Go for 57 trim?

[sixtyten6010]

Alright heres the deal I just had a BHG fixed with 1200 miles on it. Had a family friend do it who's the head mechanic at a shipping company, and been doing work on the side for years think he was a trained Volkswagen technician long time ago......My family has had him do work for years, I think you can safely say hes the best mechanic around my small town. Only charged 35 and hour and used his garage at home. I was there with him the whole time; didn't do a lot but got to do a few things while he was working on other parts. So it was a pretty good experience to learn more about my car.

Every thing looked good the block wasn't warped; but there were some slight rings around the number 5 and 6 cylinders worn from the old gasket. So the block seems to be good. I got the head resurfaced with a valve job. I got a Felpro gasket kit( yeah I know people have mixed feelings on them but it was recommended by my mechanic.)t. Now heres were I think I messed up a bit. I bought ARP bolts where I think I should of grabbed studs. But hey I'm still ignorant to some things and was even more back then. I thought that studs where a lot more work to install and I was trying to save time on labor. But my mechanic said its not a big deal and he thought I was getting studs, he would told me not to get bolts. But hey they do the job just fine. Car runs great Even just switched out a whiny diff with a really clean one.

Sorry for the long lead up but heres my situation with ma turbo. The original one on the car was dead, and bought a used one and apparently "very little shaft play" means very little play until its toast. But whata gonna do??? Its still better than my stock one and should last me a few thousand miles. Now I can finally spare some money to rebuild the one that came out of the car.

So heres my dilemma I can just get the ct26 rebuilt to stock or 57trim. I really planned on getting a 57trim eventually with a DM intercooler the lexus afm, injectors and EBC, wideband and what not. Oh and I bought a recirculated divorced down pipe and one of those Jones full boar mufflers, a straight through of course with dual 3' out to 3.5 stainless tips. Had a local exhaust shop do the pipe and rig it up. Its a damn nice 3' turbo back for under 400 bucks. Looks a lot like a beefed up stock system too. But thats a another story.

Would going 57trim and all that blow my head gasket pretty fast? Or dose it just highly increase my chances of it going over time. Or it defiantly will blow it out again. I know this depends on how what psi you are running it at as well. I just have an opportunity here to get the main piece in what I have planned for my car and don't want to buy it again later. Then gather everything else. Overall the car seems really healthy for its age.


tl:dr Can a car hold up to a 57trim without a MHG...


what do you guys think?

 

[Dan_Gyoba]

The ARP bolts are perfectly good, so long as you have a reasonable torque spec on them. (I believe that they come with a recommended spec of 85 ft-lbs)

With the Fel-Pro gasket (Which is just fine, and a good idea if you aren't going to have the block decked) it should stand up to the 57 trim turbo just fine, and even should be able to take some elevated boost with some add-ons.

People have run to 400 WHP with the composite gasket, and I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to, if you do a proper assembly with your engine.

 

[AbsoluteSpeed]

Can a car hold up to a 57trim without a MHG...

Yes.
Changing to the 57 trim turbo won't effect the boost level (and if it does it won't be much).
And with the proper supporting mods the stock HG should easily hold 12psi without issue (whereas stock is only 6-8psi) assuming of course youre engine is in good condition.

Edit: Dam you Dan you beat me to it!!

 

[sixtyten6010]

Assuming of course you're engine is in good condition.

Bottom end too I'm guessing? We'll just have to see about that. But the top end was gone though pretty throughly. The head was done well, even had the both sides of the exhaust manifold milled. Only thing that looked like might cause problems was one of the cam shafts had some maring/small gouges. But the machine shop( I forgot whats it called but sanded them down so theres no material around the gouge.) So that will be replaced down the road. Other than that all the vacume lines and hoses are in good shape. A few that were crystallized got replaced.

So lemme get this straight.... I can get the 57 trim with just a boost controller, set it at like 11 psi and be fine without hitting fuel cut??? Then how much psi would be advisable with the the lexus AFM, 550s and a FPR?.... oh and intercooler.

 

[Grandavi]

Depends.. especially on how your planning to do it. I am just doing this right as we speak. With the 57 trim and no Lexus AFM or injectors.. I think if you are at sea lvl you may be able to pull of a 12 psi without fuel cut. You dont actually need to do the boost controller if you shim the wastegate..
Your going to want to do the 3" exhaust either before or at the same time as the turbo. Also (I found out) you should get a Wideband (I got the AEM UEGO one) so you can monitor whats happening after the upgrades. You also will want to upgrade your fuel pump if your going to larger injectors (I used a MKIV Denso fuel pump, most use the Walbro 255lph). Thats when you will want to deal with the AFPR (I like Driftmotions AEM version... its all ready to install). After all of that, you will want to make sure nothing is goofy. The higher your HP at the crank, the higher your possibility of killing the engine if something isn't right.

 

[jake8790]

Fuel cut depends on elevation and air temperature. I would guess it would be under 10 psi with a 57 trim on a cold day.
A 57 trim isn't going to blow your HG. Detonation will. I would install a wideband so you can keep an eye on your A/F ratio at all times.

 

[IBoughtASupra]

When you do decide to get a 57, contact Albert.

 

[sixtyten6010]

When you do decide to get a 57, contact Albert.

way ahead of you... I've watched sale threads of his with angst for a while now.

Ok just to be completely clear here, the 57 trim will run like the regular stock CT26 if I bolt it on. So I can replace this crappy turbo with it? I really need to spend more time in the turbocharger section.

 

[Grandavi]

Yeah you can just pop it on without any mods

 

[sixtyten6010]

Awesome! just what I wanted to hear :biglaugh:.

Shes startin to really come back alive again, I'm lucky I got the car it Prolly would have been auctioned off and basically destroyed. It jumped around a few dealers with the blown head gasket for a long while. Probably why the last owner let go of it. Its never leaving my hands now even if the engine explodes, it'll be under a tarp in the back yard if thats what it takes.

Thanks for the help so far guys, gonna try to take some good pictures of the car and put them in the rides section this week, it maybe the last nice one for a while.

 

[noel]

I'm in the market for 57trim myself probably gonna shop at drift motion.. can never go wrong with a mhg. ;

 

[Dan_Gyoba]

can never go wrong with a mhg. ;

Yes, you can.

If you aren't getting the block and head milled, so that you have a perfectly flat and reliable surface on which to seat the MHG, it's a guaranteed BHG almost immediately, since there's no real give to the surface to conform to even the most minor of imperfections.

Though, going with proper surface prep, I'd accept that statement.

To the OP, if you haven't yet installed the head on the block (And maybe even if you have) I'd strongly suggest that you consider replacing the bearings. I replaced the engine in my car a few years back. Everything seemed good, though it had a blown head gasket. I replaced the gasket (With a stock Toyota one, since I didn't take the block in to be machined) and everything seemed fine. The car ran great, until last fall, when it developed rod knock. It's had very regular oil changes since being installed in my car, but the damage from having coolant in the oil from before I owned it has caused this, or at least that's what I can figure, since I've always had good oil and good oil pressure.

Granted, I'm running more power than the previous owner, since I have the Lexus AFM, 550cc injectors, and a 60-1 turbo with boost set to 15 PSI. This will certainly put more stress on things, but there should be no reason for that to cause a problem without other extenuating damage.

So, this time, I'm doing things right.

 

[sixtyten6010]

To the OP, if you haven't yet installed the head on the block

Yes its already done with about 1200 miles on it since.

but the damage from having coolant in the oil from before I owned it has caused this, or at least that's what I can figure, since I've always had good oil and good oil pressure.

Is coolant in the oil a given with a blow gasket? Cause my oil seemed pretty normal when it was drained. And there was no milky residue on the radiator cap.

 

[Smashey]

your probably fine its just popular for the head gasket to separate or disappear between oil and water passages thus mixing the 2 creating a corrosive liquid that eats away at your bearings and therefore giving lots bearing troubles after a BHG.

I wish you the best of luck

 

[Nick M]

There are still a few T04E compressors out there that have a 7MGTE to stock elbow mounting flanges.