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Information on the AFE Turbo

17K views 88 replies 18 participants last post by  Chainringtattoo 
#1 ·
It is not a stuff turbo.

I have no idea what turbo it is

but I got some information from Tork to share.

Specifications:
Compressor Inducer - 34mm
Compressor Exducer - 46mm / Trim 55
Turbine Inducer - 39mm
Turbine Exducer - 34mm

Billet Wheel:
The compressor features a blue anodized 6/12 bladed billet aluminum wheel that is lighter and stronger than the stock cast wheel to help provide quicker "spool-up" and higher air flow than the stock turbo.
Stock upgrade with no core charge
A direct bolt-on replacement
Billet adjustable wastgate actuator included
Additional fueling is not required

I also asked them about the tork stuffed turbo.
Apparently I was waiting and there is no more because their supplier
for the turbocharger stopped.

So they are tunning with the new AFE turbo now
 
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#3 ·
Why do you plan on doing that?
 
#4 ·
I only have one garage space and I don't want to build two separate cars. I want to concentrate my money on one or the other. The EC big turbo results are a fucking joke and Tork promised their big turbo results back in December and we still don't have those either. I bought my 124 on the basis of its potential, not what it was stock. I need more power!
 
#5 ·
Why do you think that is? Is it that hard to make a good tune for a big turbo for our spiders?
 
#8 ·
I had another thread about this and discussed with my personal tuner.

Basically, we don't think there is a huge difference between this and stock. It has a lighter billet wheel, but otherwise looks to basically be a stock turbo. I'd imagine a slightly quicker spool, and I bet it holds power slightly better in the top end than stock, but I can't imagine any huge gains from it.

It may be a decent placeholder until real stuffed turbos come out, but I can't see getting much more than <10whp and a couple hundred RPM on the spool from this. That said, if you want to justify the cost, the turbo is just over $1000, and you wouldn't have to buy an upgraded wastegate for what, $330? So the turbo is really like $700 roughly.

In short, it's probably a better upgrade than doing an intake, coil packs, and plugs, but no major gains are likely yet.

That said, if John can prove they make real power on this, or maybe this turbo makes tuning the top end smoother and safer, I'd consider grabbing this while better stuffed turbos are developed. I'm sure a billet wheel with E85 would really help improve spool, which could be a ton of fun!
 
#11 ·
Well, I REALLLY hope that Tork actually dynos the AFE turbo next week and has a tune for it. Tork is actually putting the built engine and a new Garrett G25-550 in Eddie's 124 right now and tuning it. I don't know if they have another 124 to test this turbo out on or if they will just try it on a A500.

My goals are 270 wheel horsepower with E85. The car weighs right around that with me in it, so I want to have a 10:1 weight-to-power ratio.
 
#12 ·
Also I asked them about the G25-550, apparently exactly what I thought, too much cost, will also need a build engine to handle the extra hp.

Now with that target I think you should be looking at one of the camshafts from multiair tuning and development or EC
 
#14 ·
Yeah, that G25-550 is WAY too big to have any fun on the street with. I have no interest in that.

What I would really like is to use is an EFR 6258. I found a much better flowing replacement exhaust manifold from a company called HRE in Europe that can be had in a T25 pattern. An 6258 with that better flowing exhaust manifold would make way more power than stock and might spool better than stock. The only problem is that the manifold is 999 euros and an EFR is about $2000. Then you would have to have a custom downpipe, crosspipe, and you would want to have a 3" exhaust also. That would probably end up being a $5000 solution after all the custom tuning, bigger injectors, and then you might blow the engine lol.

There are spacers made to mate a T25 pattern turbo to the stock exhaust manifold, but I don't know how well those would work out. You would still need at least a custom downpipe with that set-up.
 
#37 ·
@Christian Peehler my car did not have any issues on Tork Stage 1. But it was a completely stock car then except for the GFB DV+ and that was before the U76 recall. That tune was good although it still dropped off more than I would have liked at redline. However, it dropped off less than my current EC tune does. Toby was able to solve the boost dump and misfire issues by REV3 of the EC tune, which is what I am running now. He has sent me another version that he named REV5. That is the version I dynoed. It might be stronger than REV3 but it has occasional misfires when doing a launch from dead stop. REV3 has no peculiarities other than the same boost tail off issue.

I think you'll be fine on whatever John sends you. As far as I know, I'm the only car that has had issues with a Tork tune. My bad luck. I'd say the only knock on John is how much he has going on with the cars he's working on. If he has a tune that isn't working, like mine, he has no time to work out the issues if it isn't something simple. At least Toby will keep on digging to make it work but he's told me he's done all he can on my current U76 tune. Our next step is to wipe the stock tune and start over. @Calehedron has been testing this and I'm just waiting for them to review the data and get it dialed in before I move on to that.

And I agree with @Phillip33. Stock turbo or stock-sized turbo isn't going to make 250 HP. I think best case scenario on stock turbo is about 200 HP on pump gas. We haven't even seen that yet but I think @Brett67's car was right there based on the 1/4 mile run he did. If you go to E85 you might squeeze 210-220 out of it. But it all comes down to the tune. If you want 250HP+ you're going to have to do what Eddie did and spend some big money.
 
#38 ·
Yeah I think 240 is a bit optimistic, but if the aFe is better than we're expecting, I don't think it's impossible. I do think it's unlikely... Also dyno numbers don't mean that much either. I'd say Brett's car may be around 200-205whp at most, and that's on pump gas. Figure aFe turbo helps stop the power dropping off in the top end, maybe it would net you an extra 15 whp, and give slightly better spool. Toss on E85 and pick up another 5-10whp. You're looking at maybe the 230-235whp range optimistically, which would be quite a bit of fun for a stock-size turbo IMO. I'm sure there are other mods that will come out eventually to help this even more, but either way, I think this turbo could be a solid solution while we wait for more development to be done on this vehicle.

I imagine there are a lot of things that can be done specifically to the multiair system to make it more efficient up top etc... I don't know what will happen a few years from now, but I'm sure the tuners will sort it out and develop more go fast bits for our cars.

That said, even on this turbo, I think you're right, it's unlikely to see over 225whp even on E85.
 
#40 · (Edited)
I went to aFe's website and looked at all of their upgrade turbos. They literally only have one dyno result for the six different GT-series turbos they offer. The one dyno they had was 2 years after the first baseline dyno and also had a bunch of other mods. I don't get why aFe would bother with making a turbo like this and not have a tune to go with it. What do you gain by modifying something, but not tuning for it?

I want more power NOW, but it seems there are no tunes or parts ready to do so.
 
#41 ·
The next item on our mods list is brakes. Before that, we were doing suspension, wheels, tires. After the brakes (which are already here and awaiting a nice weekend day), I'll finally be getting back to adding power.! I'll be doing the turbo, intercooler, and IC piping. I'll probably do the IC and piping first, to keep that performance change "clean" and then tackle the turbo. I think the big advantage to the aFe turbo is that it's an out-of-the-box solution. Some of the early stuff I've seen involves custom plumbing, lots of "batteries not included" type language, etc. I want something like a throttle body or a sway bar. Something I can pull out of the box, bolt up, and call it a day. I'm hoping the aFe turbo is that kind of direct swap. And I'm not looking for it to make driveshaft-twisting power or anything; just a nice bump in the band without considerable lag.
 
#42 ·
I have an AP Racing big brake kit for the front and better pads for the rear right now. I am considering some relocated brake lines for the rear and the SakeBomb Garage rear rotors that are thicker and lighter than stock. I have the stock wheels for all-seasons, 17x8 6UL's for summer/fun tires, and 17x9 6UL's for track tires.

Do you plan on getting the aFe intercooler kit and aFe turbo? They are all on sale, so the time is now!
 
#45 ·
Unfortunately, our advertising budget doesn't allow. I'd say buy it from whomever has the best price, installs the product on their own project car, and will give tech support and advice should you need it.

I know it's still pretty new, so maybe someone else will get to it before we do.
 
#61 ·
Very similar to my personal experience as well as Haz. We tested P2 vs T1 tunes on the track and we noticed the same things. P2 is probably more fun for non-racers who want that quick jolt of boost etc, but I'll keep that out of this thread. I'm more concerned about the turbo options, so that's all I have for now.
 
#65 · (Edited)
FYI John told me I need to get a crapton of his mods to get to stage 2, for auto tranny. Such as the MA springs.

NOPE. Rather upgrade the turbo with a decent tune down the road, I think I’d feel safer lol. I see so many people anxious for a good turbo upgrade solution, whoever does it well will get quite a nice amount of market share.
 
#67 ·
@Finny That thread is pretty much useless. When are the ACTUAL reviews with the CORRECT springs gonna show up?

Also it is irrelevant to THIS thread.
 
#69 ·
If people really wanted to know about the revised springs, I can share my thoughts. I will not do it here though, would be an utter waste of my time :)
Let's just say I am blown away and happy with the revised springs. If anyone wants more details, contact me. I will not post anything else about this here.
Thanks
 
#76 ·
I wonder how this turbo compares to Tork's stuffed turbo, couldn't find any dyno info on that either. But from what it looked like, Tork's super stocker turbo only modifies the compressor side and compressor wheel.
Besides Tork's super stocker, I wonder how it compares to NGEN Gpop's 6 blade turbo upgrade with billet compressor and turbine wheels. But again, no dyno data. The only dyno data I could find was for their 11 blade billet GTX style wheel upgrade.
 
#77 ·
I wonder how this turbo compares to Tork's stuffed turbo, couldn't find any dyno info on that either. But from what it looked like, Tork's super stocker turbo only modifies the compressor side and compressor wheel.
Besides Tork's super stocker, I wonder how it compares to NGEN Gpop's 6 blade turbo upgrade with billet compressor and turbine wheels. But again, no dyno data. The only dyno data I could find was for their 11 blade billet GTX style wheel upgrade.
A large part of that is probably supporting modifications. Dropping an aftermarket turbo in isn't exactly first on a reasonable to-do list for making the car faster. Normally, this would result in lag (making the curve look worse) and little power increase overall. Next, if the test car has a bunch of supporting mods on it, and then you put a turbo on and dyno before/after, how can you really know how much change the turbo was, by itself, the cause of?
 
#87 ·
Bringing an old thread back from the dead but I feel like forum members who ever considered the AFE turbo should know this.

From aFe themselves:

"Hi Seth,

We don't have any Dyno numbers for the Turbo.

It is a stock replacement so it's not going to give you much power upgrade.

This is a stock replacement turbo which is a cheaper option than buying the OEM one."
 
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#88 ·
I think is a little upgraded but not much.
 
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