second ricers all day, and knows his way around turbos, but still, I don't want to take a chance with something I can't feel comfortable is safe from the manufacturer. I don't like the way it hangs so low on the mustang, I will only have 3.5 inches to the exhaust as it is when my springs go in this weekend, and from the install pics at STS it looks like the return pipes sit lower.
On the other hand, mounting the turbos in the rear is good, helps with weight distribution in our cars, the system sounds mean as hell (no mufflers with that turbo whine.. priceless), and you don't have to change any appearance mods under the hood.
This is one thing I wouldn't try to install in my garage though.. STS is way off on their labor times.. said 24 hours on the vette and it was closer to 36 (actually went to about 46, but they took their time because my brother is super **** and demands perfection, and they delivered).
BTW, the kit is tuned for 7 psi, but at 5k rpm I hit 10psi on the first WOT test because the inlet and outlet on the waste gate was backwards (2 minute fix, oops). Should be able to do 13-14 psi with the twin kit if you wanted to build an engine.
Hope this adds some insight..
All things considered, it is still tempting to go with them, but I don't want to have the same thing as my brother, I want a supercharger instead..
04-01-2009, 10:32 AM
#20
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location:
Posts: 2,257
Well like I said, I've tried a few setups and I found what I liked. Basically go with any front mounted kit and a S366 Bullseye. The turbo is amazing! On my 302 stroker 9:1 I put down 605rwhp 630tq on 13lbs. C16 and 3-4lbs later I was at 721rwhp 827tq. If I didnt have some spark issues it would have made more. The 3v plugs dont like repeated pulls with C16. At that point the turbo was about maxed. This is on stock heads and cams also.
A properly sized turbo will hit as hard as a twin screw and give you a better powerband. Heres my 13lbs tune on 91. It spools and hits hard.
P.S. The wideband was having some issues before it was switched. Had to go off that and the wideband inside the car.
A properly sized turbo will hit as hard as a twin screw and give you a better powerband. Heres my 13lbs tune on 91. It spools and hits hard.
P.S. The wideband was having some issues before it was switched. Had to go off that and the wideband inside the car.