Precision Turbo FAQ

[Penguini66]

This description can be found at www.mcnewsautomotive.com as well as focus.c-f-m.com. Please let me know if it is accurate and descriptive enough.

The new Focus Turbo Kit for 2000-03 Ford 2.0L DOHC Zetec engines is our latest offering for Ford Focus owners looking for extra horsepower at a moderate price! This new kit features a Garrett GT Technology GT28 tubocharger. This unit features a ball bearing design and advanced aerodynamics package for quick spoling along with an adjustable integral wastegate actuator. Included is a Precision high efficiency air-to-air intercooler featuring bar and plate, high density construction. The kit also includes a custom designed stainless steel exhaust header, mandrel bent aluminum tubing, heavy duty oil recirculation pump, 75mm mass air unit, cast aluminum inlet adapter pipe and upgraded fuel management system. All necessary hardware comes with the kit. Initial dyno tests have show that use of this kit will produce 225 horsepower at the front wheels on a typical stickshift Focus with 87-octane fuel. Cars with automatic transmissions produced 185 horsepower.

All of this comes from Welding Rod's purchase, install and tuning of the Precision Turbo Kit. FYI - At this time, he switched from an Aerocharger III to the Precision. The tuning was done by himself with an SCT Pro Racer package.

Precision Turbo Kit Part 1 - Components - From this thread:

This is the first part of a series on the Precision kit.

I got my Precision kit last night and went through it. Here are the first impressions:

The air filter is a pre-oiled conical K&N unit - that thing is HUGE! The filter is connected by 3" tube to the GT28R.

All cold tubing and the (cast) plenum are aluminum. All tube ends are bead rolled. I only found one welded connection in the cold tubing - in the center of the 3" air intake tube. The charge tubing consist of 3 pieces total of 2" tube, plus the cast intake plenum that goes from 2" up to ~3" or whatever the throttle body actually is.

I didn't see anything in the way of support tabs or brackets for the aluminum tubing so we'll see how that turns out during the install.

All hose connections under 3" diameter are by T-bolt clamps, 3" and over use worm type clamps but of the style that does not cause the hose to exude out through slits in the band.

The intercooler is 18" x 6 3/8" x 3.5" and has cast end tanks. I am a little skeptical about the wellnut mounting method for the intercooler - I may add a supplementary mount, or just substitute nuts and bolts where the wellnuts are supposed to be used.

The header and down pipe are stainless coated with titanium of some kind. The finish looks very nice. The down pipe is 2" in diameter. A header-to-head gasket is included, gaskets are not used on the header-to-turbine or tubine-to-downpipe connections.

There is a stout bracket that supports the lower (turbine end) header flange by bolting it to the block. It appears to be ceramic coated - looks very nice.

The internal wastegate actuator has a threaded arm to allow some boost adjustment. The instructions explain how to preset this arm for 8-10 PSI.

Oil is carried from the back of the block (by the starter) to the turbo via 2 prebent hard lines. Oil is returned (by Hitachi pump) via braided stainless hoses that are terminated with real pressure connectors - not faux aluminum shielded hose clamps. There is a US made relay of some sort that will cause the pump to run for ~ 1 minute after engine shut down.

A new Ford oil seperator is included. It has a threaded nipple TIG welded on for the oil return line. Here is something for you Eric - According to the instructions it also must have some kind of modified or alternate PCV valve as it is warned that the supplied one must be used instead of the factory valve (?).

There are some beautifully done prebent stainless hard lines to plumb water into and out of the turbo.

All in all it appears that someone went to alot of effort to try and ensure the component quality was about as good as could be sourced. I am left with a very good first impression of the parts and materials selected.

One hang up I found so far - my car does not have airconditioning and the oil pump bracket is designed to bolt to the AC pump. I guess Foci without AC are rare? This means that I will have to fab up my own bracket. Not a big deal, this will actually work in my favor as I will be able to gain a little ground clearance (I have a Cup Kit suspension) by moving the pump back closer to the block, but something potential buyers should be prepared for. Precision is express shipping me a longer oil return line (no-charge) to allow this relocation reward.

[Penguini66]

Precision Turbo Part 2 - Installation - From this thread.

The kit is pretty much installed. I am waiting on an oil line fitting that was missing in the kit though so I have not fired it up yet.

The install was fairly uneventful. I had to do some extra work as where I had previously relocated battery (low and inside the frame rail, below the original battery location) now interfered with the intended path of a charge tube. I had to relocate the battery again, this time 2" higher than where I had it before. Also my euro bumper required fairly extensive trimming. As some of you know I had already cut out the lower part of the valance between the fog lights, and now I had to remove the fog light pockets to clear the charge tubes. No big deal, it still looks the same as that picture that was posted here a couple months ago. All the changes were behind the aluminum sheets I had previously attached over the fog light holes.

After trimming an 1" or so off the 3" diameter aluminum intake tube and then rebeading the end, the enormous air filter fit up in the front fender in front of the driver’s front tire with adequate clearance on all sides. I trimmed the end of the tube to allow raising the horizontal run of the tube vertically just a little for better ground clearance. However P51 pointed out that water drains right on top of the filter in that location. I removed my headlight and investigated and sure enough it looks like that could be a real problem. After I fab up a shield for the filter, the clearance around the filter will be pretty tight.

I fabbed up a plate for the OEM MAF sensor element and welded it to the side of the 3" aluminum intake tube. The ID of the tube is ~ 40% greater in cross sectional area than the OEM MAF body so with a few tuning tweaks I should be able to comfortably run up to a max of ~26.5 pounds of air per minute. That should be good for my power goals.

The kit came with no provisions at all for securing the filter end of the intake tube. Evidently the tube and very large filter connected to its end are just supposed to flop around loose supported only by the silicon hose connecting the opposite end of the tube to the turbo - I am speechless on that one.

I fabbed up a real nice support bracket using stainless sheet, a couple hose clamps, and a compression limited (steel sleeved) rubber grommet . The grommeted end bolts to the frame, the 10 gauge bracket hangs down, and the other 16 gauge (formed) end is attached to the tube with the 3" hose clamps. It supports the tube very securely but can still flex as needed.

One of the holes in the wastegate actuator bracket had to be slotted slightly with a die grinder in order to allow the actuator rod to follow a more acceptable arc throughout its movement as the wastegate arm it is connected to pivots upward. The actuator itself connects to the wastegate arm pin with an adjustable clevis. This allows adjusting boost to some extent - not sure what that extent is yet.

(BTW, any other Precision owners know how many turns on the clevis = how many PSI???)

The charge pipe going from the compressor to the intercooler, and the 90 degree silicon elbow connecting the charge tube to the compressor, had limited clearance with the lower radiator support bracket. I folded the closest part under and away from the tube, for a length of about 8"-10", then repainted and covered with split 5/8" heater hose. There looks to be plenty of clearance now and no sharp edges.

The intercooler was supposed to be mounted to the bottom surface of the bumper with ½ rubber Wellnuts. I used conventional hardware, including large stainless fender washers, instead. I hole sawed through the front surface of the bumper to gain access to place and hold nuts and washers inside the boxed bumper.

For the two charge tubes going from the intercooler to the plenum, I wasn’t able to get as much clearance as I really wanted with the black airbox bracket left in place, so I removed it.

From the intercooler to the throttle body there are 2 charge tubes and the plenum. The plenum is pretty long and heavy. There are no support brackets or tabs on any of these 3 parts. Since the throttle body is not beaded to prevent the hose from pulling off and there will be about 85 pounds of force from boost pressure alone trying to separate this connection, I don’t think it would be wise to leave this as is.

I welded a tab to the small end of the plenum almost exactly above the EGR tube bolt that threads into the coil pack bracket. I will bolt another 10 gauge stainless bracket to the tab and coil pack bracket using a compression limited rubber mount at one end to carry vertical loads at the small end of the plenum, but still allow easy fore and aft movement due to engine torque.

I also drilled and tapped the small end of the plenum for my Aquamist nozzle and the large end for my Lightning ACT sensor. Just on the side of the large end 90 degree down turn, I built up the round surface of the tube with weld, took it back down to make a flat surface, and then drilled, tapped, and holesawed my way to a custom BOV mount.

I had wanted to try tuning for blow through operation, just for learning purposes. But when I tried to install the MAF sensor element into the plenum, one of the bolt holes was drilled way too big, the bolt wouldn’t even catch any threads at all. It was like it was drilled with an overly large bit, or a bit that was running out excessively, or ... ? The other hole was fine. So anyway I just went with my initial plan to run suck through and I fabbed up the new mount in the intake tube I described earlier. Since I had to close up the MAF hole in the plenum and bolting a plate on was out of the question due to the overdrilled hole, and I thought a little weight could be saved, I just took the plenum to the bandsaw and cut off the extra metal used for the MAF mount and the manufacturer’s logo. Then I smoothed everything down with a 40 grit flap wheel and then Scotch-Brite pads on a die grinder. Last I welded a plug into the MAF hole.

BTW the plenum casting was of very good quality. It welded very nicely and was free of inclusions. I only found one pretty small void, about the size of a BB, and I welded it up just for appearance sake.

The header bolted up very well. It was even easy to get to all the bolts - that was nice. No gaskets are supplied for the turbine (or recommended when I called and asked about it). That may be fine but I went ahead and bought a turbine inlet gasket from ATP anyway.

There is a very nicely done very beefy (ceramic coated?) L-bracket that connects the stout lower header flange to the block to carry the weight of the turbo. My bracket was bent to about 90 degrees which was either 4 or 6 degrees too far (can't remember which now), so I had to beat the hell out of that beautiful ceramic finish to unbend it enough to get a perfect fit up. Much better that the bracket had been slightly over bent than under bent - unbending is comparative cake to trying to add bend to heavy plate (short of using a plate brake).

Evidently the kit was designed for an automatic transmission. The down pipe (or OEM cat) and flex junction is a little different for the ATX and MTX. The ATX junction is about .5" to 1" farther forward than for the MTX. The kit’s down pipe is the correct length for the ATX. It came with a new Ford ATX bracket to properly bolt the downpipe / flexpipe connection to the block if you are installing on a MTX. This is fine but with the connection moved forward like this, my Focus Sport flexpipe was almost pulled forward into the drive shaft. There was only about 3/16" clearance, and obviously the engine and exhaust move fore and aft. So I cut out a new exhaust flange from 3/8" plate to serve as a spacer (downpipe flange, gasket, spacing flange, gasket, flexpipe flange). This step may not be necessary with a different flexpipe.

I also clamped all my exhaust flange gaskets down to a sheet of particle board and ported them to the same ID as the flanges.

The Digiset oil pump timer is a real nice unit, very clean wire / terminal connections and easy 4 wire hookup too.

The stainless hard lines that carry oil from the back of the block to the turbo fit very well with minimal fuss - very clean.

The stainless hard lines that carry water in and out of the turbo look extremely nice too - clean again.

The kit was designed for use on a Focus with air conditioning. Harry at Precision said he wasn’t aware Foci were made without them. I own two but I guess they are not too common. The oil pump is supposed to be attached by a stainless bracket to the air conditioning compressor. Since I don’t have A/C, the supplied bracket would not work. I fabbed up a new one from some 1/4" or 5/16" aluminum - it is a very simple bracket, triangular sharped, flat, with 4 holes. It bolts to two bosses in the block’s aluminum skirt.

The new bracket puts the pump way closer to the block which helped gain some ground clearance. I did have to shorten one of the two braided stainless steel oil return lines, and then lengthen the other (Precision sent me a new longer hose to do this). While I was at it I reclocked the pump in its rubber isolating mount to get the electrical connector up on top of the pump instead of beneath it. This required moving the pump partially out of its mount (a wide clamping band) about an inch. I then added some stainless safety wire at a few points to make sure the pump could never work loose of that clamping band.

The modified Ford oil separater bolted right in. The AC Delco PCV valve provided is impossible to blow through in one direction - nice to see this included.

So far so good. I did a lot of extra work here, some of it might have been unnecessary, but I don’t want to have to go back and have to fix things later. A lot of the work was elective or due to previous mods I had done to the car. There were a couple of design and workmanship problems too though. Overall it was about what I expected, but I feel I knew what to expect. I thought some of this extra detail might be helpful to someone pondering their first turbo installation.

I feel very good about the current overall fit, and it all looks quite good too. With the care I used on this initial install, I really don’t anticipate any fitment related problems down the road. If the down pipe size proves adequate to achieve my power goals and the oil pumping system proves effective, I think I will be quite happy with the set up. We will find out in Part 3 ...

[Penguini66]

Precision Turbo Part 3 - Tuning From this thread:

The Precision kit is designed to run blow through using the OEM MAF sensor head installed into their intake plenum.

I didn’t think running blow through would be the best way to run the turbo system. I was particularly leery of possible oil contamination from seepage through the turbo bearings or residue from the crank breather getting on the MAF wire. So during the initial install I welded a plate on the side of the 3" aluminum intake tube and installed the OEM MAF sensor head into the side of the tube. I multiplied the transfer function by 140% due to the 40% greater cross sectional area of the intake tube compared to the OEM MAF body.

I also cut off and welded up the Precision MAF sensor mount (which had an over drilled screw hole) that is cast into the plenum.

The fuel trims were almost perfect, just a little glitchy at the very lowest end I thought. With just a little more work I got the trims dialed perfect, but when ever letting off the turbo would make a real cool chu, chu, chu, chu, chu sound, and simultaneously wreak havoc on the fuel trims. Evidently air was pulsing in the intake tube and screwing with the meter. So I tried loosening up the BOV that I had installed in the TB end of the plenum, as well as later disabling it, to hopefully relieve at least some of the problem. No dice. But other than the glitch after decel, the car ran wonderfully.

So yesterday I decided I would try blow through. I spent the day in the shop making a cap for the BOV mount I put on the plenum, a cap for the MAF sensor mount I put on the intake tube, fabricating a new MAF sensor mount on the plenum, and fabricating a new BOV mount on the charge tube coming out of the intercooler.

Today I reinstalled the OEM MAF sensor for blow through, set the transfer function based on the 75mm ID on the plenum, and commenced testing. Trims were WAY rich. Like 20% + minimum, (maxed out the scanner). Hmmm. Now I have a problem. If I adjust the transfer function 20% +, I will lose the range I need to reach my power goals. If everything was working properly I could run about 28.4 pounds of air per minute on the OEM MAF in a tube of that diameter. But reducing that by 20% I am down to 22.7 pounds. And I almost certainly would need to go down another 5-10% on top of that, possibly more, before I was done tuning. So the OEM sensor in this location would not deliver adequate range for me.

(Lentech - I wonder if your MAF sensor could have saturated and caused your blown engine? Are you using the OEM sensor in the plenum?)

So I installed my ProM MAF sensor head that should have been good for about 40 pounds of air when inside a 75mm tube. Same deal, hugely rich. Evidently blow through operation either makes air meters read artificially high, perhaps due to air pulses after the compressor (?) Or fast moving pressurized air going though bent tubing can tend to stick to one side of the tube between bends. So I lean it out 20% across the board. Still too rich, so I selectively lean it further 5 to 15%. The trims are on at steady throttle, for example at cruise. But at anything else, the trims are generally pretty well centered on zero, but the range is crazy. I am periodically seeing stuff like -14 to +17, that kind of thing. I was plus or minus 5% at cruise (2-3 pound of air per minute range) then I leaned it out 15% at the same airflow to check for effect and I was STILL at plus or minus 5%. There seemed to be no repeatability (yes the sensor was up to temp). I’m thinking WTF? Oddly the car seems to run OK though, a few misses here or there, but at least without the glitch I had with suck through..

So I think maybe the BOV could be a factor, even though it is now prior to the MAF. I try it with a couple different springs as well as disconnecting it all together. No effect.

So I decide “good enough” isn’t. Tomorrow I will put the OEM MAF back into the intake tube for suck through, make a cap for the second BOV mount I built and installed, and go back to the original transfer function values I was using that were on the money,. I can then continue the tuning process, and get ready for the dyno.

The only thing is I got to fix that after decel problem. Immediately after I shift or decel, or otherwise let the revs drop rapidly when I get the chu, chu, chu, chu, chu, sound, if I don’t feather the throttle a little to prevent the revs from going too low, she can die.

I think a bypass valve from the charge tube out of the intercooler back into the intake tube between the MAF sensor and the turbo might do the trick. I also am considering trying a baffle sheet running lengthwise down the center of the 3" intake tube.

And P, you were right, rain coming in around the headlight and running down the hood/fender interface causes the filter to get soaked. I guess Precision decided to market the kit without testing - that is quite disappointing.

Edit: Link to WeldingRod's first dyno plot thread with this kit.
I hope scott77 doesn't mind me sticking the pic in here:

[Welding Rod]

Is this going to get a sticky? Thanks for putting this together Eric.

Edit: Here is a dyno of the kit in current modified form, including a full 3" exhaust turbo to tailpipe, this was with brand new injectors and MAF which were only partially tuned at the time... hope to have a completed tune dyno up in a couple weeks....



Here is a link to the full story on the new down pipe and exhaust that made the above dyno possible LINK TO DYNO THREAD


Here is another link to a bunch of pictures of the (modified) kit - took me 2 1/2 weeks and the help of several other members, to figure how to get these pics up! Thanks Penguin, Berin, Violent Ed, and Saleen09.

LINKS TO PICS

[Lentech Automatics]

Just to chime in here...we were fairly pleased with the component quality in this kit, but definitely urge anyone contemplating this kit to consider the following: convert this kit to drawthrough MAF, and add the bypass valve like ours and Rod has (Bosch type). With these mods and a air filter splash shield, it makes a good kit. Performance is excellent!

[Qdoba Addict]

The kit also includes... upgraded fuel management system.

Can you or someone else confirm what this upgraded fuel management system consists of? Is it SCT, Diablo, 55 gallon drum of 114 octane gas or other?

[racerx]

Let's wait to get a few more links and some more info up top and we'll lock this one up like the JRSC. Ideally, I'd like these to be just the original post linking to the other discussion threads.

[ZX3Crazy]

I believe that he's using an SCT pro racer package.

[Dudley]

Can you or someone else confirm what this upgraded fuel management system consists of? Is it SCT, Diablo, 55 gallon drum of 114 octane gas or other?

I just re-skimmed this thread, and I don't see the answer here even though I know Welding Rod had mentioned the kit's included "tuning".

IIRC the Precision kit comes with a blank chip (SCT?) that the end-user must have burned by their tuner. Welding Rod mentioned in one of his very first posts that Precision took, I think, $300 off the price and shipped the kit without the chip, since he already had the Pro Racer package. I'm not sure about the kit's included 33# injectors, since Rod's using 42's.

I just checked Precision's web site and now it's saying that the kit includes a "calibrated ECU chip" and a "75mm mass air unit", so now I'm not sure what is currently included with the kit.

It's important to note that the power claims quoted above are inconsistent.

"Initial dyno tests have shown that use of this kit will produce 225-HP at the front wheels on a typical stick shift Focus with 87-octane fuel."

I e-mailed Precision to ask how they pulled this off, and their reply was that this was flywheel horespower.

[Welding Rod]

I am not sure what the current status is on tuning. It appears that Precision has been continually refining the kit since it was released. They went from blow through MAF, to plenum with MAF sensor head (blow through), then added hard stainless water lines to carry water in and out of the turbo, and they have hanger tube bracket "in development" on the parts list I got. The only way to know for sure what the most current kit includes would be to contact them directly at (219) 996-7832.

When I bought mine I didn't even ask if the kit's chip was blank or loaded. I just asked what kind of credit could be given without both the chip and the fuel injectors. I was credited $450 by foregoing both.

225 at the wheels on 87? No way, although 225 whp should be no problem at all with reasonable fuel. In any case after running the kit for a while I must say the low RPM performance is incredible. I take vacation tuesday so maybe I can hit the dyno in the next week or two.

[kevin lee]

hey it seems dat u have the euro front which u had to cut off due to the intercooler clearance... i also have a euro bumper and going to turbo up my car soo so i might need an intercooler installed? is it just cuz of the intercooler size that u had to cut it or wassup? plz let me know cuz i would hate to cut my euro bumper

[Carizme]

Euro bumper does not need to be cut for proper fitting of the intercooler. Rather than clutter up this thread with pics, I will link you to my recent post in Rigz

Precision Turbo intercooler fitment with European bumpers

[ZETEC3]

Hey Rod have you gotten your car on the dyno yet. I am looking at the precision kit and would love to know what kinda numbers its capable of initially.

[Welding Rod]

Sorry, no. It has been rainy lately and I have yet to rain proof my air filter - so I haven't been driving my car much - otherwise I would have gone at the end of last week.

Got a replacement air filter on order though that is a little bigger in diameter but a little shorter which will fit nicely inside a light weight upsidedown 5 quart paint mixing bucket (thanks for idea P51) that I have ready to install as soon as the filter gets here.

[SCpimp]

Toms MIC is A joke His Punk Ass couldnt tune a banjo or maybee he can being a red neck and all but he sure couldnt tune my focus and when he tried 3 times and failed i wanted my money back but it took his bitch ass 8 months and would only refund the chip so now i own a MI with no C BEWARE <font color="red"> </font>

[Arauthator]

I can't wait for my kit to get here. I'm glad to see that it turns out that the turbo isn't too low like Tom and his boys have been telling me. According to them, the oil pump could hit on a bump and knock it off. Also, those guys been telling me that that Precisions 2 1/4 downpipe is too small. Why is that?

[Welding Rod]

SCpimp - your comment has nothing to do with a PTE FAQ.

Ara - The down pipe is not 2.25", it is 2". And that is too small if you want big numbers. At moderate levels, ie 200 whp or maybe a little more, it works great and the turbo repsonse is incredible in spite of the rather small downpipe.

My car is stock height and I don't have AC so my oil pump is mounted farther back than if an AC compressor was present. In any case I have plenty of ground / curb clearance and don't give banging the pump on something a second thought. But if the pump was farther forward and the car lowered it might be vunerable if you were careless.

[Arauthator]

So the big question I have now is.....will 200 WHP be anywhere close to a stock Mustang? Or how about a Selene Mustang? Or an RX-8? Those are the cars I'm wanting to put behind me. Also, is that the kind of horsepower (200 whp) I will get on an auto tranny?

[belacyrf]

I can't wait for my kit to get here. I'm glad to see that it turns out that the turbo isn't too low like Tom and his boys have been telling me. According to them, the oil pump could hit on a bump and knock it off. Also, those guys been telling me that that Precisions 2 1/4 downpipe is too small. Why is that?

Watch the Tom and His boys comment.. I'm hardly toms boy
Facts are facts... the oil pump DOES sit low and it could be damaged by street debris. Nobody said it would get knocked off by a bump. Rod is pretty much your best source of info about this kit.

[Focused]

So the big question I have now is.....will 200 WHP be anywhere close to a stock Mustang? Or how about a Selene Mustang? Or an RX-8? Those are the cars I'm wanting to put behind me. Also, is that the kind of horsepower (200 whp) I will get on an auto tranny?

Just a friendly word of advice, please make sure you do ALL the research you can before dropping as much dough as you will. DO NOT solely focus on the power gains as reliability and durability are MORE important.

Oh and the stock tranny won't hold crap. If you want to mod your auto tranny equipped car, do make sure to look into a modified tranny as your stock auto won't hold any extra power a turbo will offer.

[thabrat]

Holy crap Carizme!!! Nice pictures. Where did you get that vavle cover from?

[Arauthator]

Yeah, I'm putting in a manual transmission from Lantech. I've also decide