NSX turbocharger installation

[Scorp965]

This is a mirror of a thread on nsxprime.com, here:
HP Turbo Installation Started - NSX Prime

Here are some progress pictures, of my 1994 nsx. This car was supercharged, but the gruppe M twin screw has been removed for a single turbo setup.

























The car is scheduled to be finished on Monday, and tuned sometime mid next week. Current numbers, at 0.4 bar, are 350rwhp/280rwtq - the turbo will be running 0.5 bar, with a cooler charge... looking for around 400-425rwhp.

[UltimateOne]

Nice!!

[zcghost]

Sweet.

[Crusher_13]

Is the increase in power the only reason for the change over? Or is there something else?

[Scorp965]

Originally Posted by Crusher_13

Is the increase in power the only reason for the change over? Or is there something else?

The nsx engine likes to rev, it felt a bit constrained by the supercharger... I am hoping the turbo will enhance the feel of the engine, if this makes any sense. I have not put the car on a dyno with the turbo (the installation will finish next week), and have no desire to 'jinx' my results, but I am hoping for a healthy bump in power, a flatter torque curve, and a cooler-running system (better for the engine), compared to the hot-air supercharger.

[Crusher_13]

Originally Posted by Scorp965

The nsx engine likes to rev, it felt a bit constrained by the supercharger... I am hoping the turbo will enhance the feel of the engine, if this makes any sense. I have not put the car on a dyno with the turbo (the installation will finish next week), and have no desire to 'jinx' my results, but I am hoping for a healthy bump in power, a flatter torque curve, and a cooler-running system (better for the engine), compared to the hot-air supercharger.

Makes perfect sense. A turbo suits the engine better than a supercharger. you also have the benifit of increasing boost slightly but getting a greater jump in power compared to increasing the boost the same amount with the supercharger due to the cooler air being used with the turbo.

That right?

[deep throat]

Where are we on this now?

Man, do you know of any NSX's up for grabs around you? A couple of Canadian friends showing interest in one of these. What should they expect to fork out for a '94 NSX?

[Scorp965]

After some discussion we decided to mount the aftercooler system in the spare tire location, we're going to run the heater hose down the same channel as the radiator hose - this location offers several benefits to the regular trunk mounting location, primarily that of airflow. There is airflow coming from underneath the car, there is airflow coming through the front bumper, and there is airflow coming from the ventillated hood - none of these sources are present inside the trunk. True, the radiator is not a good item to be around, but neither is the exhaust, or the engine bay for that matter. This forward location also allows heat to dissipate from the heater hose as it runs the entire length of the car, and with the fuse box located inches away from the reservoir wiring in the electric pump is a trivial process.

At the moment the stock heat exchanger/electric fan is going to be used, but perhaps at a later time a custom-made heat exchanger could take its place, maybe one mounted in front of the radiator, integrated into an aluminum radiator, like the ron davis oil cooler arrangement, or mounted above the reservoir, a 'top mounted' heat exchanger filling the open space under the marga hills hood - any of these options seems to offer additional cooling potential over the left rear fender system.

Here are some pictures from today, most of the final remaining components are here, the main delay now is a backorder on the AEM computer system.

[Scorp965]

Originally Posted by deep throat

Man, do you know of any NSX's up for grabs around you? A couple of Canadian friends showing interest in one of these. What should they expect to fork out for a '94 NSX?

Check out http://www.nsxprime.com

A stock '94 nsx will run around $30-35k, mine has about the same amount in modifications.

[deep throat]

Thanks bro

[itsabimmerthing]

Nice car scorp! I have always liked it, but you just improved upon it big time going to a snail!

[Scorp965]

Here are some additiona pictures of the water tank/pump/heat exchanger arrangement, in the spare tire well:

Heat exchanger on the left:







Water pump location:



In an attempt to move the project forward we tried to use an old volvo part to obtain the oil drain pipe - the flange matched up to the turbo, but the pipe was too wide for the drain hose... this oil drain pipe, and the aem system, will complete the kit. After this I tried going to turbocity, to purchase the drain pipe, but they were out of stock on the part until at least Tuesday :frown:

[mad-ass]

Good god, that's awesome!
Now, when you hit VTEC with that turbo charger, does it scream "I AM SO ANGRY!!" ??

haha, I am digging the new headlights man, looks sweet too

[Scorp965]

Some updates... I had the car towed 44 miles from Niguel Motors to Church Automotive in Wilmington, CA. Once it arrived we put it on one of his dynapack dynos, and tried to tune the car:









White smoke, in significant quantity, started coming from the car's exhaust... at first it was thought this could be burn off from the new parts, but it didn't lessen after 5 minutes at 3k, and, while the car was running slightly rich, it wasn't running near rich enough to create this level of smoke. We turned the car off, checked the oil coloration, and found it was fine (and was like new, given it was changed the day before), we then checked the oil level, which seemed fine, and tried another 5 minutes at 3k rpm. Still no change, lots of white smoke, but now black oil was seen dripping from the muffler connections:



So I had the car towed 44 miles back to Niguel Motors, and I had to pay $100 for an hour of tuning, which resulted in zero actual tuning.







Once the car arrived at Niguel Motors we checked the drain pipe, and found the oil was draining as intended, and the oil returning to the pan was clean (the oil coming from the exhaust was black) - we then checked the throttle body, and found no oil. Here is a picture of the exhaust connection:





There was a great deal of oil not only dripping from the exhaust connections, but also spraying over the heatshield, etc.:





Next we removed the downpipe, and found this... these pictures are pretty self explanatory:





It would appear the turbocharger unit is leaking oil - there is also some shaft play, which is deeply concerning (especially considering this is a 0-mile turbo).

Here is a picture looking into the exhaust:



and the tail pipe:



Dripping oil from the exhaust connections:



The engine was fully operational when it went in for this turbo installation, and when it was hooked up to the tuner's computer it was producing perfect vacuum, etc. - there is what appears to be a small amount of antifreeze in the tail pipe, along with all of the oil - the car's antifreeze is fine, uncontaminated, so we believe the source may be the aftercooler system (eg there may be a leak somewhere internal to the cooler), we're trying to determine if the aftercooler unit will need to be replaced, along with the turbo.

Right now I am exhausted (no pun intended); I am out x2 44 mile flatbed tow truck trips, I paid $100 to see a car smoke while bolted onto a dynapack, and I wasted both my time, and the time of my tuner. Immediatly following the dynapack "session" I placed a call to HP performance, and spoke with their receptionist. As Jimmy said last week, he is currently out of the office, but I was told by the receptionist I would receive a call back from Nathan "when he comes back from lunch, in around 5 minutes". I am typing this 4 hours after I was told I would get a call back in "5 minutes" from the receptionist... still no call :frown:

[Scorp965]

HP Performance overnighted a replacement turbo on Tuesday, and it arrived early today - we spent a large part of the day swapping the unit, and also increasing the drain pipe to a (quite large) 3/8" size, to eliminate concern over oil flow. Here are some pics from today:



Old turbo off the car:



The New turbo:





Top view of new turbo:



Ramon in Simo's car:



And some videos:

Car just started, checking for leaks:

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Car starting to warm up, and burn off oil in the exhaust from previous turbo:

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Following the second video the nsx was driven at 3k rpm for approx 15 minutes to clear away even more of the white smoke burn off, now there is very little smoke coming from the car, and it is ready for the tuner. Unfortunatly the tuner won't be available until Monday afternoon, so dyno results are still pending.