Big 16g or 18g? I Can't Decide!!

B

boosted

New member
Ok, so here's the story... My car is a MY04 WRX, and I'm currently running Stage 2 with a Cobb AccessPort and StreetTuner, with an Individia TBE and Helix up-pipe.

Im looking to get new turbo and was originally going to go with a VF34 for ease of integration with the AP. Now, however, Ive been doing some research and found that the VF34 really isn't quite enough power for me.

So, Im trying to decide whether to go with a Big 16g or an 18g. I can get a killer deal on a Big 16g for $599, but the cheapest I can find an 18G for is ~$999. There is only about a 10-15hp diff. between these turbos from what I can see (~290-310WHP w/ the 16g or ~310-330WHP w/ the 18g).

So, to make a short story long!, Im trying to see if anyone has had any experience with these turbos and what you guys would recommend.

Thanks for any opinions or recommendations ahead of time.

--Aaron

 
Evan

Evan

Active member
i believe vinnie (silverbqqst) has had/has the vf34 and replaced it with a 20g. i've ridden in his car and its pretty quick. i'd go with the 16g out of those two just because its so much cheaper and you probably wont notice the power difference. you can spend the extra $400 elsewhere (tuning, headers, etc) and probably see more power gains than the turbo would have given you.

 
ReZPunK

ReZPunK

New member
my school instructor used to be a mechanic for a winston cup car back in the 80's

he told me that teams would spend upwards of 80-100k dollars to gain 2-3 true horsepower.

so a 12-15 hp gain for an additional 300 bucks looks pretty good on paper.

 
S

silver bqqst.

Guest
i've ridden in his car and it's pretty quick.
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that's an understatement...
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Evan you rode in my car with the vf34 still in place. It's pretty crazy now..
IMHO I wouldn't run a 20G on a rex, just my .02

go with a 16g and you'll love the spool characteristics.

 
B

boosted

New member
Yea, I ended up going with a Momentum EJ5-40T, which is similar to an Evo III Big 16g. It flows 585CFM, so it's not much smaller than an 18G(605CFM). Got it tuned by F1 the other day, and put down 302WHP at 6750 RPM.

It spools faster than I expected for a bigger turbo than the TD04 and the top end is awesome!!

Can't wait to take it to NED this Saturday for import wars to see what I can up down for times.

--Aaron

 
P

pdxtuning

Guest
Here is a dyno plot from a Momentum 40T (very similiar to the 16g) vs the VF35.

VF35vs16g.gif


While these are not perfect apple to apple comparisons, they are very similiar. Keep in mind the VF34 and VF35 have the same compressor, but the VF35 has a slight smaller (P15) turbine housing.

On this particular dyno, the 18G was good for 10-20hp more, but with more lag. If I were to make a personal choice for my car, (if it had a 2.0L), I would use the 16G. On the 2.5, the 18G works very well.

It is someone out of my character to recommend a smaller turbo, but the 16g is a very good performing turbo when tuned well.

Cheers,

Jeff Sponaugle

PDXTuning.com

 
S

silver bqqst.

Guest
glad to see a guy in the tuning business agrees with me!!! ;D

 
B

boosted

New member
Im also glad I went with it too, as the lag isn't that much slower than the stock TD04, but the power really comes on after 4k all the way to redline, whereas the TD04 dies after about 5.5k. Also good to see another dyno plot to compare tunes. I think my overall greater HP is attributed to having a FMIC as opposed to a TMIC.

 
B

Bman

New member
Ughhh...... good luck with the Momentum 40T, on it has a terrible reliablity reputation.

I really hope that it doesn't crap out on you, unfortunatly the company DOES NOT stand behind there work. If I were you I would sell it ASAP to someone on NASIOC, and get the monster 16g. While you will certainly take a financial hit, it will not be as bad as when you need to start from sratch when the turbo blows in 5K :-[.

FYI the 16g is easily and cheaply upgradable to a 18g through deadbolt if the power is not enough for you. Good luck

More info for ya

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=944370&highlight=momentum+40t

 
B

boosted

New member
^^^Yea, there's a lot of haters on NASIOC though that don't know how install tubro's or whatnot properly :-

**UPDATE** : I've been running the turbo for a solid ~12K now and haven't had any issues, no regrets!! Boost peaks at 20psi and then tapers to ~17psi at redline, and I get full spool at ~3100 RPM in 4th IIRC.

A meth kit and clutch are sitting in my apt. waiting to get installed when I get time >
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D

Dave6265

New member
My friend has one of like 5 ej50T's ever made and swears by it... I was going to jump on a 40t if they were still around. They seemed like great little turbo packages. Three tools on nasioc, and a bad public relations guy really killed that whole company. Sad, because that turbo really offered the best of all worlds, and loved to spool up.

 
B

boosted

New member
Yea, they really are nice turbops, it's just a shame what happened to the company....and you're right, it really was just a few idiots that killed the comany's reputation and sent them under. Oh well, at least I know I have a good product! 8)

 
TheNailman

TheNailman

Warcock
i believe vinnie (silverbqqst) has had/has the vf34 and replaced it with a 20g. i've ridden in his car and its pretty quick. i'd go with the 16g out of those two just because its so much cheaper and you probably wont notice the power difference. you can spend the extra $400 elsewhere (tuning, headers, etc) and probably see more power gains than the turbo would have given you.
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couldn't agree more. . . :
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