Chinesium turbo install

[fmorelli]

Chinesium à la française.

I have a good friend in Europe that is installing a set of chinese turbos. I asked for some photos and that he might contribute some first-hand posts on this thread. These will be replacing a tired set of turbos (front blown, rear lots of shaft play). I won't post the many disassembly photos, since the old turbos are not the subject of this thread. He is doing the install (professional shop) and the car will make it to the dyno.

• Chinese turbos have been discussed a number of times and in many places. Here are some references. And to be clear, these are not all the same China turbos, from the same vendor, et cetera:
  • My official China TD04 16T eBay turbos
  • Ad: Dynamic Auto Werx Turbo Upgrade N54 (Das-AutoWerkz)
  • Dynamic Auto Werx Turbo Upgrade N54
  • DAW turbos
• The following turbos originated from eBay for $900 from the vendor, viv-autoparts. My friend bought them given a group of frenchmen all having good experience with these turbos, from this vendor. The vendor states they are balanced in the UK, and the CHRA's come from there. No balance sheets come with the turbos - I would consider that a caution flag. My friend had the balance/assemblies checked out by his buddy who is ex-Renault Motorsport (turbo guy). Came back with a thumbs up.
• These seem to be dead ringers for what Dynamic Autowerx seems to sell as Stage 3. Here are the specs listed on the DAW site:
  • Full TD04 Bearing Housings Machined To Except All The Oem Lines (Not a Modified Oem Bearing Housing)
  • TD04L 9 Blade Ultra Flow Inconel Turbine Wheel (30% More Blade Surface Area Than The 11 & 12 Blade Wheel)
  • 46mm Ultra Flow Garrett Style GTX 2 Billet Compressor Wheel
  • Large 2" Compressor Cover Inlets (2" Silicone Inlets Required)
  • Aluminum Outlets Required
  • Oem Wastegate Actuators with Updated Thicker Rod, Billet End Link & Upgraded Billet Wastegate Pivot Arm Assembly
  • Upgraded Dual Oil Port Thrust Assembly Machined From Copper Bar
  • Upgraded Thrust Collar & Spacer (14mm vs 10mm)
  • Component Balanced, Dynamic Balanced Than Vsr Balanced Using a State Of The Art (CIMAT Balancer) To Less Than 0.5mg
  • Upgraded Staggered Turbine Rings
  • Turbine Rings, Bearings, Coolant Ports Are 30% Larger Than All The Stage 2/ 2+ Currently Out Also a Thicker Turbine Shaft
  • The recent DAW unboxing video.
• Comparatively, here is the eBay ad description:
  • These Are Brand New Full TD04L Hybrid Turbochargers with a Forged Billet Compressor Wheels
  • TD04L Ultra High Flow Turbine Wheel.
  • These Turbos Out Flow a Standard 17T Turbo & Are Good For Roughly 650+HP
  • High MIXED-Flow Forged Billet Compressor Wheels (6+6, 43/60 mm)
  • Component Balanced, Dynamic Balanced Than VSR Balanced
  • This is UPGRADED TD04L Turbine Wheel Available (9 blades , 41*47) (stock size:35/40)
  • Billet Wastegate Flapper Valves (Stainless Steel with Thicker Rod)

More to come ...

Filippo

 

[Seb335i]

For me they are exactly the same than the DAW but for half the price.

 

[Rob09msport]

Is inconel better than mar 246

 

[Seb335i]

Straight from China for 900$ shipped with Fedex took 6 days to arrive NO CUSTOMS TAX !

 

[Seb335i]

So these turbos have a 3 year warranty but for some reason last night was the deadline to return them to the manufacturer and because you did not they now have no warranty if you try and sell them? What do they care? Zero miles on them, never installed.

Is Nick the owner of DAW? How is he involved in the 1st place?

This whole DAW thing is so confusing even when @fmorelli sums it up often. I almost need a chart at this point.

I don't know about DAW but let me explain what happened. I'm Sebastien from Paris in France I'm the owner of Garage S&H a BMW and Mini workshop.
I own a 335i E93 DKG as my front turbo was totally shot I was looking for a remplacement OEM are way to expensive even with the dealer discount.
As many of forum members I've read the thread on e90post about those DAW turbo.
Then of my customer make me an offer on a set of Chinese turbo he bought just before he crashed his car.
I bought them to him then have them balanced.
At this time Vehicular DIY on YouTube made a video of his DAW turbos and what the hell they was looking exactly the same as my Viv Autopart.

 

[fmorelli]

... and so now we are going to watch these turbos go in and see what they can do. Thanks for posting, Sebastien.

Filippo

 

[Seb335i]

Can someone from DAW or a representative explain what is the exact difference between those Viv Autopart Chinese turbos and the DAW ?
What is the added value ?
Please don't tell us about the horse dung coating we already know about it.

 

[fmorelli]

That said, there's something to be said for buying from vendors who actually provide information, build specs and parts source data, pictures, and performance data.

That's a desirable wish list for turbos for sure. And, dare I say, the emphasis is on "wish."

Filippo

 

[doublespaces]

At least you know VTT is using designs they have signed off on directly. Their logo is clearly in the castings. Seems the chinese turbo gauntlet is still the same, might get crap, might get something nice, might get an infection.

All these years and people claim to have lightning in a bottle, I'm pretty tired of hearing it to be honest. There is a reason I went straight to a 6266.

 

[nyt]

At least you know VTT is using designs they have signed off on directly. Their logo is clearly in the castings. Seems the chinese turbo gauntlet is still the same, might get crap, might get something nice, might get an infection.

All these years and people claim to have lightning in a bottle, I'm pretty tired of hearing it to be honest. There is a reason I went straight to a 6266.

so many people running precision. I think the s372sx-e or 472 would be a good fit for this platform, nfc why more people aren't using em. They spool silly fast and flow like crazy.

 

[RuskiRacer]

Can someone from DAW or a representative explain what is the exact difference between those Viv Autopart Chinese turbos and the DAW ?
What is the added value ?
Please don't tell us about the horse dung coating we already know about it.

I'm don't have anything to do with DAW except buying there turbos.but from my understanding the owner buys these manifolds from China or wherever and then assembles them in Michigan with upgraded wheels and bearings supposedly. And then offers his 3 year warranty which doesn't seem useful to me since I can't return a product that is unused that I have had for 1 day.

 

[doublespaces]

so many people running precision. I think the s372sx-e or 472 would be a good fit for this platform, nfc why more people aren't using em. They spool silly fast and flow like crazy.

They are cheap and performant. I would have liked to run a GTX3582R Gen2 but that wasn't an option at the time. I think the SXE's were a bit bulky? There is already barely enough room for the 6266 while keeping proper draining. I'm really happy with my stuff, never had a single problem with it, quite literally. I installed it myself and took plenty of time so I know everything is on there nice and good.

 

[nyt]

They are cheap and performant. I would have liked to run a GTX3582R Gen2 but that wasn't an option at the time. I think the SXE's were a bit bulky? There is already barely enough room for the 6266 while keeping proper draining. I'm really happy with my stuff, never had a single problem with it, quite literally. I installed it myself and took plenty of time so I know everything is on there nice and good.

The s372sx-e isn't really bulky. Uses a smaller cover, but can still flow 110 lbs/min. They're also only like $1100ish?

There's nothing really wrong with the precision stuff, was just commenting how it's all I really see on this platform which is surprising.

 

[doublespaces]

To be honest, I think it just came down to the price and packaging. It doesn't require water plumbing, is inexpensive and performs. When FFTEC came out with their single kit all those years ago, price was like 10k if I recall so anything to keep the price down. Then it just became the most well known turbo for the platform, an audience of people who probably never had a boosted engine like this to mess around with so it sort of became the language of choice people recognized the most. Perhaps a ft-lbs vs newton Meters sort of thing perhaps.

 

[ShocknAwe]

That's a desirable wish list for turbos for sure. And, dare I say, the emphasis is on "wish."

Filippo

Not a wish to get some or most of that. Several vendors currently do. This one did none of it. We've discussed this already. And the result is as expected.

 

[BoostedE90]

DAW "stage 2" now uses a gtx style wheel not a 6x6 from what i understand.
I can tell that the casting is not as good as my DAW's casting, seems to be slight differnt on top compressor housing.

Another thing is balancing i doubt they have as good balancing, if those chinas were the same as DAW's then they're also the same as pure 600s like daws.

Also DAW's dont have writing/number (model/serial number) on the front by the compressor wheel like those china ebays in pics.
Differnt harware on the wastegates an compressor nut i see as well.

Waste gate flapper looks to be different and hotside turbine shaft looks to be different.

An OP is getting DAW stage 3 mixed up with stage 2.

This is on the ebay turbo's OP posted and is not on DAW's

Here's PURE 600's for an example, their casting is slightly different
Same hardware,
same compressor wheels
Same white marking on compressor wheel
Same waste gate flappers as DAW

 

[BoostedE90]

View attachment 32290

These are my stage 4s, I'm pretty much convinced DAW turbos are straight from China with slight modifications.the ones straight from China almost even look better I'm really disappointed and do not even want to put them in my car. I could have saved myself thousand plus dollars from buying right from the source and not a China turbo reseller like DAW. There customer service is only good when they want to sell you a product. I tried looking all day yesterday for a used single turbo kit and tried contacting Jeff from speed tech because we live in the same state he said he would set me up with his kit but since it's past midnight looks like it's to late for me...View attachment 32287
View attachment 32285View attachment 32286

that could be just caked up ceramic coating , and no ebay seller is selling n54 turbos with gtx wheels like you have, Daw is maching the housing to fit the gtx wheel an using a different thrust assembly for stage3/4 i believe i was sent pictures of the process when i was still deciding back in the beginning of this year (could be wrong)
i really dont blame a reseller for not wanting to go through the hassle of reselling your turbos again when you were in a hurry to get, an risk them getting damaged during shipping, thats just a wishy washy buyer imo but i do understand if you have buyers remorse with a big purchase..

 

[Deleted member 2204]

Good info guys! Lots of great reports from UK about the chinesiums (ispeedytech) too. When my stock turbo's go boom, i will deff be going for one of these options straight from China. Getting very close to mass tested and proven on these Chinesium.

 

[Seb335i]

Good info guys! Lots of great reports from UK about the chinesiums (ispeedytech) too. When my stock turbo's go boom, i will deff be going for one of these options straight from China. Getting very close to mass tested and proven on these Chinesium.

We have many good reports too here in France.

 

[Bnks334]

At least you know VTT is using designs they have signed off on directly. Their logo is clearly in the castings. Seems the chinese turbo gauntlet is still the same, might get crap, might get something nice, might get an infection.

All these years and people claim to have lightning in a bottle, I'm pretty tired of hearing it to be honest. There is a reason I went straight to a 6266.

All you need for custom castings marks from Chinese turbo's is to order a high enough quantity lol. Anyone can buy 1000 sets of turbos off Alibaba with whatever casting marks they want. Just about every "shop" in the market is ordering from Chinese manufacturers and re-branding it for markup. That's business. This direct to manufacturer connection never really existed for customers until recently where people can actually see that the "brand name" stuff is the same "junk" on Ebay without the name. Now just about any joe schmo can order direct and claim they are a business reselling turbos to people off Facebook or whatever. Same goes for forged rods, downpipes, catch Cans, etc. In some cases, a legitimate business sends off a design for a certain quantity to be manufactured and then once that agreement has been met the manufacturer turns around and sells it directly to people them self. In opposite fashion, you have people like "misfire racing" buying oil coolers, intercoolers, catch cans, and whatever else off alibaba and slapping stickers on them.

Biggest issue with all of this is that the phrase "buyer beware" in a free market is no longer taught like it used to be. Relying on gov't and regulations to protect them etc.

A lot of these Chinese sellers have been around for a long time and provide buyer assurances. They aren't in business to sell you shit. They would go out of business if they did lol.