Stage 2 Turbo - Work in Progress 1

It's been a month since I had time to update the blog, sorry about that guys.

You know life is not just always about cars.

Yesterday I dragged my sorry ass over to the exhaust shop to snap some pictures of the work in progress with the car.

The Garret intercooler has been fitted along with the end tanks


The Owen Developments turbo is now in it's rightful place


 The exhaust manifold is now a different design with a larger diameter pipe




 We will be using a dual muffler setup for the exhaust


Close up shot of the dual mufflers


The 3 inch collector pipe before the exhaust flow is being split into the 2 mufflers

Stage 2 Turbo - Owen Developments Custom Turbo

A couple months back, we placed an order with Owen Developments, a leading turbocharger specialist from UK for a custom spec turbo.

We were told that they are currently on back orders so we had to wait patiently. When it finally arrived and the moment I laid my eyes upon it, I knew it was worth the wait.

Based on the Garret GTX series, here are some key highlights of the turbo:

* Owen's conical compressor wheel nut
* Owen's competition spec bearing cages and bearings
* Owen's competition spec cut back blade
* Owen's competition spec internal heat shield

And of course not forgetting the Tial V-band turbine housing, offering a 33% weight reduction over the standard housing, smaller sizer factor while eliminating the need for bolts and gaskets totally.

It's pretty damn challenging trying to fit this fella in to the already cramped tight engine bay down there okay.

Of course, this is not the only reason why we went with the Tial V-band housing. We're trying to spin a big ass turbo here on a 1.5 daily drive, and having this housing helps tremendously in the spooling area due to it's design.

Once the car is back from piping works, we'll fit in a Tomei fuel pressure regulator and we should be ready to fire up the engine.

Full frontal view of the turbo


The Tial V-band turbine housing


Full frontal view of the turbo


Forged & fully machined compressor wheel at its full glory


Fully built, machined and balanced by Owen Developments, UK

Stage 2 Turbo - SARD Denso Fuel Injectors

These are 800cc, top feed, low resistance fuel injectors from SARD and they will be replacing the FIC injectors.

With the new horsepower we're aiming for, the previous 445cc FIC injectors will not be sufficient.

Pictures are pretty self explanatory, and they seem to go very well with the GT Auto fuel rail too.

800cc on a 1.5 daily drive you ask? Well, now you know why we went with the Autronic SM4 instead.





Stage 2 Turbo - JUN Lightweight Flywheel

Things just got better with the arrival of the lightweight flywheel from JUN this morning.

A one piece forged build made from Chromoly, JUN claims the flywheel is 200% stronger than normal while weighing in only at 4.6 kilograms.

It should go well with the ACT clutch kit and the Quaife Helical LSD later when we pair the engine back with the transmission.

Meanwhile, some pictures for your viewing pleasure.





Stage 2 Turbo Project - Work In Progress

Still work in progress, but the cylinder head cover looks kinda odd with the new color.

What you think?


Stage 2 Turbo Project - Preparation

We're currently preparing the groundwork for the engine rebuild, the engine block is now mounted on the stand awaiting us to start work.

The Golden Eagle sleeves has been honed, and you might also notice that the pistons are not the same set of Ross Racing pistons that I posted up earlier.

They are now replaced with a custom set from Ross Racing as well with revised compression ratio, and coated piston crowns.

Ready to rock and roll


The heat treated crank, pistons, rods, main caps and bolts


Honing job completed


Close up shot of the cylinder sleeves


Ross Racing pistons with customized compression ratio


Coated piston crown

Stage 2 Turbo Project - S90 Racing Throttle Body

Originally this post was suppose to go up back in April, but then I realized it was still saved in my draft folder until today.

Moving forward with the stage 2 engine rebuild, now that we're ditching the drive by wire system in favor for a cable driven throttle, we're upgrading the throttle body into something more reliable.

The S90 Racing throttle body will be a perfect companion to the Golden Eagle intake manifold that we would be using.

Made from CNC Billet Aluminium, this throttle body will be able to withstand up to 3 bars of boost without any issues.

The ball bearing shafts will aid in the respond of the opening and closing of the throttle plate, while the 70mm over sized body will be more than enough to allow compressed air to flow through the manifold.

Packaging box


Package contents


Side view of the throttle body


Frontal view of the throttle body


Rear view of the throttle body

Scammer - Shame On You

Just yesterday, some lame scammer made a pathetic attempt on trying to get hold of the www.viosturbo.com domain by sending me this email.



One look at it and I knew immediately this guy is a time waster. Anyhow, I replied him politely.



And guess what? The moron must be thinking he could pull a fast one by replying me this.



Is he fucking kidding me? WHO THE FUCK is HAITONG anyways?

So this was my reply to him.


I mean John, for Christ fucking sake please go sign up for some English classes first before you make another attempt in the future!

And what kind of fucking name is John Wang anyway?

You're a fucking laughing joke and disgrace not only to your family, but to all Chinese. Your attempts are not creative at all and its been used many times in the past by lots of people.

Read this, this and this please.

Had you been a little bit more creative and imaginative, all these wouldn't have come to an end so soon and we could play a little longer.

Oh God I am laughing so hard now I think I'm gonna puke.

So John, to you and your bunch of dumb, pathetic, unimaginative bunch of Chinese scammers, all I can say is:

"Ah ahahahahahahahahahaha......... FUCK YOU!"

Been Busy

I've been getting quite a number of emails and messages lately asking what's happening with the build as there wasn't any update ever since my last post.

I'm sorry folks, I was busy with work and haven't had time to update the blog.

Couple of things has happened since my last update, the first engine which has been built with the CP forged pistons and Crower billet rods was sold to a friend of mine and is currently undergoing transplant into his car.

He will be running the built bottom with his existing turbo kit but with a Haltech Sport 1000 replacing his E-Manage. Once the car is done I will have it featured here.

Secondly, we're revising our setup again. Yes, AGAIN.

Toby has decided to make some last minute changes to the engine configuration, mainly the pistons and turbo.

I can't reveal much at the moment, but we're aiming to make at least 400 wheel horsepower so we're revising the engine compression ratio and the turbo as well.

Stay tuned.

JUN Auto Releases High Lift Camshafts for Toyota 1NZ-FE

(Source: JUN Auto)

JUN Auto has finally announced the release of the high lift camshafts for the Toyota 1NZ-FE engine in their website.

The link to their news release can be found here.

Though JUN mentioned that the camshafts can be used with the stock ECU, but that is only for the Toyota Vitz (NCP13) owners.

For other models you would still need to use an engine management for optimum results.

The current model released by JUN is the street specifications of 252 duration with 9.0mm lift.

If you are interested in getting a more aggressive profile such as the 256/272 duration with 9.0mm/9.5mm/10.5mm lift, you will still need to get in touch with GT Auto as they are the only people carrying them at the moment.

Stage 2 Turbo Project - Crankshaft Nitriding & Journal Polishing

Most stock OEM steel crankshafts have been induction hardened, which is actually a low cost process in which the surface is heated by a high frequency alternating magnetic field that generates heat in the crank's surface quickly before being quenched.

Because of the uneven heating and cooling due to cost saving reasons, the crankshaft hardening process creates a lot of stress within the crankshaft. While it is an ideal hardening process for stock applications, but it is really less then favorable for high performance/racing applications.

Hence, we had the stock 1NZ-FE crankshaft sent overseas to be nitride coated and its now back and ready for us to assemble it along with the engine rebuild. Nitriding is a chemical hardening process in which the part is heated in a furnace, the oxygen is vacuumed out, and nitrogen is introduced which penetrates the entire surface.

The result? An extremely hard surface which will give us a peace of mind when we increase the rev cut to well over 8,000+ RPM, allowing us to stay at the redline level without any worries even under hard boost.

If you're wondering what was the material used, its titanium aluminium carbon which gives the black surface you are seeing in the pictures. Read more about it here.

The color of the crank is now different


A closer look will give you a dark bluish purple look

We also took this opportunity to have the crankshaft journals micro polished, a process where the surfaces are made clean and smooth so that it reduces the friction, allowing the rods to spin a lot more easier and faster.

The end result? A high revving friendly engine to go along with the other parts :)

Surface of the journals are now clean and smooth


Close up shot