Top mount

[TomK]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering how many people out there have gone top mount with their turbo set ups. I was wondering how much work is involved and what is needed for it?

You are going to need a top mount manifold, large turbo, new oil and water lines, new exhaust elbow and downpipe, quite likely to need heat management on the manifold turbo and surrounding abs unit, as well as moving all wiring likely to melt and new pipe work for air filter and AFM.

Am i missing anything? Are there other factors i haven't considered?

Thanks.

 

[Auss15]

Yep, your pretty spot on with whats required, also you'll need a custom intake pipe. Why not throw an external gate on your new turbo elbow

 

[TomK]

Yeah, external wastegates will be done as well. Is it ok just to pipe them into the downpipe rather than have those stupidly loud screamer pipes?

 

[Auss15]

Yeah I would plumb it back to the down pipe, just for the sake of stopping any heat issues. You don't need screamer pipes, they sound so gay...

 

[TomK]

Does anyone here have a top mount?

If they do can they give me an idea on the price of the custom downpipes, oil lines, water lines etc

 

[EMAGDNIM]

Why not just buy a full top mount kit? (Full Race comes to mind)...

 

[Adam L]

I ran a Full Race top mount kit with a GT3082R on my car, I bought it as a kit for an S14/A and none of the exhaust parts fitted properly, I'm lucky enough to have a good friend that does exhaust fab work, so he made me up a new front section for beer money. Personally, I'd avoid going top mount unless you want to run a turbo that physically won't fit on a bottom mount manifold. The main reason is space, the S15 engine bay is narrower than people think and the ABS pump (if rhd) is partially in the way. The other problem is working on it in that area, unless you run a v-band on the downpipe it makes it extremely awkward to remove. There is one thing you forgot about and that's the intercooler pipework, top mount setups can be a pain to make pipes up for, however I managed to do a nice tidy route for mine.

Heat transfer is the least of your worries with a screamer pipe too, if you're worried about creating unintended attention then route the dump pipe into the downpipe. Screamer pipes sound good in rwd cars until they get traction... I always planned to route mine into the downpipe but sold the engine before I got round to it. I recently ran one on a GT35R on my Evo and I hated the sound of it, the noise is not only beyond obnoxious but it ruins a cars engine note.

 

[reepers13]

i ran a 2871r top mount
- top mount mani (braced)
- extended braided lines
- custom elbow (any fabricator can do that)
- induction pipe will need to have lots of bends or buy a swirl insert to interupt flow for z32 (h-dev) do this

its a good mod to do but alot of hassle, that being said thurbo would come off in 15mins