[Torgus]

Originally Posted by Saif2018

Thanks mate,

On a bit of a budget, just got the Index 12 injectors which cost more than the turbos face-palm, otherwise I'd have got a RB 1 or 2. Looks like I'll stick with OEM Billets, 425whp will have to do.

If you can wait the RBs are worth it, even the ones with the 14T wheel the 2s if you can swing it. Being able to hold power to redline makes the car a different animal. No more short shifting at 6k instead of 7200 and they also give you a significant bump in power. My vote is limp along as long as you can and then get the RB ones + inlets. The stock turbos are fine but the way they run out of steam up top is so damn annoying. Inlets are a must even on stock turbos.

Index 12s suck to buy. I am so glad I got mine at $750 from FCP w/ lifetime warranty. I feel so bad for everyone now adays.

Best of luck. Damn cars are expensive to maintain and mod!

[iqraceworks]

Originally Posted by Tyc0

I believe it was him who I helped into the RB twos, but I have then as well. I'm making roughly 500whp on 92 tuned by Justin Hubenak. Have roughly 4-5k miles on them and never had a problem. They are fun as hell.

Yep...they are nice. The are quick on 92/93 fuel....but if you have e85 in your area, running an E40 tune is awesome! I think at around 25psi on E40 I should be making 550-575 at the tires. It's fun.....and they pull well past 7,000rpms.

[Saif2018]

Originally Posted by Torgus

If you can wait the RBs are worth it, even the ones with the 14T wheel the 2s if you can swing it. Being able to hold power to redline makes the car a different animal. No more short shifting at 6k instead of 7200 and they also give you a significant bump in power. My vote is limp along as long as you can and then get the RB ones + inlets. The stock turbos are fine but the way they run out of steam up top is so damn annoying. Inlets are a must even on stock turbos.

Index 12s suck to buy. I am so glad I got mine at $750 from FCP w/ lifetime warranty. I feel so bad for everyone now adays.

Best of luck. Damn cars are expensive to maintain and mod!

Yeah I'll see how long these stock ones last, they are whining but boosting to about 20-16psi, although I'm expecting them to blow, lol.

Index 12's were almost £1500

[iqraceworks]

Originally Posted by Saif2018

Yeah I'll see how long these stock ones last, they are whining but boosting to about 20-16psi, although I'm expecting them to blow, lol.

Index 12's were almost £1500

If they are whining and making a lot of noise.....I hope you aren't getting a bunch of bearing/bushing metal particles in your oil.....

[Saif2018]

Originally Posted by iqraceworks

If they are whining and making a lot of noise.....I hope you aren't getting a bunch of bearing/bushing metal particles in your oil.....

They aren't making a lot of noise just low speed whine. Doing a Oil change next week, hopefully not.

I'm getting rid of those stockers in 2 months time hopefully. I'm not going to wait till they blow.

[Spyro235]

There must be tradeoffs though, innately, with a smaller single, there's going to be less restriction, and there's going to be twice as much exhuast gas trying to ge tthe wheels moving. So yes, twins "spool fast" becasue of how small they are, but in reality, a smaller sized single (lets say, sized for a reliable 500 wheel) will probably spool in a pretty similar timeframe. I'm so ruious about spool times for singles, because one of the things i love about the n54 is how it was designed to feel like a v8, wtith nearly immediate low end grunt. Can i replicate that with a single and still have a higher ceiling than oem or oem+ twins?

I'm goign to essentially be starting from stock- the n54 i have has high flow cats and stock inlets and outlets. By the time I buy quality ins+outs, downpipes, and turbos,the costs are starting to add up. I plan on n54 swapping an e46 wagon. I have to donor, but I'm working on finding the right wagon. Long term, it's going to likely be a single turbo drift car. For now, the goal is to build it into a very nice street car, probably stock turbos for now.

[Spyro235]

Originally Posted by Saif2018

They aren't making a lot of noise just low speed whine. Doing a Oil change next week, hopefully not.

I'm getting rid of those stockers in 2 months time hopefully. I'm not going to wait till they blow.

My diesel's large turbo has been whining for 100k miles lol. Still makes great boost and only whines unde rlight throttle cruise at parkign lot speeds. Yolo. 300k miles on them..... oil and filter have nothing in them every time!

[iqraceworks]

Originally Posted by Spyro235

There must be tradeoffs though, innately, with a smaller single, there's going to be less restriction, and there's going to be twice as much exhuast gas trying to ge tthe wheels moving. So yes, twins "spool fast" becasue of how small they are, but in reality, a smaller sized single (lets say, sized for a reliable 500 wheel) will probably spool in a pretty similar timeframe. I'm so ruious about spool times for singles, because one of the things i love about the n54 is how it was designed to feel like a v8, wtith nearly immediate low end grunt. Can i replicate that with a single and still have a higher ceiling than oem or oem+ twins?

I'm goign to essentially be starting from stock- the n54 i have has high flow cats and stock inlets and outlets. By the time I buy quality ins+outs, downpipes, and turbos,the costs are starting to add up. I plan on n54 swapping an e46 wagon. I have to donor, but I'm working on finding the right wagon. Long term, it's going to likely be a single turbo drift car. For now, the goal is to build it into a very nice street car, probably stock turbos for now.

I don't have, and have never driven or even been in a single turbo N54. But, from all the YouTube videos I've seen, and from what most guys say...unless you go with a really small single turbo (500-ish HP).....the single turbos do have quite a bit of lag to them.

Like you, I love the fact that these N54's have diesel like grunt at low rpms that comes on fast....that's one of the best things about the car. I though about going single turbo, but I just didn't want to give up that down low grunt right off the line. Maybe if I did a lot of drag or roll racing it would be fun....buy for daily driving around town when you want/need instant response and power.....twins are the way to go.

I have driven some other single turbo cars (4cyl Hondas)....and they were crazy laggy. Like mash the gas and count to 3 before the motor made any power. Fun at the dragstrip, but horrible as a daily driver.

Hopefully some single turbo N54 guys will chime in with some more info.

[lightmanek]

Originally Posted by Spyro235

There must be tradeoffs though, innately, with a smaller single, there's going to be less restriction, and there's going to be twice as much exhuast gas trying to ge tthe wheels moving. So yes, twins "spool fast" becasue of how small they are, but in reality, a smaller sized single (lets say, sized for a reliable 500 wheel) will probably spool in a pretty similar timeframe. I'm so ruious about spool times for singles, because one of the things i love about the n54 is how it was designed to feel like a v8, wtith nearly immediate low end grunt. Can i replicate that with a single and still have a higher ceiling than oem or oem+ twins?

I'm goign to essentially be starting from stock- the n54 i have has high flow cats and stock inlets and outlets. By the time I buy quality ins+outs, downpipes, and turbos,the costs are starting to add up. I plan on n54 swapping an e46 wagon. I have to donor, but I'm working on finding the right wagon. Long term, it's going to likely be a single turbo drift car. For now, the goal is to build it into a very nice street car, probably stock turbos for now.

I will have first time experience as friend of mine decided to go with Garrett G30-660 for his 118i (swapped N54) track focused car.
It will be interesting to see the difference between his spool and my huge ass GTX3584RS.
What some people are not aware of is also the ability to change your spool and peak power of a single turbo setup by just changing AR on the hot side.
I'm running 1.06AR and real spool in 3rd gear is about 4000-4200 RPM, but I expect to be able to lower it to about 3700RPM with a smaller AR value.

My Friend went with 0.86AR I think, should spool decently fast on a smaller turbo ...

[ab987]

Originally Posted by Saif2018

Yeah I'll see how long these stock ones last, they are whining but boosting to about 20-16psi, although I'm expecting them to blow, lol.

Index 12's were almost £1500

Lucky you, I had one fail right when I bought the car and had the dealer replace them hoping they'd goodwill, or at least charge market price for them. Nope, $460/piece 2 years ago, cost me over $3000. No FCP warranty.

[ab987]

Originally Posted by iqraceworks

If they are whining and making a lot of noise.....I hope you aren't getting a bunch of bearing/bushing metal particles in your oil.....

I'm getting plenty of whining on my last 2 sets of stockers and oil analysis shows clean

[iqraceworks]

Originally Posted by lightmanek

I will have first time experience as friend of mine decided to go with Garrett G30-660 for his 118i (swapped N54) track focused car.
It will be interesting to see the difference between his spool and my huge ass GTX3584RS.
What some people are not aware of is also the ability to change your spool and peak power of a single turbo setup by just changing AR on the hot side.
I'm running 1.06AR and real spool in 3rd gear is about 4000-4200 RPM, but I expect to be able to lower it to about 3700RPM with a smaller AR value.

My Friend went with 0.86AR I think, should spool decently fast on a smaller turbo ...

Yeah...no boost until 4k rpms sounds like something I wouldn't want for a daily driver. I like being able to mash the gas at 2,500rpms and have 500+ ft/lbs of torque on tap. I would get sick of that in a hurry.....no power until 4k rpms.

[iqraceworks]

Originally Posted by ab987

I'm getting plenty of whining on my last 2 sets of stockers and oil analysis shows clean

Isn't the whining caused by the bushings and/or something mechanical making that noise? Or is it from something else?

[ab987]

Originally Posted by iqraceworks

Isn't the whining caused by the bushings and/or something mechanical making that noise? Or is it from something else?

I think the thrust bearing inside the turbo is what wears and causes the whining, that's the conclusion Rob and I came to. V9 2+ E50 is just too aggressive on the top end

[Saif2018]

Originally Posted by Spyro235

My diesel's large turbo has been whining for 100k miles lol. Still makes great boost and only whines unde rlight throttle cruise at parkign lot speeds. Yolo. 300k miles on them..... oil and filter have nothing in them every time!

Same here, it's just driving me nuts. Plus I want Inlets, so it makes sense to just do it once and for all hopefully.

[Mustafa.e92]

I've driven a dct single turbo and that's what sold me on going single didn't feel much if any lag. Whenever you'd step on it it downshifted right away into higher rpms where it hit full boost pretty quick. Not to say in anyway that a single is not laggy compared to twins but I don't mind down shifting a couple gears to get in the sweet spot for a single turbo. if you put a baseline of a twin car hitting full boost at 2500 vs 4k on a single it's only 1500 rpm difference give or take

[Torgus]

Originally Posted by Mustafa.e92

I've driven a dct single turbo and that's what sold me on going single didn't feel much if any lag. Whenever you'd step on it it downshifted right away into higher rpms where it hit full boost pretty quick. Not to say in anyway that a single is not laggy compared to twins but I don't mind down shifting a couple gears to get in the sweet spot for a single turbo. if you put a baseline of a twin car hitting full boost at 2500 vs 4k on a single it's only 1500 rpm difference give or take

Yeah it's not like you don't accelerate until 4k:



How fast is 1k rpms when you are WOT? you are jumping from ~400-800wtq in 1k rpms. 400 wtq gain.



The above dyno is also cut off early as on the street you would up shift at 7200rpm which puts you right back in the 'meat' of the power band. You use Anti lag off the line if you want to build boost from a standstill.


Like an auto/dct with a manual you downshift to the right gear for acceleration. Now a ST will in general still have more lag compared to stock style twins. But, you have to remember more n54s with STs us a 6266 which can make 800whp on an n54 or a 6466 850whp. You are comparing these to stock style twin turbos which max out at 650whp. If you were to right size your ST the spool and lag would be much more comparable to the twins.

They both have advantages and disadvantages. Buy what works best for you and your goals for the vehicle.

[Spyro235]

There's always the part of me that laughs and yells from the back of my head "ebay turbos and send it!". I want the motor to not "fall of" ut my end goal for the car really is around the 450-500wh mark. Overhead to push that to 600ish is great, but in reality I need to do more thinking about the long term goals for the car. if the goal is 500 reliable, a small single isnt a bad way to go. There's no reason a small single wont spool basically as fast as the stockers, but the person that goes single turboa nd doesnt have acrazy power goal is a really hard person to find lol.
Right now the plan is for it to be a street car, so the near-instant spool that I remember form my first 335i is the goal. regardless, it's going into an e46 wagon stock to start unless the turbos as the motor sits are shot. I'm just looking forward to getting the donor car driving and getting it sorted before finding a chassis to swap into.

[Saif2018]

Originally Posted by ab987

Lucky you, I had one fail right when I bought the car and had the dealer replace them hoping they'd goodwill, or at least charge market price for them. Nope, $460/piece 2 years ago, cost me over $3000. No FCP warranty.

Not really lucky, the wastegates were cooked when I bought the car. Had the turbos stripped and wastegates upgraded to Incolnel ones at about 3k. This was about 3 years ago, I didn't have a clue about RB turbos, on hindsight wasted money.

[Rule1977]

Picked up my RB Twos Plus today. The attention to detail is absolutely ridiculous. Pictures don't do them justice.

[BSM n54iS]

Originally Posted by Rule1977

Picked up my RB Twos Plus today. The attention to detail is absolutely ridiculous. Pictures don't do them justice.

Aw hell I should get a new pair for the sticker alone they look sweet

[ab987]

Originally Posted by Rule1977

Picked up my RB Twos Plus today. The attention to detail is absolutely ridiculous. Pictures don't do them justice.

Holy moly, I don't know how he cleans them so thoroughly, they look better than brand new MHI sets. I know he is sending out the next batch of Twos to get machined Monday, I hope that means they are next