excited!

 

Thats sweet congrats dude! Excited too!

 

I ordered a downpipe from them for my Eclipse June 2, and it's been listed "Special Ordered" for over two weeks now (the manufacturer's in Florida and previously told me allow 5 days for making an out-of-stock pipe). Drop ship from FL is three days ground, one day from PA (CI's location). God knows what those people are doing, sent my latest query Friday ! (Previously told it would arrive last week -- it didn't!)

 

the turd flash wont work on bit at all trust me on that

 

After unsuccessfully attempting to contact CIM by phone and email for 2 weeks I filed a dispute with Paypal, escalated it to a claim and had a full refund within hours. I'll never do business with CIM again but I will certainly use Paypal even more. They're claim resolution was much better than any of my credit card banks.

I ordered a custom-made 12" oil feed line from ATP Turbo yesterday and they shipped it today. That's the kind of service I like. The new oil line cost $8 more than CIM but it's well worth it, IMO.

 

lets see the instal pics

 

Okay, I'll post em up asap.

Why do you say that the TRD flash won't help a bit? Did you try it or know someone that did? I don't know precisely what the flash changes but I would imagine it has new fuel tables for the 410cc injectors and possibly runs a little richer AFR. It might even pull some timing. It has to change something or it wouldn't exist.

I wouldn't be surprised if the flash is less than ideal but I can't imagine why it wouldn't be at least a little better suited to my setup than the stock programming. Our ECU learns pretty quickly within it's programmed limits. When I first fired it up with the larger injectors, the AFR was 10:1 but the ECU had the AFR back to 14.7:1 in just a few seconds. The only AFR problems I have are in open loop where it runs too rich because of the 440cc injectors.

 

I heard the TRD Reflash doesn't really fix the AFRs much. I hear it just pulls the timing a LOT.

 

Thanks, if that's true, I don't want that. I just got off the phone with my local dealer's service dept and the rep I talked to knew nothing about it. He told me the reflash came with a new chip and that the ECU could never be flashed back to stock. At one point the guy actually said that the big diff between a SC and TC is that the SC crams air into the intake while a TC crams exhaust gas into it. WTF???

Anyway, I'm losing interest in the reflash and more inclined to believe that it isn't worth it. Especially if it pulls a lot of timing. I plan to run water injection rather than pulling timing.

Right now my biggest tune problems are that the AFR goes too rich immediately upon entering open loop and too rich on upshifts. 11.5:1 at WOT is also a tad richer than I'd like but should be safe. I also have a recurring P0101 (MAF out of range) CEL but that started the moment I installed the larger injectors. The CEL has no apparent effect on anything as far as I can tell but I do want to get rid of it eventually.

 

I got that code every half hour or so of dricing with the fic u clamp that no worries

 

The MAF mount on the intake pipe was incorrectly sized for the oem MAF. The hole was too small and only one mounting screw hole lined up. I had to dremel the hole larger to fit the MAF. Kevin asked me for precise measurements so he can modify future kits.



I could have simply enlarged the MAF hole, used one screw and a cable tie to secure the MAF but I like my home made adapter plate much better. I pulled mine off my modded TC CAI and modded it to fit this application.



Finished product. Not the prettiest but it's barely visible so I didn't worry about making it perfect.



The SMIC fit is perfect. The aluminum mounting brackets supplied by CXR were near perfect. I had to bend one of them slightly but was able to do this by hand while installing it. Very easy install.



B&M ATF cooler installed staight from tranny. Rad bypassed and capped. Need to paint brackets black.



Oil feed line is 52" long. Good for oil filter tap but ~40" too long for head tap. I have a 12" line on order from ATP Turbo.



Oversized group 35 OEM battery barely fits (10" long vs BCI 35 standard length of 9 1/16"). Options: Optima 35 or any 26R fit oem location with top spacers for oem hold down or alternatively, you could use new hold downs for the oem battery but it's a pretty tight fit. I went with a 26R which fits easily.





Overall the install was fairly easy. The biggest issues with the kit were as follows:

1) Wrong V-band flange on original downpipe. New DP shipped by CXR and received in 4 days.

2) MAF mount incorrectly sized. Easy fix - enlarge MAF hole, use 1 screw and a cable tie to secure MAF. Better fix - make adapter plate from 1/8" AL bar stock (Home Depot, et al).

3) The 10" long OEM Battery is too large to fit well. An Optima 35 would fit well because it is shorter and has rounded edges but would require a top spacer for the oem hold down instead of the bottom spacer Optima supplies. The smaller 26R fits very well in the oem location using top spacers for the oem hold down. I'm using neoprene spacers for now but a buddy is making me a custom plastic spacer.

4) Rainy MD weather and no garage.


Biggest PITAs encountered during installation:

1) Removing the oil pan. It simply did not want to cooperate.
2) Purging air from cooling system. My bad.
3) Not having a helper to fetch tools, etc.


Other notes:

1) The supplied -4AN turbo oil feed adapter has built-in restriction. IMO it was too restrictive at less than .060". I settled on .075" for head oil feed. I'd rather risk blowing some oil past the seals than starve the bearings of oil. So far, the seals are holding up just fine. Time will tell if I guessed correctly on the restriction size.

2) The cold side intake pipe hit the strut brace while driving and made annoying noises. Easily fixed by cutting up an extra silicone hose and cable tying it to the strut brace. It's not visible and solved this minor noise issue completely.

3) I ended up short one 2.5" T-clamp. Kevin sent me 2 of them the same day and threw in a new V-band clamp to replace the one I stripped. I can't say with certainty that everyone will always receive the same level of customer service that I have from CXR but I have absolutely no complaints.


Considering the very affordable cost of this kit, I am extremely satisfied with it and the customer service/support received from CXR. IF the mani cracks, I can have it welded and braced. IF the turbo fails, I can replace it. I'm not worried a bit about the internal WG or BOV. They work fine and only need some adjustment, just like any name-brand parts do.

Luvin' the BOOST!!!

 

Cost breakdown:

CXR turbo kit: $1300 shipped
AEM UEGO and Boost gauges: $400
440cc Deatschwerks injectors: $325
Labor to weld O2 bung into S-pipe: $100
B&M ATF cooler: $50
4 qts Toyota WS ATF: $30
1 gal Toyota coolant: $25
ND K22PR-U plugs: $8
Stant 14077 thermostat: $12
AEM 3" x 5" dry-flo filter: $45

Total cost: $2295

 

congrats on getting it done. hope it works great for you for a long time. so what are your impressions so far? how's drivability and was it worth the money?

 

Looks totally awesome Fred ! A few perhaps dumb questions. You say you capped off the OE radiator and installed the small center radiator. Are you just referring to ATF, engine coolant still being in your OE radiator? What forced the relocation of the ATF cooler?

You have a catback and the front cat is obviously gone, so I'm guessing you still have the center scuba (unless you installed a test pipe). Now the turbo is installed, what would you say the subjective difference is from the CRX header, presuming the scuba is still in place that is?

 

Thanks. Even at only 4psi it already feels faster than my 1990 Eclipse GSX with a 200hp turbo 2.0L that did 0-60 in 6.3 secs and the 1/4 in 14.7 secs. Driveability is great. No stalls, stumbles or hesitation. It drives just like stock for the most part. I think I got lucky with the injector size. I've heard that the stock ECU runs like total crap with 550cc but luckily, it seems able to trim enough for 440cc injectors.

I'm glad I did it. My only regret is the money I wasted on IHE mods that added so little. I guess I'll be selling a CAI, header and NST UD pulley but I'll keep the +2hp $400 TRD axle-back for show. Worth every penny, IMO.

 

Looks sweet...

 

looks very nice...but i don't like that intake pipe position...to suggest u..to get a bit faster spool...ditch that intake pipe and put the filter on the silicone coupler where the compressor side is...it will look better IMO.
but props for great work!

 

He can't do that without losing his closed loop bypass, which isn't a good thing to do (that air mass has been counted).

 

Keep the pulley! It helps surprisingly even if you dont notice it on your auto. I wish I had $3k to throw at this project. Id sooo do it!

 

sounds like you got a serious deal for your money. it's nice to know you don't have to spend an arm and a leg to get some decent power out of the xb and still keep it reasonably close to feeling stock. and you didn't have to wait forever to get it totally up and running either. enjoy it!