Misc., Testing

PTP Turbo Blanket

My first foray into the market of turbocharger blankets was with the PTP Turbo Blanket intended for use on my Audi S4’s BorgWarner K03 turbochargers.

PTP Turbo Blanket

I figured that the turbine housing of the K03 was probably not significantly different than that other turbochargers I might soon consider using, BorgWarner K04’s, FrankenTurbo F21’s, SRM RS4 Hybrid, ProjectB5 RS4-X, etc, since all used the K04 hotside so that if I were to upgrade I might be able to reuse the PTP Turbo Blanket

After measuring the circumference around the turbine housing of the K03’s and a set of K04’s I found that they only differed by approximately 0.75″ which I believe is sufficiently close to not matter to how the turbocharger blanket performs.

Unfortunately the turbocharger blanket model I selected was not a good fit with the K03’s on the S4, more specifically in the area where the exhaust manifold attaches to the turbine housing.  After monkeying around with trying to get the blanket to fit I decided that major surgery, such as cutting the blanket to get it to fit, was out of the question and I would  return the model I had selected to PTP Turbo Blanket and investigate other models that they carry.

I also inquired with PTP Turbo about a custom blanket, which is something they offer, but they advised me that to produce a blanket for a single vehicle the cost would probably be unreasonable.

At this point I decided to expand my search to other product suppliers to see if another might carry something better suited to the BorgWarner K03’s.

 

Intake

SRM RS4 SMIC

Arriving today are a set of Silly Rabbit Motorsport SMIC’s in the RS4 configuration.  Thanks to SRM for attaching an Aquamist water-methanol injection bung to the upper end tank so that I can inject at the intercooler.

Stay tuned for flow test results…

Silly Rabbit Motorsport RS4 Plus SMIC Intercooler srm_rs4_smic_4 srm_rs4_smic_2 srm_rs4_smic_3

Turbo Selection, Turbocharger

New option from SRM

With the passage of a few months a new candidate has entered the scene.  I noticed that Silly Rabbit Motorsports has introduced a K04 hybrid variant to provide another option for me.

SRM K04 RS4+ (K04 Hybrid Turbo)
SRM K04 RS4+ (K04 Hybrid Turbo)

These SRM turbo’s bring a new twist to the candidate pool because they are similar in size to the FrankenTurbo F21 and ProjectB5 RS4-X on the compressor side, though the SRM uses a billet compressor wheel, but on the turbine side it is using a clipped wheel.

This is a very interesting development since I have theorized that one of the reasons my experience with the FrankenTurbo F4H-BT did not show much gain in the upper rpm’s, despite pushing 25psi out to redline, was that the airflow through the turbine side began to back up lowering the engines VE.  Perhaps a clipped turbine wheel would allow this size turbocharger to hold that 25+ psi and flow better, netting greater top end horsepower results.

Since the product is a recent introduction it remains to be see how they perform, but for now they will stay on the candidate list:

  • BorgWarner K04
  • FrankenTurbo F21
  • ProjectB5 RS6-X
  • SRM Billet K04

Note: As of July 2015 I have yet to see any results of how the SRM billet K04 turbocharger performs.

Next: TTE 550 Another Contender

Audi B5 S4 Information and Testing