Hi guys,

Just need your opinions, thinking of getting an f21 turbo. Just curious how will it operate on a stage 1+ k03 tune? Will their be much gains? The car has all the supporting mods like intake, exhaust and intercooler. I do plan on getting the proper tune and injectors in the near future. Any help is much appreciated, thanks.

Regards,
George

 

While I and others have run FT on K03 tunes, it's not a good idea IMO. K03 tunes use stock injectors, and this won't be nearly enough for the FT. The risk is running too lean.
My opinion: run the FT on stock tune until you can get the proper tune for larger injectors.

 

Thank you for the advice metalman. Would you suggest getting larger injectors with the turbo until the proper tune comes in? How will this work out?

 

You need injectors to match whatever tune you're running, otherwise they will spray an amount of fuel that's different than what the ECU is expecting.

If you did, it won't work out for the best. In part throttle the ECU may be able to adapt the fuel trims (albeit they will be way out of spec.), but at WOT they won't nearly be spraying the right amount of fuel since your ECU only sees narrowband O2 sensor readings.

 

The reason I ask all this is cause I dont have the stock ecu. When the car got chipped, they gave me the stock lil chip for car back and I've lost it since (over a yr now) so putting the f21 is not an option on stock ecu unless I am to buy a used one and then throw it in.

For now Im more leaning towards bolting on the f21 on what I have now. I will take it very easy with barely any pulling, here and there only. I don't suppose this will harm the engine to much with running lean a general pull here and there? I am assuming bolting the f21 on and driving normally will cause no problems? Only with regular hard pulling?

When you had your f21 on stage 1 k03 chip, how did it perform in comparison to stock turbo on stage 1 k03 chip?

 

Well, here's another way to look at the ECU situation: being a tuned ECU, your ECU has a little more value compared to a stock ECU. Stock AEB ECUs regularly go for ~$50-70 used. If you were to plan to sell your current tuned ECU, buy a used stock ECU, then have a tune added to your used ECU when the time is right.

Another similar option is to buy a used pre-tuned ECU. Some tuners (like k0mpressed [Reflect Tuning]) or others' used-tuned ECUs make it easy to just swap out the ECU.

It's been years since I ran a FT on a GIAC-tuned ECU (K03 tune). When I swapped to GIAC PC-16 there was a notable improvement since fueling and timing were increased.