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Just genuinely interested

There are very very few aspects in building my car where i make saving money anywhere near a priority (thats not why we do this) - its always nice to find a good deal and not to pay under the odds, but thats obvious.

I am genuinely interested as from experiance and speaking to well reputed tuners it is a fact that not "everything" on ebay is total shits - its just hard sometimes to identify these good items ...

e.g quite a few tuners seem to say the ebay intercoolers are usually "upto the the job" on non competative builds

so i thought i would ask if anyone had any experience of these

Just an example of what i mean is a good friend of mine decided it was time to single turbo his twin turbo 2jz toyota supra.

He had a slightly tight on budget as he has spent a lot of money on his bodywork/interior/audio this year as he is running for best in britain (in fact he's already been given automatic entry to top 10!)

So he came across an x-s power turbo (t70 if a remember correctly) and after doing basic research found that most forums etc slagged off x-s power's build quality (all people who were not actually using the product)

However after further research found that x-s powers demo vehicle is one of the fastest quater mile 2jz's about!

After much consideration he decided to take the plunge and go for the kit as at the time his rationale behind was that if the turbo goes bang its ok as it cost his so little in comparison to the garret equivalent he wanted, so it was worth a risk...

Now that he has been running it since august, he can't stop praising the thing! Touch wood it hasn't let go and driving characteristics are ideal for what he wanted. On low boost his car makes a little less that 500bhp and on high boost his build is capable of 650+ bhp (once his clutch and gearbox are uprated)

So to conclude it seemed that most of the people slagging off the x-s power range had never actually tried them but were simple passing on the information that they knew), but people with first hand experience had a lot better insight

Knowledge is key, and it seems to me research is cheap as long as you are willing to put the effort in

SO back to the question if thats ok by everybody, has anyone had any first hand experience with one of those ebay turbos mentioned above

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After much consideration he decided to take the plunge and go for the kit as at the time his rationale behind was that if the turbo goes bang its ok as it cost his so little in comparison to the garret equivalent he wanted' date=' so it was worth a risk...

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And that's the crux of it mate.... risk! Do you take a gamble on a cheap turbo, or go with the safe bet because it's the accepted practice from internet know it alls? :-)

We all take a risk when turboing our VR6s to begin with. It's a naturally asp engine to begin with and although the net is full of "I've had zero issues", there is always that nagging doubt in the back of your mind. Few people ever document their problems, or go into any real detail on how their VRT is driven and treated etc.

I like to think I've been fairly candid with my experiences and even using the expensive branded parts, I still ran into problems. That's the only reason why I personally don't trust the cheaper stuff, because if the good kit fails, what's the likelihood of the ebay kit failing even sooner? You just don't know, it's a gamble mate :-)

At the end of the day, a turbo is just 2 compressor wheels and some bearings. It would work even if made out of plastic. The point being the Chinese are very good at cloning stuff and specialise in high volume, and that's where the difference is between a Garrett and a Chinese 'Carrett', the materials won't be the same quality. I've yet to read a post on the web saying "I've done 100,000 miles with my Chinese turbo". But if your goal is just to pull a few 1/4 miles with the odd bit of road use, then you don't need to build for 10 year lifespan.

Making the power is the easy bit. Making the same power, day in, day out for 10 years is the hard and expensive bit ;-)

All I would say is avoid the REALLY cheap stuff. You can't get a £1000 Garrett for £200, the world just work that way unfortuntely :-)

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I totally agree with your logic kKv, it makes sense. Thats the reason why i wont be putting my own money at the ebay turbo ( + i dont speak fluent german so if things dont go quite right i dont think after care would be very ideal for me either)

I'm just a bit inquisitive you see... :) so i thought i would ask...

besides whats the worst thing that can happen by asking..maybe getting bullied a little and asked back a few more times why im looking at instead of a garrett gt-cheryl tweedy turbo (l)

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what powers your making now MaidenVR6?

http://www.holset.co.uk/mainsite/files/2_1_1_4-Holset%20HX40.php how come they still work well even though there for 7-8L engines? because the truck engine have low revs?

has anyone found any prices for these? there ment to be cheep and if there for trucks im sure they last as some do weeks without ever turning off.. only for services

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When I asked about Holsets before I'm sure it was Kev who pointed out the exhaust housings are designed for diesel exhaust temps and may not take too kindly to petrol exhaust temps.

If your keen on getting one I'd get it from GS posted above, brand new turbo, with warranty from somebody who knows what they're talking about, not somebody on ebay selling you an old one of their truck that they've heard can do 500hp on a petrol engine.

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£450 for a new Holset! Wow, I didn't know they were THAT cheap! I could be very tempted by a HX40 if my GT35 ever lets go.

The diesel temp thing is something I read on another site. Whether it's true or not I dunno. I guess we all fall victim to misinformation. It's impossible to predict how long these things last. As I keep saying, making the power is the easy bit. Even a £200 chinese turbo can make 1000hp, but for how long? :-)

That seems like a good site. Perhaps a little TOO focussed on accusing the big names of being lyers and over priced for my tastes (did you notice their BOV is an exact copy of the TIAL, which is the brand they're obviously slagging off in the Wastegate section) , but otherwise packed with useful info :-)

We all like a bargain, but remember he is also salesman, and I've yet to meet a 100% genuine and truthful one, LOL! :-)

At the end of the day, my 35R has been completely reliable and is still perfect after nearly 50K's daily use. I'm not suggesting it's the best turbo in the world and it is expensive, but it's working for me so I don't feel in any way ripped off or that I could have done better with a cheaper turbo :-)

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Wasn't dissing or doubting the quality of the 35R, if I had the cash I'd be buying one, Just saying that seems to be the best place to buy them from, although the claim their hx40 spools like a GT30 sounds a bit far fetched, would like to test it.

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and after postage only £470

They do seem to be quite well reputated and from people i have spoken to who have ran them in the past and run them now, i have been told the quality is quite high (well built and also not to difficult to rebuild if needs be)

However i did try to contact g-s racing some time ago through email and still have to hear from them, maybe its worth a phone call when i get some time

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I've got a couple of emails back from them iirc he said the hx35 would probably see full boost at about 4000rpm on the 12v but personally I think it'd be hitting full boost quite a bit before that as its not much bigger than a gt30 (i think).

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Redeye also mentioned what size a/r (12cm) - I have been trying to learn about the Holsets for the past few months now and after my research on them i am considering one for my own set up but just cant seem to make my mind up between the two:

I want to see full boost between 3500-4000 (4k at the latest) but i still want it to be quite urgent for a good street set up, so the two options look like

hx35 with 14cm hot side (which is almost 0.97 a/r)

or hx40 with 12cm hot (which is 0.89 a/r

From my research i have also learnt that the hx40 is supposed to flow quite similarly to the t04s and after seeing dyno plots from stealth a turbo that provides that sort of torque/bhp curve at only 9psi on a stockish vr6 lump seems phenomenal to me

other factors im trying to compensate for is the fact that i will be using a short runner and probably drop the compression slightly lower to 8;5;1 just for safety

so far i am more inclined towards the hx40, but i guess we will have to wait and see until the summer

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Wasn't dissing or doubting the quality of the 35R' date=' if I had the cash I'd be buying one, Just saying that seems to be the best place to buy them from, although the claim their hx40 spools like a GT30 sounds a bit far fetched, would like to test it.

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Yeah I know you weren't mate. I was just putting my 2p in as an owner of one because GS Racing man seemed to like attacking the brand names :-)

Speaking of the spool characteristics, GS Racing claim to see 20+ psi by 3500rpm on a 2 litre engine for the HX35, so it should spool even quicker on a VR6! Although they don't say what the 2 litre 4 pot is. If it's a Honda VTEC, then yeah that has masses of flow and could probably spool the death star by 3500rpm!

GSR HX35 600BHP Turbocharger

Capable of 3bar boost and 600bhp' date=' ultra fast spooling (we have seen 20+ psi by 3500rpm on a 2litre 4cyl!), external wastegate, MWE (Map Width Enhancment) ported shroud compressor inlet, ultra-high efficency 7 blade compressor wheel featuring extended tip technology, T3 turbine flange, 12cm divided split pulse turbine housing. Suitable for 1.6 litre and over engines wanting 350bhp+ and larger power twin turbo V8 applications. [/quote']

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i'm starting my turbo build parts buying soon, their turbo and wastegates seem a nice bit of kit for the money. A nice GT35 is the daddy but unless you go second hand (eg not knowing what you're buying so budget for a rebuild) they are more than twice the price of those turbos, you gotta think whether you are getting twice the product :)

holset turbos are used a lot in sweden/norway on big power turbo cars and seem to produce the right results. Definitely remember a lot of big BHP turbo BMW's running them.

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