If you're unbolting the whole manifold and turbo anyway, take it from a guy (me) who's taken apart his RA at least 6 times now. Just do the X swap, thinking back to my Rad Lite and everything I was trying to do, it really was such a fruitless endeavour along with the Rad Lite blowing on me (and around that time, there were several of them going). I'm not blaming CBRD, I don't think a turbo that small can be jacked up that much.

You won't see any gains except a bit of spool and the RA turbo already spools very quickly. It'll sound cooler thought

Cheers,
Jason

 

When did your Rad turbo blow out? The comment you made gives me great concern. You mention around that time other peoples rad turbos were going out? Is there failure thread somewhere about this? Have never heard of anyone ever having issues with the rad turbo so this all comes as a surprise to me. I know this is off topic from the manifold but I am quite sure all of us would like some input. Maybe Chad can comment on this for clarity about the life of the turbo

 

Apparently he was looking to revise it shortly after that. The turbo seals blew, it can make high pressure but the turbo is too small. All the RA sized stuff is futile, especially an exhaust manifold. There's a reason they're not prioritizing this, read between the lines. It'll be like +1hp and a bit of spool with a changed exhaust note lol (exaggeration but I'm not far off)

 

Ironically-

we have not had a SINGLE RAD failure on any cars installed in house- there are other factors that dont get considered-

boost leaks, oil quality, foreign object ingestion etc- just like our other turbos- these wouldnt be produced if they were not reliable-

Also- these turbos were designed to be run up to around 26 psi- not 30- as one client was doing at elevation that put some wear on it-

Food for thought!

we have been doing MANY of these with great success-

cb

 

Thanks for the reply Chad. I was confused as I am sure you were also when you read that post. I know many people with your turbos and parts on their cars and have never heard a single bad thing. I have always had full faith in everything you do and your products that is why I always come back for more

 

So when you are removing things from a car to reduce weight, why not just leave that one last hard-to-reach bolt in since it doesn't make more than an ounce of difference? but when you end up doing this a dozen times over, now you have failed to save more than a few pounds when added all together. And when you are buying a new set of tires, why not just go with that tread only 1 degree less effective than the one you are really after because they are in-stock and don't need to be ordered? Maybe the difference between first and fifth place lies within the half-second that extra grip would have given you.Yes, I realize anyone can make up relevant answers to these and other questions of this nature, but the point is that to some people, those small fractions count and can make a difference.

Please don't think I'm bashing, just trying to make a point. I understand your perspective that in most instances it seems like a trivial thing, which IS probably why it's not a top-priority project (that and the cheap nature of many RA owners who are just looking for an affordable Evo substitute until they can get the real thing and don't want to shell out $700+ on minimal gains) but you need to realize that there are some weirdos (myself included) that are after, literally, every possible ounce of potential that may be squeezed from this stock turbo, whatever the reasoning may be. It's definitely not for all, probably not for most, but can mean a great deal for some.

Also consider those who have no interest in doing any kind of turbo swap or modification but have experienced failure with the stock piece and would like something a little better since they have to replace it anyway. Just one more niche that a product like this fits into.

I, personally, am excited for when this is finally ready and I just hope I have enough spare change between the couch cushions to pick one up when that time comes.

 

we have been swamped and behind on many things-

we had a change of fabricators in house and that took some time to revamp (making improvements to all of our jigs, fixtures, etc to improved our brand)-

We have the flanges all cut, materials here- have done some conceptualizing- fall is a good time for us- and we have continued to see broken OEM manifolds-

we will take care of this for you Gents shortly-

cb

 

I hear you! When I had the Rad Lite on, I would have totally done this at the same time. A small turbo like the RA doesn't make enough exhaust gas to max out flow on the OEM manifold, and guys with busted manifolds -- they're like $400-450 brand spanking new I believe (need to double check). I am however very looking forward to seeing a before and after dyno of a fully bolt-on RA with a Rad Lite and the RA tubular exhaust manifold when it comes out.

Trust me, if anyone knows I do. Swapping over to a REAL EvoX setup is a royal PITA (ie. battery relocation to the trunk -- the worst). There's so much involved it's ridiculous. I respect going the Rad Lite route and tubular manifold for simplicity. I guess my gripe is guys that'll put this on a stock RA turbo, there's no point and no gains to be made so save your shekels for something more useful (see below -- oil cooler).

As for what I said about the Rad Lite, for a daily fun driver it's okay but mine went into a drag application and just couldn't cut it. I was running 27psi on it and after about 2 months all the seals were shot and it looked like a locomotive every time I left a light haha! Something that everyone, and I mean everyone, should be doing is an engine oil cooler since the RA doesn't have one. This is literally the single most important thing you'll ever put on your RA. Off-topic sorry

 

thanks for the update chad,

any idea when they'll be some visual concepts to share?

 

Subd.

 

we have seen a ton of cracked manifolds recently-

but we've also see broken X manifolds too DOH!

cb

 

Anything new for us chad?