chaos_being
07-24-2009, 09:41 PM
I started this thread late last night over at ScionLife...I know a bunch of people here don't read the forums there, so I figured I would post up a synopsis of my main post/questions here to get even more feedback:
---------------------------------
When I bought my tC, I had always meant to boost it (supercharger) "eventually." I was so very close to doing so last year when the 05/06 charger kits went down in price, but ran into some sudden financial woes. By the time this summer rolled around and I got the car mod bug again, the supercharger kit was of course no longer being produced. I'm still kicking myself, but that's life sometimes.
My car is, unfortunately, still not paid off...I have about 18 months left (I bought it when my wife's car suddenly decided to take a dump, well an unexpected need to purchase a car + negative equity on a broken POS = longer loan that I would have liked.) I'll probably have my wife's car paid off a year or so after mine is.
I've been going back and forth on if I want to keep my car once they're both paid off, or if I want to finally go for boost (yes, I like to plan way in advance.) Here is my quandry though. Thankfully, I do not drive as much as I used to, however due to an old job I've already racked up 70k on my car. By the time the cars are paid off, and some money set aside, I could easily have 100k on my car. I had asked this same question regarding supercharging a car with 60k or so, and had been answered "no problem." 100k though, I'm guessing that may be different.
I'm not saying that I'm going to do this, in fact I'm guessing it would be a bad idea, but I'm curious and would really like to know. The kit I would be interested in would be the Dezod S1 kit- I have an auto, so I'd be keeping the boost low at their recommended 5 psi, for maybe 220 whp at the max. Could I expect any sort of reasonable reliability and further engine life (say, another 50k at least) with this scenario? What extra steps would one have to take because of the higher mileage on the engine? Additional testing, additional maintenance before the turbo install, additional parts? What sort of extra problems could be expected vs. someone boosting a motor with less miles on it? Please keep in mind that this would continue to be my daily driver, so having to constantly fix problems would be less than ideal...
This whole question to myself came up after I told my wife that I wanted to trade in the tC after it was paid off so I could get something faster...she wasn't wild about the idea, and actually said that she would prefer if I continued to mod the car and keep it as long as I could. I've already halfway talked myself out of the idea of turbo'ing it because of the potential issues that I am imagining, but I figured that I would be best served by asking here. I'm hoping that some of the people with way more FI experience than I, and/or one of the kit designers (Dezod, PTuning) may be able to chime in with their thoughts.
This is a similar thread that I had posted last year, asking about the supercharger: http://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=227242 (http://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=227242) The closest story to what I am asking now is someone who installed the charger early on, and had already gotten up to 80k on his car without problems. Of course, when I was considering the SC, I was more concerned with the blower breaking vs. the engine.
The engine should be in good shape, I've been running nothing but Mobil 1 through it since my first oil change, with oil changes between 3k-5k (rarely did I let it get to 5k and let the change oil light come on.) It does not burn oil. I haven't had any troubles with it at all, which is what I would expect from a Toyota engine (I previously owned a Corolla with over 200k on it, and it still ran, albiet a little roughly, when I sold it.) I changed the transmission fluid recently (I did let that go too far IMO,) and used Toyota fluid from the dealership. I'd definitely change to a synthetic fluid if I were to boost, as I've seen that recommended around here (an upgraded valve body would be a good idea too.)
I upgraded the brakes last year (stainless lines, slotted rotors, better pads,) so I am good there http://www.scionlife.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif I'll be upgrading the suspension soon, since my stock struts are starting to ride harshly and clunk now and again. I'll probably be going with the full TRD set- struts, springs, and sway bar.
The way I see it, I have a few of choices once my and my wife's cars are paid off. I had said that I originally thought of selling the tC/trading it in on a new car, but why get rid of a paid off car that will keep running for a while, especially when I won't get much back for it?
1) Boost the tC, keep it as a DD, and hope I don't have much downtime
2) Boost the tC, make it into a "project car," and buy another beater
3) Return the tC to mostly stock, sell off my aftermarket stuff, and delegate it to my beater/bad weather car. Then, buy another car that is faster stock and has a lot of potential for modding, and play with that (Camaro SS, 370z, or Evo X all come to mind.)
The choices are basically from cheapest to most expensive. Honestly, choice 3 is the most appealing, since I've been wanting a car in that class for a while now. My finances were not the best in the past because my wife had been finishing up school and trying to find her place at a good job...I'm expecting that things will start looking a lot better for us in the next year or two. However, if I could actually boost the tC and not have to deal with constant breakdowns due to its age, that would be a fun option too (and not having another car loan would always be nice.) I've enjoyed working on the car since I bought it, and have been learning a lot about aftermarket modifications (it's a nice platform to learn on, as many of you should know.)
------------------------------------
There you have it. The link to the actual thread is http://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=266006 So far, I have been recieving encouragement to just go ahead and boost it, which honestly is the opposite of what I expected to hear given my mileage. Paul from Dezod even stepped in, suggesting that I would be good to go so long as the motor is running well and passes a compresion check.
What do you all think? Ultimately of course I have a couple of years at least before I'd have to decide for sure, but I'm trying to at least get a feel of how I may want to go about this so I can plan out my mods somewhat (ie, N/A bolt ons, or stay away from further performance mods altogether until I can boost.)
---------------------------------
When I bought my tC, I had always meant to boost it (supercharger) "eventually." I was so very close to doing so last year when the 05/06 charger kits went down in price, but ran into some sudden financial woes. By the time this summer rolled around and I got the car mod bug again, the supercharger kit was of course no longer being produced. I'm still kicking myself, but that's life sometimes.
My car is, unfortunately, still not paid off...I have about 18 months left (I bought it when my wife's car suddenly decided to take a dump, well an unexpected need to purchase a car + negative equity on a broken POS = longer loan that I would have liked.) I'll probably have my wife's car paid off a year or so after mine is.
I've been going back and forth on if I want to keep my car once they're both paid off, or if I want to finally go for boost (yes, I like to plan way in advance.) Here is my quandry though. Thankfully, I do not drive as much as I used to, however due to an old job I've already racked up 70k on my car. By the time the cars are paid off, and some money set aside, I could easily have 100k on my car. I had asked this same question regarding supercharging a car with 60k or so, and had been answered "no problem." 100k though, I'm guessing that may be different.
I'm not saying that I'm going to do this, in fact I'm guessing it would be a bad idea, but I'm curious and would really like to know. The kit I would be interested in would be the Dezod S1 kit- I have an auto, so I'd be keeping the boost low at their recommended 5 psi, for maybe 220 whp at the max. Could I expect any sort of reasonable reliability and further engine life (say, another 50k at least) with this scenario? What extra steps would one have to take because of the higher mileage on the engine? Additional testing, additional maintenance before the turbo install, additional parts? What sort of extra problems could be expected vs. someone boosting a motor with less miles on it? Please keep in mind that this would continue to be my daily driver, so having to constantly fix problems would be less than ideal...
This whole question to myself came up after I told my wife that I wanted to trade in the tC after it was paid off so I could get something faster...she wasn't wild about the idea, and actually said that she would prefer if I continued to mod the car and keep it as long as I could. I've already halfway talked myself out of the idea of turbo'ing it because of the potential issues that I am imagining, but I figured that I would be best served by asking here. I'm hoping that some of the people with way more FI experience than I, and/or one of the kit designers (Dezod, PTuning) may be able to chime in with their thoughts.
This is a similar thread that I had posted last year, asking about the supercharger: http://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=227242 (http://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=227242) The closest story to what I am asking now is someone who installed the charger early on, and had already gotten up to 80k on his car without problems. Of course, when I was considering the SC, I was more concerned with the blower breaking vs. the engine.
The engine should be in good shape, I've been running nothing but Mobil 1 through it since my first oil change, with oil changes between 3k-5k (rarely did I let it get to 5k and let the change oil light come on.) It does not burn oil. I haven't had any troubles with it at all, which is what I would expect from a Toyota engine (I previously owned a Corolla with over 200k on it, and it still ran, albiet a little roughly, when I sold it.) I changed the transmission fluid recently (I did let that go too far IMO,) and used Toyota fluid from the dealership. I'd definitely change to a synthetic fluid if I were to boost, as I've seen that recommended around here (an upgraded valve body would be a good idea too.)
I upgraded the brakes last year (stainless lines, slotted rotors, better pads,) so I am good there http://www.scionlife.com/forums/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif I'll be upgrading the suspension soon, since my stock struts are starting to ride harshly and clunk now and again. I'll probably be going with the full TRD set- struts, springs, and sway bar.
The way I see it, I have a few of choices once my and my wife's cars are paid off. I had said that I originally thought of selling the tC/trading it in on a new car, but why get rid of a paid off car that will keep running for a while, especially when I won't get much back for it?
1) Boost the tC, keep it as a DD, and hope I don't have much downtime
2) Boost the tC, make it into a "project car," and buy another beater
3) Return the tC to mostly stock, sell off my aftermarket stuff, and delegate it to my beater/bad weather car. Then, buy another car that is faster stock and has a lot of potential for modding, and play with that (Camaro SS, 370z, or Evo X all come to mind.)
The choices are basically from cheapest to most expensive. Honestly, choice 3 is the most appealing, since I've been wanting a car in that class for a while now. My finances were not the best in the past because my wife had been finishing up school and trying to find her place at a good job...I'm expecting that things will start looking a lot better for us in the next year or two. However, if I could actually boost the tC and not have to deal with constant breakdowns due to its age, that would be a fun option too (and not having another car loan would always be nice.) I've enjoyed working on the car since I bought it, and have been learning a lot about aftermarket modifications (it's a nice platform to learn on, as many of you should know.)
------------------------------------
There you have it. The link to the actual thread is http://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=266006 So far, I have been recieving encouragement to just go ahead and boost it, which honestly is the opposite of what I expected to hear given my mileage. Paul from Dezod even stepped in, suggesting that I would be good to go so long as the motor is running well and passes a compresion check.
What do you all think? Ultimately of course I have a couple of years at least before I'd have to decide for sure, but I'm trying to at least get a feel of how I may want to go about this so I can plan out my mods somewhat (ie, N/A bolt ons, or stay away from further performance mods altogether until I can boost.)