Well in preparation for a couple of races and a track day or two coming up, I returned to Accelerated Performance in Ohio to fix a couple small issues and to have a 4.27 gearset put in.
First on the list was a lazy turbo actuator. What this does is control the spooling of turbo #1. It had been lazy, so both turbo were hitting at almost the same time. This resulted in a loss of low end performance....but it was rather amusing to have both turbos slam open at almost the same time!!
There are those in the Supra community who rather enjoy the both-turbos-at-same-time mod, but for the street, I don't like it. I generally do my own work, but with at least 15 vacuum lines involved I didn't want to take any chances with having to find a vacuum leak later on. So to the professionals I went!!
There was quite alot that had to be removed to get to the actuator. It attaches to the #1 turbo waaaayyy down in the engine pack up against the firewall. I was glad to let them do it after seeing all the stuff that had to come off. Russ noted that "We are more than 1/3 of the way to removing what needs to go for a big single turbo install....we have a kit on the shelf you know". I politely said no (or my wallet did) even though I would LOVE a single kit. We pressure tested a new actuator they had on the shelf before install to make sure it was operating fine. Everything was put back together correctly, and I marveled at how Russ knew what hose went where. Did I mention I was glad they did this fix?
Next up was a weak wastegate spring. The wastegate enables the car to hold solid boost all through the gears. Since the car is coming on to 15 years old, surely the wastegate spring is weakened as I was bleeding off boost on the big end..from 1.5 bar to 1.2 bar. In an elegant and cheap fix, Russ just added a stiff carburator spring to the existing spring arm on the wastegate, and pulled the other end to a small hole on the alternator bracket.
Finally, the 4.27 gear went in. In a mere 40 minutes. The car is independant suspension, so it was much easier than a solid rear axle gear swap. The just pulled out my complete pumpkin and dropped the new one in. Presto.
On to the test drive!! W O W !! With the added spring weight on the wastegate, this keeps the wastegate closed longer and as a result it makes more boost. I went beyond 1.5 bar on pump gas, which is a no-no. Fortunately, I got out of the gas quickly and the Supra automatically pulls timing to prevent a piston from going into a low orbit around earth. With the boost controller on turbo #2 adjusted I tried again. I also dialed in more boost on turbo #1 to 1 bar (approx 15 pounds..stock is 9 pounds). What a difference!! The car pulls very hard down low, and there is almost no lag at all. This combined with the gearset makes the car leap off the line. I am no longer wanting for the down low massive torque of a V8. These mods matched with my 3200 stall makes my car so much fun to drive now. Hooliganism is merely a stab of the throttle away. Testing on I-75 showed that even at 55+MPH, I was able to induce wheelspin!!!!
If the acceleration down low is immediate, I can only describe it from a roll as shocking. It squishes you into the seat FIRMLY. And you have to see the speedo climb to believe it. They did caution my top end might only be in the vicinity of 150MPH now. No biggie...since the only time I have tested the upper end on the Supra was on the long straight at Road America....and I only go there once (or twice) a year, so no biggie. The only downside so far is my face is sore from smiling, and my 1st bit of fuel disappeared at an alarming rate...about 15L/100km. Not horrid...but not too good. And that was with me mashing the pedal a fair often. I assume it won't impact my fuel consumption much when just driving around normally.
Since Accelerated is a full service shop, I got to see plenty of eye candy and interesting people/vehicles passing through. The Supra that finished 3rd overall and 1st in class during the One Lap had passed through there after their trip to Mid-Ohio. They had borrowed a clutch from Accelerated while passing through. I was very surprised at how small the clutch itself was. It was only about 10" across. It was a special Tilton Carbon composite 6 or 7 plate clutch. While admiring it I asked how much. $5700. OMG!!! For a clutch..that can wear out in a year on these ultra high HP cars. Lets put it this way. My Supra makes 550+ at the crank (up to 440 RWHP). In the world of Supras, I am a nobody. I don't exist. Even guys with 600-650 RWHP are regarded as "big deal..yawn" there are so many of them. Almost anyone with a single turbo on a Supra makes that much it's so ridiculously easy. People only start taking notice at 700+HP..and that's common. It's only the guys with 900+ that raise eyebrows. The record for a stock bottom end Supra is an astonishing 1100 RWHP. There are many in the 1000HP above class. And there are several 1400+ Supras driving around on the street. It's craziness!!! Go here to look at a few dyno graphs from this club...you need at least 600RWHP to be part of this club
http://dyno.to4r.com/graph.php Anyways...the most important feature for the Supra, to me, is to be able to make big HP with minor cash. But once you do want 800+ HP, you had better open your wallet. $5700 for a clutch. They had a head in there with copper valve guides (not suitable for the street because of this) which had sold for $5600. They sold a 3.4L stroker engine for $12,000. A couple T-88 turbos the size of my head cost $3500 each. Custom TH400 trannies for $5K. And the list goes on. But it's not only the Supra guys. The had some guy in there who is a GM/LS1/Chevy V8 guru. He has done "hundreds" of supercharger and turbo installs on GMs. He said that a supercharged GM makes great HP, but "throws or shreds the supercharger belt every couple of weeks". You have to pay to play. Oddly, he bought an EVO8, and has modded it very heavily. Only he doesn't mod it. A V8 engine guru...a guy who makes 600, 700, 800 HP GM engines won't touch his EVO. It was very weird to me. Anyways...he's had 5 BUILT engines blow up in his EVO. Granted, he is pushing 30+ PSI through it. Even the one from renowned EVO builder Bushur Racing blew up. I saw it...the side of the block was cracked from top to bottom as if someone had attacked it with an axe. Ouch. So now he wants to try a built engine from Accelerated. But no only that, he's going with a custom made intake, duel feed fuel injection...just crazy. He left them his credit card number and told them to build it! Just down the road is a Talon shop. Their Talon goes 8.8s in the quarter. They dropped by to buy a nitrous kit like you and I buy a case of oil. No biggie..."Yes, I'd like a 150 Nitrous kit please..and include some 200HP jets just in case". I just can't believe how much cash some of the big shooters drop on their cars.
It made me feel alot better about EVERYTHING I've ever spent on my cars combined!!
