Kracka's GheyrodX - bigger, fatter, gheyer! by Kracka

3 minute(s) of a 130 minute read

I had cams in my IX. Basically, the biggest things that suffer are idle and low-speed drivability smoothness. Cams make a car less of a jump in and go affair; you have to learn the quirks of the car, how it behaves, etc. My IX was undrivable for most people. My [ex-]wife couldn't drive it, my parents couldn't, only a few other Evo-owner friends could...with my X, anyone can drive it. It still drives just as smooth as stock; if you can drive a stick-shift, you can drive my X.

There is no doubt I could see some nice gains in power with cams, but I'm just not willing to sacrifice the daily-drivability of it. Maybe if I ever pick up a second car again I'll consider doing a set of mild camshafts, but until then they're not something I'm interested in.

12-9-2012

MAP EF2.5 installed and tuned by Cobb yesterday while I was in Austin, TX for an event. 

426whp

393wtq

27.69 psig (peak) holding a flat 26 past redline.

Still on 93-octane pump gas and stock cams! Solid gains over the EF2, but definitely lost some spool and response. This is with the 3" anti-surge cover, but MAP also sent me a 3" standard cover so I'm thinking if I swap that one on I'll gain back some spool and response. I'll talk to MAP about it and go from there. The car is definitely a beast for a DD, and I believe this is the farthest Cobb has ever pushed the stock cams and it's getting up there for pump gas numbers too. My previous results on the EF2 were 413/384; peak boost was right about the same, ~27psi. I think this is yet another good turbocharger option from MAP. While not replacing any of the current models, it's a good fit between the EF2 and EF3 as intended. 

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A second compressor cover you say?

Both covers have a 3" inlet for maximum airflow, one standard, one anti-surge.

I just got back from a pretty good drive and the car really does rip and pulls hard all the way to rev-limiter! It drives really smooth throughout the RPM range, I'm giving thanks to the anti-surge for that. I would like to get a touch of response and spool back though, so I'm thinking it would be ideal to give up a bit of that smoothness in the name of response and swap over to the standard cover. I'm questioning whether this turbo actually needs the anti-surge ports.

It was tuned to the same safe level as my EF2, neither were held back, but neither were pushed to the absolute edge in order to keep the car safe and reliable on a daily-basis. The power curve is definitely different, once the turbo spools there were torque and horsepower gains throughout.