Turbo Technics S280

[shreddie van halen]

I am late to the party but plan on installing my s280 along with Whoosh v3 FMIC and performance DP next weekend. For those that are mechanically inclined but not a pro mechanic, about how long did just the turbo install take? Does everyone agree that new turbo bolted to the manifold is the easiest way to install?

I think it took me 4-6 hours but I was also doing intercooler, charge pipes, and new RMM at the same time. It wasn't that hard at all just don't mess up the oil and coolant lines and make sure your torques are correct. And yes I bolted the stock manifold to the turbo first so it was easier to torque together and it fit right in. If you have a crazy manifold I don't think it will fit bolted together.

 

[MeanMrMustard]

I think it took me 4-6 hours but I was also doing intercooler, charge pipes, and new RMM at the same time. It wasn't that hard at all just don't mess up the oil and coolant lines and make sure your torques are correct. And yes I bolted the stock manifold to the turbo first so it was easier to torque together and it fit right in. If you have a crazy manifold I don't think it will fit bolted together.

Would you do anything differently or added something at the time of install if you had it to do over again?

 

[dhminer]

Would you do anything differently or added something at the time of install if you had it to do over again?

I’m ham fisted and it took me about 8 hours the first time including some troubleshooting. I didn’t hang the turbo on the manifold beforehand.

 

[shreddie van halen]

Would you do anything differently or added something at the time of install if you had it to do over again?

I wish I would have cerakoted everything but now I am too lazy to take it off. That being said, if you have a stock downpipe you can use the oem manifold heatshield and oem downpipe heat shield to keep temps down. Other than that should follow the manual and replace all the parts it tells you to replace and you should be good. Pay close attention to the wastegate routing as well.

 

[Williamson]

Alright I think I'm gonna pull the trigger, but dial back things back a bit to just the core bits (S280, catted DP, Wavetrac LSD). Sticking with totally stock fueling on 92, does it make sense to go with the 14psi wastegate or should I save my money?

 

[Dpro]

Most of us go with the 14lb wastegate. I have no regrets going with it . I have pushed 29lbs on datalogs but we dialed it back to just over 27lbs and the car flies on pump 91

 

[Williamson]

Went ahead and grabbed it. Now to figure out how to install it (And the Wavetrac), though I figure I should probably wait until the downpipe arrives. Unfortunately that's the only part that is out of stock at the moment, so we'll see when that can happen

 

[Williamson]

I suppose I should have asked, but if my stock radiator has kept up for everything but track use here, how screwed am I going without an improved one with the S280? Living in Washington it hasn't given me any cooling trouble in the last 3 years outside of when I bought it in Utah and took it up a long, slow mountain road in the summer. I only barely hit 235 at the end of my third 20 minute session at the track with the heat off while giving it all it had and immediately dipped down to 225 within seconds of pulling off the track and 215 by the time I pulled in to park, left it idling with heat on for a while and it was back to 190. With the heat on the run prior, it stayed around 215-220 (My feet just got way too hot and it was too warm to have that lol). I suspect I won't have in time for summer to really cause me too many problems and I spend a lot of time headed into the mountains to snowboard so if nothing else it should be pretty cold most of the time. I'm not driving a ton lately anyway, so it's mostly been for fun.

I'm not against buying a better rad, the Koyo was in my cart, I just ended up deciding I needed to be a hair more conservative financially and the rad is a much easier buy in a couple months than the

 

[Dpro]

I suppose I should have asked, but if my stock radiator has kept up for everything but track use here, how screwed am I going without an improved one with the S280? Living in Washington it hasn't given me any cooling trouble in the last 3 years outside of when I bought it in Utah and took it up a long, slow mountain road in the summer. I only barely hit 235 at the end of my third 20 minute session at the track with the heat off while giving it all it had and immediately dipped down to 225 within seconds of pulling off the track and 215 by the time I pulled in to park, left it idling with heat on for a while and it was back to 190. With the heat on the run prior, it stayed around 215-220 (My feet just got way too hot and it was too warm to have that lol). I suspect I won't have in time for summer to really cause me too many problems and I spend a lot of time headed into the mountains to snowboard so if nothing else it should be pretty cold most of the time. I'm not driving a ton lately anyway, so it's mostly been for fun.

I'm not against buying a better rad, the Koyo was in my cart, I just ended up deciding I needed to be a hair more conservative financially and the rad is a much easier buy in a couple months than the

it’s up to you personally I don’t see much over 210-215F in 100 degree heat in the canyons and below that outside temp I sit around 190-195F. With a Mountune rad. Can you stretch the stock rad ya with water wetter and not using aircon but it is a weak spot in warmer climes for our car. Go Aluminum after market and call it a day it’s a 350-500 well spent IMO.

 

[Williamson]

it’s up to you personally I don’t see much over 210-215F in 100 degree heat in the canyons and below that outside temp I sit around 190-195F. With a Mountune rad. Can you stretch the stock rad ya with water wetter and not using aircon but it is a weak spot in warmer climes for our car. Go Aluminum after market and call it a day it’s a 350-500 well spent IMO.

Yeah, I'm not looking to stay with the stock rad, just wanted to verify I wasn't fucking myself over in the meantime until I rebuild my car parts fund. I'll keep an eye on it over the summer and make the replacement a priority

 

[M-Sport fan]

Can you stretch the stock rad ya with water wetter and not using aircon but it is a weak spot in warmer climes for our car. Go Aluminum after market and call it a day it’s a 350-500 well spent IMO.

AGREED!

But for those of us who are forbidden from working on our cars where we live, (especially for a job which takes as long as that does with the car either way up in the air, or the front end fully apart, with the potential for 'criminal' coolant spillage) it becomes more like $850 to $1000, albeit yes, STILL 'well spent'.

 

[Ludeem1]

On my way to work today PSI hit 17 psi max and stayed at 16 PSI on the basemap. It was about 75 degrees this morning and yesterday was about 100 when it was reading 15 PSI. Does all this seem good for the basemap? I am running a TS 14 psi wastegate

 

[Dpro]

On my way to work today PSI hit 17 psi max and stayed at 16 PSI on the basemap. It was about 75 degrees this morning and yesterday was about 100 when it was reading 15 PSI. Does all this seem good for the basemap? I am running a TS 14 psi wastegate

Well when I was doing my initial tuning with Tune+ he said 14lbs or above on the base map was fine just do datalogs and send them in. Which I did and then things started to get fun.

 

[dhminer]

On my way to work today PSI hit 17 psi max and stayed at 16 PSI on the basemap. It was about 75 degrees this morning and yesterday was about 100 when it was reading 15 PSI. Does all this seem good for the basemap? I am running a TS 14 psi wastegate

Should be fine but your tuner will tell you if not.

 

[Mega ST]

Did anyone have to clock the turbo once attached to stock manifold?

 

[DarkFiST20]

I did my turbo install start to finish and driving in 4 hours. Took breaks and just took my time. It's not that hard in my opinion but I used to work on cars.

I am late to the party but plan on installing my s280 along with Whoosh v3 FMIC and performance DP next weekend. For those that are mechanically inclined but not a pro mechanic, about how long did just the turbo install take? Does everyone agree that new turbo bolted to the manifold is the easiest way to install?

 

[Ludeem1]

I finished my logs and sent them in yesterday. I also jacked the car up to make sure everything was ok and noticed a slight coolant leak. I didn’t smell coolant or noticed anything on the floor. I cleaned it up and started the car and I think it’s coming from the opposite side of the coolant lines where the silicone hoses go in, there’s 2 plugs with copper washers and the bottom one I think seems the one to be slightly leaking. I didn’t notice it his leak on install when I let it idle for about 30 minutes. I’m gonna check it in about a few days again. I might be able to get an Allen key in there and try to tighten it. I checked all the other connections and everything seems to be good. Anyone else had any similar problems? I really don’t want to pull the turbo out again lol

 

[FiestaSTdude]

I finished my logs and sent them in yesterday. I also jacked the car up to make sure everything was ok and noticed a slight coolant leak. I didn’t smell coolant or noticed anything on the floor. I cleaned it up and started the car and I think it’s coming from the opposite side of the coolant lines where the silicone hoses go in, there’s 2 plugs with copper washers and the bottom one I think seems the one to be slightly leaking. I didn’t notice it his leak on install when I let it idle for about 30 minutes. I’m gonna check it in about a few days again. I might be able to get an Allen key in there and try to tighten it. I checked all the other connections and everything seems to be good. Anyone else had any similar problems? I really don’t want to pull the turbo out again lol View attachment 56951

I had a little bit of coolant there too, when I switched turbos. I just tightened it up and it was fine. I reused the copper washers from the original turbo as well

 

[Mega ST]

Why is it difficult to find flow for these turbo’s? I want to know mostly out of curiosity. I’m old school and used to guage turbos on known turbo’s i’ve run. Mostly Mitsu stuff like 20g’s, 16G’s, E316G’s for small frame turbos, which by today’s standards on this platform would be considered big. Won’t even mention the large frames I’ve since irrelevant to small turbos which the S280 def is IMO.

I know the 20g flowed 39 lbs/min at peak efficiency, but on track days I’ve run it full closed wastegate and saw 40psi dropping to 28 by redline. Def not recommended, but always kept spares. For us old heads, what would this turbo compare to. 16g? Super60? Have to be over 40 to probably know anything about those turbos. Lol. Thanks for anyone in the know.

 

[thecman02]

Why is it difficult to find flow for these turbo’s? I want to know mostly out of curiosity. I’m old school and used to guage turbos on known turbo’s i’ve run. Mostly Mitsu stuff like 20g’s, 16G’s, E316G’s for small frame turbos, which by today’s standards on this platform would be considered big. Won’t even mention the large frames I’ve since irrelevant to small turbos which the S280 def is IMO.

I know the 20g flowed 39 lbs/min at peak efficiency, but on track days I’ve run it full closed wastegate and saw 40psi dropping to 28 by redline. Def not recommended, but always kept spares. For us old heads, what would this turbo compare to. 16g? Super60? Have to be over 40 to probably know anything about those turbos. Lol. Thanks for anyone in the know.

Ha I'm 36 and I know about those turbos, but I came from the DSM world. I'm thinking its comparablish to a e316g. There's only a handful of guys that have really pushed these hard enough to the point where you can see it not keeping up boost wise. Close to 400whp should be close to or better than 40lb/min. Damn fuel, and cylinder/block stability has really kept many people from exploring as hard as the DSM world. Don't really know how these head flow either, and I feel like aftermarket CAMS are just starting to be explored too :-/