IT RUNS!!! - My 500whp build - Element motor and Moore Performance Twin Scroll Kit! by dexterous

8 minute(s) of a 312 minute read

Yeah, that's been well known and understood in the community for years BUT there is one major difference. The AN fittings on the standard Peterson can are -10 and -8. Phil has his cans custom made with -12 and -10 fittings so that they flow more air. This however doesn't really add cost to the can but you're likely missing the point here. The Element kit is exactly that, a "kit", not an individual part. Peterson sells their can 100% bare and includes nothing with it. Its all the extra bits included with the can plus a reasonable markup that brings the cost of the kit to ~$300.

I purchased my can used in the for sale section of NASIOC several years ago because I am always looking for a deal. Even though I didn't buy one new, I do see the value in the quality, completeness, instructions, etc included with the Element kit. In my opinion, the most valuable piece of the Element kit is the super expensive vac hose used to plumb up the can. Keep in mind that 99% of people use cheap heater hose made for coolant applications (I am guessing you're in the 99%). Within a very short period of time this cheap hose will start to weep oil and break down exposing the fact that its inadequate for the task at hand. Further, most people use walmart grade "T" fittings and barbs that also break down under heat, oil and other extreme conditions in a very short period of time. In my experience, the cheap fittings will crack if disturbed after more than a single season of limited driving. The stress and high temps encountered during track time will quickly expose any inadequate component for what it is. The extra bits included with the Element kit WILL stand the test of both time and racing, I know this because I have one.

From a sales, engineering and marketing standpoint, I dont think the Element kit is really overpriced at all. I am sure Phil pays exactly the same price that we would all pay from Peterson, bundles another 10ft of hose which runs around $9 per foot, "T"s, Barbs, and hardware. This all likely runs a bit over $200 after shipping and to that he adds 30% markup to arrive at a price near $300. I am sure the communists in the room will have a problem with a greedy capitalist making 30% markup but that's life. If any of you haven't guessed it, the company I work for designs and builds stuff. They sell that stuff with enough markup to pay me and all my co-workers so I can in tern feed my family, pay my mortgage and buy a few toys. Capitalism has worked out pretty well for me, I suggest you all try it.

In other news, I have been extremely busy and haven't been able to work on the car at all. Hopefully I will be able to put the motor back in tonight but its unlikely that I will get far enough to start it up this weekend. Originally I wanted to drive it to work on Monday but there's no way thats going to happen. O well.

4-14-2013

I took this picture tonight of the contents of my Element can. I placed this gunk in a jar a few years ago and kept it in the garage to compare how much liquid was collected during future oil changes. This represents 3000 miles of driving on my STOCK motor. The scary thing here is that the salsa that was originally in that jar was purchased in 2009 and the label says "best buy Jan 12, 2017" !!!

4-17-2013

Well, I am in a bit of a frustrating spot on that. I haven't gotten a chance to do much work on the car as I have been so busy lately. I currently have 8.5 cubic yards of landscaping mulch (almost an entire tri-axle dump truck load) sitting in a pile in my yard that I am trying to get spread. Beyond that, I also have a ton of other random crap going on which is making life generally hard.

4-25-2013

Well, I haven't finished putting the car back together yet BUT, I did manage to purchase an F-250 Super Duty so that I can tow it more easily. No picts yet but its MASSIVE with the "super cab" and an 8ft bed!

4-27-2013

Today is the day!

5-7-2013

That lower set of APs are the real deal. No paint, no rubber boots!

P.S. Super super busy and haven't had much time for the car. I am maybe two hours away tough.

5-11-2013

IT RUNS AGAIN!!!

Working on the car right now so I dont want to spend a ton of time posting BUT, I finally got the car running today. I put the last bolt in, primed the oil, primed the fuel and hit the key. It started up right away, idled flawlessly and otherwise seems perfect.

I didn't have any but I am in the garage so here you go. I have a big camera and its a very tight spot so this is the best I could do without taking the car apart again.

5-12-2013

Well, I spoke too soon. I went to go for a drive, pulled out onto the main street and heard a horrible noise (sounded like a boost leak or something). Turned around, and went back to my house to discover that my turbo's compressor wheel was hitting the side of the housing. The turbo is out and I cant find anything else wrong with the car.

I hope this is because something happened to it while it was in storage this winter and not some kind of foreign object damage. The compressor is toast but the turbine looks perfect.

I took the entire turbo apart and couldn't find any explanation. There's a lot of runout on the compressor and you can clearly see where its rubbing the housing. The turbine is perfect or at least as perfect as I can tell by looking at it. It also makes a pretty bad noise when I rotate the blades by hand. I see no evidence that the compressor ingested anything but I wouldn't have expected to see that either given that theirs a filter right on the end of the turbo. Its all packed up again and heading to comp in the morning. USPS says that it will be there on Wednesday so hopefully this is only a two week delay.
Tom

5-15-2013

My turbo arrived at COMP today (thanks to USPS priority mail for two day service to the west coast!). They have confirmed its arrival and will be calling me in two to three business days with a diagnosis. I just dont understand what happened here, it was totally fine when I took it apart. That being said, I did notice a large amount of oil coming out of the turbine, perhaps there was an issue with it that only surfaced now.

5-23-2013

My now upgraded "oil-less" turbo is fixed and on its way back to me. Comp Turbo's came through with a special deal to save me some $$$ and I basically paid for the oil-less conversion and little else.

The best they could tell me about the failure was that something went wrong in the bearings that caused the turbo to go out of balance (really really really out of balance). Hopefully this is an isolated incident that I wont need to worry about again.