EFR Anti surge = T51R mod?

[Predator1]

Hi guys,

Eyeing up the 9280, and wondered whether the OEM surge slots is the same as the T51R mod perhaps?

Has anyone done the T51R mod on their EFR, or even any other turbo? 

Anyone do that locally in australia perhaps?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

I would just leave the EFR alone, leave it as-is with zero mods, speed sensors, EMAP, dis dat.

You do anything to it and the purist will rip your head off and the turbine might snap off and you'll get 10000x forum users saying TOLD YOU SO oversped dis dat, etc.

[Predator1]

haha, the world will always have KB warriors!

I'm shipping my car to japan this year, so want to upgrade before I ship! E85 is extremely expensive here so will leave it on pump.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Not saying you shouldn't go with the Borg Warner EFR stuff, however have you looked at Turbosmart turbos? They're pretty much a better version of Precision turbos.

 

[R.3.2.G.T.R]

yeah i have done it on my efr8374.. no issues.. sent it to OCD Works in the US.. locally i know hi spool industries do the mod as well

[Predator1]

6 hours ago, R.3.2.G.T.R said:

yeah i have done it on my efr8374.. no issues.. sent it to OCD Works in the US.. locally i know hi spool industries do the mod as well

Ive heard of OCD works. Hows the spool noise before and after? Feel free to PM links or videos if you want.

 

8 hours ago, Dose Pipe Sutututu said:

Not saying you shouldn't go with the Borg Warner EFR stuff, however have you looked at Turbosmart turbos? They're pretty much a better version of Precision turbos.

 

I've got a good mate that works for a reputable turbo company who says to stay away from them as theyve had a few turbos that came back with lots of issues. The other reason for sticking with EFR is that its just a drop in replacement. I was looking at the g45-1500 at cost price, but that would mean new down pipe, new lines, new intake piping etc etc.

[Lithium]

On 29/04/2024 at 5:13 PM, Predator1 said:

Eyeing up the 9280, and wondered whether the OEM surge slots is the same as the T51R mod perhaps?

Has anyone done the T51R mod on their EFR, or even any other turbo? 

Anyone do that locally in australia perhaps?

I've never had a T51R mod done on a turbo but can answer things to at least give you things to consider.

Firstly, I'm pretty sure "T51R mod" is not going to be a completely standard identical design.  Different folks will make their own calls on how they want to make the sound, and different compressors and housings will give different amounts of space to work with as well - so the design and effect from company to company and turbo to turbo will be arbitrary.   

In terms of "is it the same", no... it won't be, I'm pretty confident of that.   Whether it will have a negative (or NOT negative for that matter) effect really would be foolish of any of us to speculate on without any data.  Surge slots, or map width enchancement grooves basically bleed air from part way up the compressor out to the compressor inlet... effectively from the turbo's point of view it is an air leak that allows the turbo to be re-fed with the air that has been leaked.  When done "right" it can allow air that the turbo can't pump into the engine efficiently to spill back into the intake as opposed to cause a surge condition.

Simply put, it has a direct effect on the efficiency of the compressor wheel.  When you are getting up to the maximum capacity of the compressor wheel the design of the intake and compressor rely on every bit of area of the inducer etc to work as efficiently as possible, if you have something literally designed to cause a leak of turbulent air (to make the sound) back to the intake it's hard to imagine there won't be some cost to the higher end of the flow capacity but I wouldn't dare even try and guess if it were either major, or academic.  Just bare in mind there will be an effect.

On the "upside", I'm assuming you are going to be running the 1.05a/r hotside you had on the EFR9180 as you mentioned you don't want to do any fabrication work, and the 1.45 hotside DOES need the dump pipe (and as such, possibly exhaust) shifted as it actually pushes the turbine outlet further from the CHRA... its a huge housing.   I doubt you'll be able to safely push the 1.05a/r hotside on pump gas far enough for the 9280 compressor to actually start getting to the point you have to worry about sacrificing a bit of flow for sound.

As you know, I'm a big EFR fan where it suits - unlike some, I just go on merits and suitability for setups and there are a lot of cases they are unbeatable.   In the case of where you're going though, I'm not convinced that line is the best thing for the job. 

To do it right I'd either stay with what you have, as you're finding it's pretty hard to make the car more powerful than it is without sacrificing "something" - or do a "proper" upgrade to an all new beast that has the turbine flow to support what you are looking for, and arguably also has the T51R sound and vibe which I'm hardly going to throw stones at you for looking for... you'll remember that my turbo choice for my old R33 was absolutely influenced by the induction noise the GT3076Rs make haha.   

Given the price of an EFR9280 and T51R mod, any work to get it installed and tuned to suit may turn out to give a result that makes you wonder if it was worth the effort - but if you're willing to spend that and not worried about massive gains, I'm pretty sure what you're proposing *will* give you some of that sound and probably stretch the power out a bit further in the rpm.   I've so far not heard any unmodified EFR sound "whistly" like what I'm assuming you're looking for, though.