I don't remember the details but IIRC Descendant had a customer making over 300whp on stock exhaust. It's not ideal but boost can easily overcome a lot of VE limitations as we've been discussing/arguing here. There's nothing like a dyno to separate the wheat from the chaff. I'd like to have mine dyno tested again this winter to see what it can do under better conditions than the previous heat-soaked test. It kind of bugs me that the dyno reported only 217whp but to run the 1/4 mile ETs and traps speeds I've run requires 240whp.

 

2 of my friends got ebay no brand front strut tower bars. they say they can feel the difference and it's like half the price of brand name ones. just putting it out there xP

 

1) It is a peice of metal bar connecting the strut towers, doesnt matter what brand.

2) They feel a placebo effect. Unless they push their car to the absolute limits on a track and measure track times, they are not going to "feel" the difference in a strut tower bar. Especially on a new model car with strut towers close to the firewall. All it is doing is taking a very minimal amount of flex out of the towers, had zero effect on body roll, etc.

3) it is still not really "no name" nor is it made by ebay. Again, ebay is a classifieds section, not a maker of these parts. So who knows where the bars came from, they are just sold on ebay.

 

^ Agreed.

The only thing that worries me about that strut bar is that, for the price, there is no R&D. Which means that if you did push your xB hard, the bar would snap. I don't see that bar lasting long. Chances are it is made in countries without OSHA standards, which explains the very cheap price.

 

Osha only applies to safety in thier workplace, not the quality of their products.

And there is actually little to no governance on the quality of an aftermarket part in the us. Even wheels dont have to fall into any specific quality standard, meaning the best wheels you can find may not be as strong as uou think they are. If they adhere to any sema "standards" it tells you a little, but even then not much.

Its mainly just wondering how much r&d they did for the price. But seeing as how that bar isnt doing that much, it would probably flex a little at most and you wouldnt know.

If it were the dampers and springs my car sits on, i would be a bit more concerned with knowing where they came from. Thus why i dont buy junk 300 dollar coilovers or something similar

 

^ Oh I know about OSHA. But what I'm alluding to is that because these countries don't have those safety standards, the quality of the products are poor specifically because they're made cheap by workers who are paid next to nothing in conditions that are far from sanitary or safe.

And based on this, the cost of assembly is peanuts and the markup is exponential. Therefore, one can infer that there would be no R&D (i.e., extreme profitability). (But you already know this, but I figured I would provide the extraneous connections that I made so you can understand why I mentioned OSHA standards for the U.S. specifically in this thread. It's preposterous to think that this strut bar can handle extreme stress from cornering in comparison to other strut bars like Tanabe's).


Ergo, you have a strut bar that will snap. Guaranteed to not last if the driver tries to be aggressive. For a typical conservative driver, longevity is the inverse of the former, naturally.



Anyway... sorry about the segue! Back on topic!

 

I'd be honestly surprised if any real r&d is done by any of the makers of strut bars outside of measurements for the xB.

 

The inherent design in our car doesn't really give us a need for a Strut Bar unless you're going all out with racing/driving, which I doubt anyone does with their xB2. Nonetheless, if it makes you feel better, I don't really know if it matters what Strut Bar you buy.

 

Page 7 = brain exploded by logic and maths.

Just another update, all of my parts are still going strong! Zero problems out of any of them.

FromTheOld, I think you are right, our strut towers are so firmly placed, that the use of one might not significantly benefit someone who DD's in town.

I meant to (and still want to) do a series of tests to determine the maximum [if any] flex of the strut towers under extreme cornering (with street tires).

 

Question for you:

Has anyone tried the scarily priced eBay turbo kits for 2AZFE engines?

There's one selling for $1,049 with free shipping. But there are so many parts that come with it, I'm thinking that there's a ton of retrofitting to make it work.





It looks like it is manufactured out of the country, which explains the price.

Any thoughts? :-P

 

I'd assume that the only thing that would mount up would be the manifold and turbo. Everything would have to be cut to fit.

There's a reason that it's so cheap and quality turbos are about the same price as that entire kit.

 

The tests have been done with the stock suspension already. It's a significantly improved design from the older cars, which eliminates the real need to buy a Strut Bar. At this point, the negligible gains of the Strut Bar can be negated by the additional weight to the front of the car you've just added

It's a chinese kit. There is a huge generalization that Chinese parts are bad, but that's a slight misconception. There are MANY things made in China, but it really depends on the factory that it is made in and the tolerances imposed, etc. The bottom of the barrel crap chinese parts people buy are the parts that are manufactured in places with poor quality control, and sometimes these parts are made with crappy tolerances because it's just cheaper overall to do it. The sad thing is, money and bargains are what tend to catch people's eye, especially on eBay, so they end up buying the CHEAPEST product instead of buying a cheap product with good quality.

It will not bolt on to your car, you're going to have to do custom fabrication (cut and weld)

Some turbos are overpriced....some jack it up because of the R&D they've done, some do it for their name, etc....but generally, this is true. Turbo kits cannot be as cheap as what is listed in that photo unless some quality has been cut. If you want a cheap turbo kit and don't have good mechanical knowledge, buy some used "quality" parts instead of the chinese stuff. You've gotta be a lot smarter to use Chinese parts properly. (because we've all seen Chinese kits end up working out...with a LOT of modification)

 

Now I don't plan on buying this particular turbo kit, but I wanted to raise that interesting point to see if anyone has tested it before.

Now here's the deal: a Descendant kit, for example, sells for ~$4,200.

The kit on eBay is selling for ~$1,200.

Even with all the cutting, welding, and fabrication, it will still come out much cheaper to install this rather than buying a Descendant kit for regular price! lol. So for the money-conscious persons that would like to be boosted, this for sure is the way to go!


I wouldn't buy this kit because I have never installed turbo, so I'd like the convenience of a U.S. manufacturer that has it warrantied and available to conveniently bolt to the car.

 

And you have no idea of the actual quality of build of the turbo, the hardware, etc. its not just a matter if how much fitment is involved

 

^^^Yup. It'll be more expensive if something goes pop when it shouldn't.

 

The Descendant kit comes with injectors and a tune+engine management, which are not included in that kit. That totals up to about ~700-800 with the engine management+injectors, and however much it costs to get a tune. Yes, the Descendant tune isn't ideal, but it's decent enough to be driven anywhere. You can account for this cost too, let's say....to be ~500 bucks. Finally, it's not as easy as some people think to do lots of custom fabrication/welding. It's a hassle that usually involves a lot of downtime unless you're paying someone to do all of this on the spot in a single shop. Although there are some people who have the ability to custom fabricate themselves, the majority of people don't have this ability so I wouldn't recommend this. Chances are, if someone could fabricate themselves, they wouldn't really need to be looking at this path anyway because they could just buy their own piping, etc. Finally, the wastegate/turbo/blow off valve are all moving parts that could be subject to quality control issues. If you're not really that mechanically knowledgeable (or generally new to this stuff) then I suggest you stay away from those parts.

Honestly, if someone was mechanically knowledgeable, they probably wouldn't need to come to these forums anyway. Most of this forum is filled with useless stuff anyway. Turboing most cars are the same thing....

 

Wait! But he's a five-star seller! lol!


@FromTheOld: And I'm no fabricator. I would definitely not attempt this, but I was curious if anyone out there was willing to try it. I noticed the kit is advertised with the 2AZFE engine, but probably not designed for the xB; Ergo, the messiness of the kit.

I'm one of those persons that always enjoys projects and challenges, and if I had the resources and the skills, I would certainly try this out.

 

It is advertised with the 2AZFE engine because it has a 2AZFE specific turbo manifold....that's about it. Everything else is generic. While I also always enjoy projects/challenges (which is why I've been working on my Supra for years), our xB2s aren't something to try this out on. They're a lot more fragile/figgity than older cars (aluminum block, annoying electronics, etc.) and you're just adding to the problem by using parts that aren't top quality/haven't been tested thoroughly (which is what a cheap price means. lack of R&D. sure, it's copied, but it doesn't have the quality control)

Also, you're better off buying each of the chinese components seperately as opposed to together like that kit...it'll actually be cheaper (lol).

 

^ And I totally agree with you about the fragility of the xB. I mean, in idle, my engine vibrates like hell. And that's so annoying. Not to mention the creaking and rattling. I can only imagine what throwing in a kit like this would do to it!

It would be like feeding my xB meth. Sure it'll probably feel invincible at first... but then, it'd get meth mouth... er, meth grille.

 

Not exactly what I meant....I just meant that our cars are just sensitive to modifications. The engine/car is generally built fine. Creaking/rattling can be from cold weather + plastic interiors and stuff like that. Rough idle? Well, mine doesn't have that. Not sure what to say.