ah, got it! i was starting from the wrong number. thanks mike.

my thought is the fx300 will give me some headroom for the eventual increase i'd like to make down the road.

any tips or pointers for break-in after it is installed?

 

Kevlar clutch kits like the FX200/FX300 need a good amount of heat cycles for the kevlar to cure. You can do this with normal stop/go taffic, just not too much other wise the Kevlar can become too hot. You can also break it in by doing short WOT runs in high gear at low speed, just have to make sure not to let the clutch slip too much other wise it will be toast.

 

quick update: fx400, 034fmic, jhm ss and some cats & dogs done!

mmmm weekend.

 

one week later...

had some issues with the car - thermostat, coilpack, n75

all fixed. car runs beautifully.

fx400 and jhm ss have made significant difference. wow. can't say enough about the jhm ss with linkage. such an amazing upgrade from stock. shifter feels solid and shifts are smooth. for the price, this is probably one of the best bang/buck upgrades for manual owners. seriously. do this. you won't be disappointed.

fx400 is, obviously, much diff than the stock and valeo kits. the 6 puck isn't tough to drive in the city, but it does take some getting used to. pedal is probably lighter than stock, if you can believe it. super grabby. takes a bit of a sweet touch at first, especially on a hill. cheated and using e-brake for the inclines. do love the fx400 though, i think that was a good choice. it's overkill for the apr stage 3, but gives me plenty of headroom on the torque rating for future upgrades.

the ebay ecodes look great as well. 4000k is the way to go. pure white. $270 shipped with the bulbs and ballasts. talk about an ebay special...

the 034 fmic is behind the stock bumper. bumper fit on the car is pretty damn good considering. very stealthy since you can hardly see the fmic from the outside. you can see the cutout of the bumper (as noted in the 034 pdf directions) with the hood popped. still, bumper is on solid. too bad my stock bumper has years of rock chips and scratches in it.

thanks to mike @ ringer racing for the great support, low prices, and fast shipping on the fx400 and the jhm ss. always there to answer an email and more than helpful.

thanks to ngp in lorton for the install and continued support. special thanks to their tech tim for sticking with the car to find and solve the thermo/coil/n75. guy even stayed late to figure it out...amazing service to say the least. only extra charge was for the parts. free labor is awesome!

 

Nice! Glad to see you really got into the build.

 

lets see some pics of the setup

 

I'm back and forth on this setup, I'm shooting toward the frankenturbo setup but I know for a fact (even though pricey) the apr stage 3 kit is extremely reliable especially for daily driving.
man I can't decide. I think though I would have gone with the bigger SMIC. make it even more stealth.

 

i'll see if i can get some pics to post later. the car needs a good cleaning though...

i looked at FT. the biggest turn offs for me was the lack of support, newness, and needing a custom tune. not that FT is terrible or anything, but as i understand, it's basically one guy - who although very knowledgeable, and nice, is still only one guy. it's still pretty new on the scene though you can find people running them on az and vortex. custom tuning was also a drawback, since it all comes down to the software with our cars.

admittedly the apr kit is a lot of money, and lower power than eliminator setup, or another bt setup. but its a known quantity and reliable. b/w the ft and the apr stage 3, i would go stage 3 again if i had it to do over. complete kit, tested software, reliable, etc...if i changed my criteria for max hp and low $, i would not do it again tho.

after having the big old fmic on there, i can see the advantages of the smic. for one you don't have to worry about cutting the stock bumper. it's hilarious to see the smic vs the fmic though in sheer physical size. wish i had IAT numbers for before/after...

eventually i plan on a mild body kit, new paint, and wheels. at that point i think it'll be nice to show off the fmic. for now though, you can't even tell it exists.

oh hey, btw, i have a ton of parts i need to list for sale! stock headlights (great condition with new extra bright bulbs), stock smic, k03 turbo, etc etc. i'll be putting up the ads relatively soon.

 

Just gotta call ya out on one point here: FT's service would still be considered impeccable if it were run by 5 guys... The only time he hasn't responded to any of my emails within an hour or two has been when I sent emails well outside of typical east-coast business hours. Honestly I've never encountered better customer service than what FrankenTurbo offers (which was a big reason I chose this turbo kit).

FT kits don't necessarily need custom tuning, as they can in theory run off of any K04 tune. Heck my tune is a K04 tune! However I've "hillbilly tuned" my car with a larger MAF and higher flowing injectors to allow higher boost levels and MAF values to increase power. Other than that several big tuning companies offer FT tunes now.

 

fair enough, and fwiw, yours is definitely not the first comment about the service being excellent. and as you can see, i didn't question the service quality...only the "staff quantity" lol...(and you can certainly argue that isn't fair!)

intrigued about the FT tunes though, as the only one i had heard of/read of was a uni tune that was still "in the works". i read recently about someone tring to find out if an apr stage 3 (gt28r) tune would actually work for the FT too...wonder who's doing the ots tunes for them? just curious

what would be interesting is a price comparison for entire kit - supporting parts, tune and all. then compare the performance. that was another reason that drew me to apr - completeness of the kit.

in any case, the big deal changer is whether you want 'mo powa'. and if that's the case, then neither apr stage 3 nor ft will cut it. you need a bigger turbo.