Hello everyone. Ive been working on a project for the N54 community for a couple months but had not announced it since I wanted to be sure the concept was feasible. I have done enough now to know the concept is good so ready to share my R&D progress with the community.
Description
It is a TD04L-20T with true 20T native compressor housing. The 20T mistubishi profile compressor wheel is a forged billet wheel with extended tip technology from BorgWarner. The Turbo consist of a TD04 bearing housing modified to connect to stock oil lines, coolant lines and stock turbine housing. The turbine housing has been modified to accept the TD04L turbine and flange up to the TD04 bearing housing. The kit will include upgraded inlet pipe system and also charge pipe system optimized for the high flowing native 20T compressor housing which is over twice the size/flow of stock compressor housing. This will make sure the turbos are flowing to their maximum potential along with the upgraded plumbing for the turbo included. This turbo can push up to 35psi of boost and not sure what the actual WHP will be on the N54, but with proper fueling and meth cooling should be in the 750whp-800whp range theoretically at those boost levels near redline according to estimated compressor map and turbo HP calcs.
Schedule
Current schedule is to finish development of the prototype set in 1 month and install on my car and test and tune/dyno and then get them on 2-3 beta testers cars by April or May. If all goes well, start selling the kits to you all in 3-4 months and start it off with a discounted group buy of 10-20 kits or so (depends on demand). I have completed my test fit on an N54 motor and finalized the designs for the wastegate actuator mounting and modifications and charge pipe (turbo to IC) design as well as making sure everything is going to fit on the engine. Everything went perfect on the fitup of the turbo to the engine so thats when I decided it was time to start sharing R&D progress with the N54 community.
Pricing
Dont have my final production pricing yet but these turbos are in between Vargas VTT stage 2+ fully optioned up and RB stage 3. They are actually pretty close to RB stage 3 with the difference that RB currently has a TD04HL turbine and I have a TD04L turbine and my compressor wheel is a 20T where RB is a 19T. If it doesnt work as planned, I have a design to modify for TD04HL turbine that I have verified with my machine shop and fab shop and they said no problem. Basically just requires welding on a TD04 flange to the turbine housing like RB does. Will raise cost marginally so not a big deal. Price point will be $4XXX (hopefully $4000) and will come with new pipes including the intake pipe system and charge pipe system (about $1000 value bought separately). If you already own my inlet pipe system, there will be a discount for that. Only thing needed to adapt my inlet pipe system to the new turbos is two new elbows and everything else works![Click here to enlarge]()
Testing
On my prototype system I plan to do dyno test and tune and push them to the maximum as I will have all the supporting fuel mods needed. I will be doing full logging of course. In addition, I will be doing custom turbo logging never before seen on the N54. Not only will I be logging EGT and backpressure (done before) to check health of the turbine but also I will log pressure and temperature at the turbo inlet and also at the turbo outlet which will tell me exactly what pressure ratios the turbo is working at and also at what efficiency. This compressor logging has never been done to my knowledge on the N54 but is the only real way to understand the compressor health during turbo operation.
Quality
The turbos are purchased from a large turbo supplier. I bought the CHRA from them to my specs which were basically TD04 bearing housing with 04L turbine and 20T billet 6x6 compressor wheel with extended tip technology from BorgWarner (for more boost, google it). I dont think rob or VTT offer extended tip compressor wheels currently but from pics looks like RB stage 3 has extended tip. It can just as easily be supplied with a TD04HL GTX style turbine for the same price, what Rob is using for turbine side for Stage 3 RBs but he is using a smaller compressor wheel, 19T. I also ordered the CHRA with upgraded thrust bearing, actually higher upgrade than VTT/RB which is the steel thrust bearing mitsubishi uses in the rally turbo cars where turbos REALLY get beat on and need bullet proof bearings. The compressor housing is the native 20T housing (over 2x more flow area) for TD04 and the entire CHRA is assembled and balanced by them on a VSR machine they have in house (very expensive) to 170,000 rpm to the balance floor like RB has posted up and individual report provided for confirmation. Pretty sure I have never seen VTT produce a VSR report on the forums so currently doubt he makes his turbos with high rpm VSR balance quality. I get the turbine housing machined at a CNC machine shop locally that deals with very high tolerance precision drilling tool parts and I assemble the CHRA to the turbine housing and wastegates "in my garage" and bench test wastegates on the turbos to ensure proper settings. Important to note the machine shop I use because I have been to several turbo shops locally and the machining they do is a joke compared to high end CNC shops in Houston like I am using. I could also do the turbo with a TD04HL turbine but it would require cutting off the TD03 flange and welding on a TD04 flange which would raise cost but not too bad...This is how RB makes theirs. If testing of the TD04L wheel doesnt go to great, I will do this as I already have the design on paper on how to do this and spoke to machine shop and fab shop and they said no problem to get it done.
Pics
Now some pics to show you some progress![Click here to enlarge]()
Description
It is a TD04L-20T with true 20T native compressor housing. The 20T mistubishi profile compressor wheel is a forged billet wheel with extended tip technology from BorgWarner. The Turbo consist of a TD04 bearing housing modified to connect to stock oil lines, coolant lines and stock turbine housing. The turbine housing has been modified to accept the TD04L turbine and flange up to the TD04 bearing housing. The kit will include upgraded inlet pipe system and also charge pipe system optimized for the high flowing native 20T compressor housing which is over twice the size/flow of stock compressor housing. This will make sure the turbos are flowing to their maximum potential along with the upgraded plumbing for the turbo included. This turbo can push up to 35psi of boost and not sure what the actual WHP will be on the N54, but with proper fueling and meth cooling should be in the 750whp-800whp range theoretically at those boost levels near redline according to estimated compressor map and turbo HP calcs.
Schedule
Current schedule is to finish development of the prototype set in 1 month and install on my car and test and tune/dyno and then get them on 2-3 beta testers cars by April or May. If all goes well, start selling the kits to you all in 3-4 months and start it off with a discounted group buy of 10-20 kits or so (depends on demand). I have completed my test fit on an N54 motor and finalized the designs for the wastegate actuator mounting and modifications and charge pipe (turbo to IC) design as well as making sure everything is going to fit on the engine. Everything went perfect on the fitup of the turbo to the engine so thats when I decided it was time to start sharing R&D progress with the N54 community.
Pricing
Dont have my final production pricing yet but these turbos are in between Vargas VTT stage 2+ fully optioned up and RB stage 3. They are actually pretty close to RB stage 3 with the difference that RB currently has a TD04HL turbine and I have a TD04L turbine and my compressor wheel is a 20T where RB is a 19T. If it doesnt work as planned, I have a design to modify for TD04HL turbine that I have verified with my machine shop and fab shop and they said no problem. Basically just requires welding on a TD04 flange to the turbine housing like RB does. Will raise cost marginally so not a big deal. Price point will be $4XXX (hopefully $4000) and will come with new pipes including the intake pipe system and charge pipe system (about $1000 value bought separately). If you already own my inlet pipe system, there will be a discount for that. Only thing needed to adapt my inlet pipe system to the new turbos is two new elbows and everything else works
Testing
On my prototype system I plan to do dyno test and tune and push them to the maximum as I will have all the supporting fuel mods needed. I will be doing full logging of course. In addition, I will be doing custom turbo logging never before seen on the N54. Not only will I be logging EGT and backpressure (done before) to check health of the turbine but also I will log pressure and temperature at the turbo inlet and also at the turbo outlet which will tell me exactly what pressure ratios the turbo is working at and also at what efficiency. This compressor logging has never been done to my knowledge on the N54 but is the only real way to understand the compressor health during turbo operation.
Quality
The turbos are purchased from a large turbo supplier. I bought the CHRA from them to my specs which were basically TD04 bearing housing with 04L turbine and 20T billet 6x6 compressor wheel with extended tip technology from BorgWarner (for more boost, google it). I dont think rob or VTT offer extended tip compressor wheels currently but from pics looks like RB stage 3 has extended tip. It can just as easily be supplied with a TD04HL GTX style turbine for the same price, what Rob is using for turbine side for Stage 3 RBs but he is using a smaller compressor wheel, 19T. I also ordered the CHRA with upgraded thrust bearing, actually higher upgrade than VTT/RB which is the steel thrust bearing mitsubishi uses in the rally turbo cars where turbos REALLY get beat on and need bullet proof bearings. The compressor housing is the native 20T housing (over 2x more flow area) for TD04 and the entire CHRA is assembled and balanced by them on a VSR machine they have in house (very expensive) to 170,000 rpm to the balance floor like RB has posted up and individual report provided for confirmation. Pretty sure I have never seen VTT produce a VSR report on the forums so currently doubt he makes his turbos with high rpm VSR balance quality. I get the turbine housing machined at a CNC machine shop locally that deals with very high tolerance precision drilling tool parts and I assemble the CHRA to the turbine housing and wastegates "in my garage" and bench test wastegates on the turbos to ensure proper settings. Important to note the machine shop I use because I have been to several turbo shops locally and the machining they do is a joke compared to high end CNC shops in Houston like I am using. I could also do the turbo with a TD04HL turbine but it would require cutting off the TD03 flange and welding on a TD04 flange which would raise cost but not too bad...This is how RB makes theirs. If testing of the TD04L wheel doesnt go to great, I will do this as I already have the design on paper on how to do this and spoke to machine shop and fab shop and they said no problem to get it done.
Pics
Now some pics to show you some progress