Turbo Charging A Tundra!

UPDATE: 01/02/2025

First off Happy New Year to everyone... We couldn't have had this happen at a worst time, with the holidays falling in the middle of the last 2 weeks, we were in this weird time stall / loop where nothing moved as fast as we wanted, no matter how hard we tried! Anyway, the good news, we have the ECU on the way back from G7 and they have confirmed it's been brought back to life. As soon as we have it, we'll get it in the truck and confirm it starts and runs.

I do want to give props to our friends down at AMR. They are primarily European Tuners and we have worked with them for over a decade on all of our Mercedes turbo upgrades. The head tech there tried everything with the hardware and software they had before calling it. He promptly got it back out to G7 same day, OVERNIGHT, to keep us moving fast as possible. So kudos to them for their effort, they just didn't have the Toyota specific stuff needed to do the job.

Anyway, back at it.

Cheers!

 

Hey @TurboKits currently browsing around for bigger injectors. Probably got asked before but couldn't find it, are these fully drop in plug n play? no extra pigtails like ProSpeed's? Thanks.

 

Yes and no, we do have to adapt the pigtails, but we preinstall them and have them professionally potted as well, so yes they are plug n play, but there is an adapter for the connector, we just take care of it all before they ship out

 

How long are the adapters? If I remember right, PS's are like 5ish inches or more(?) But I think the rub with theirs are that some parts of the connector is manually shaved down, inconsistently

 

The connectors have to be shaved down, there aren't any true performance aftermarket injectors that have small enough connectors and there is 0 room under the rail. However, the way we do it is to solder the connector extensions onto the injector pins and then pot them. That way, its 100% all weather safe and you don't have to fight to make a connector fit under the rail, just run the extension up and out of the way and connect them I looked through our injector pictures folder and I must not have taken a final picture when they were 100% done. Next set we build/sell, I'll make sure we do!

On a side note, I often joke that our development steams from "laziness". We don't want there to be tons of complexity or DIY to our upgrades. We are TurboKits.com, not do-it-yourself-and-get-parts-that-somewhat-work-and-fit.com... LOL

 

You're not being lazy, you're being efficient! At least that's what I tell my boss all the time lol

 

Humans never make errors, so why would anyone want to remove them from the equation? They're a constant, not a variable, right? Lol

 

Has anyone done one of these on a flex fuel? I'm forcing myself to wait until payday Thursday next week before I pull the trigger. Is there a way to order the intercooler separate from the stage 1?

 

Subscribed to your build before it even starts!

I wouldn't be stressing about the FFV part of it. My understanding is that you have a higher flowing pump (a good thing) and people have already proven that you can convert a FFV to non-FVV (also a good thing).

 

We are actually working on an FFV right now with the Stage 1 Kit, Inj and Pump

Do you mean the whole intercooler kit and piping, etc or just the intercooler core?

 

The kit for the intercooler. I’ll give you a call tomorrow. Maybe you can push me over the fence on a stage 2.

 

The FFV doesn’t bother me. The increased pump flow can only be a benefit, along with being able to run e85 and bump the boost up if I’d like. Was more curious if they’d done tuning on one yet but it sounds like they are working on it. I’ve got a big road trip in March coming up towing the rzr to Greer, AZ and want this setup and ready to go before then.

 

Sounds good, 860-676-2929 x102. I tend to be a phone jockey most days, so if you get voicemail. Leave a message and I'll call you right back!

Yeah, the mapping is pretty much the same, except for added part for E usage. I am confident we can work with it.

 

Placeholder/data dump for Season 3 of "Turbo Charging a Tundra!" (Ken's effort was Season 1): I was responding to another member and realized my response was less about Dragy times and more about the performance/plans/expectations for the next phase of my specific implementation. i'll clean this up and marry it with my original stage 1 requirements/expectations post at a later time.

Way ahead for roles/responsibilities: At this point, Jesse @TurboKits has full control over the kit specific discussions with me simply being a customer who is working on ownership type of experiences and improvements. Maybe you'll see us briefly chat about user feedback or whatever, but IMO, this is to be expected since I'm one of their oldest kits. There's really nothing left for kit improvement or tweaks that I'd be looking to Jesse @TurboKits to engineer. The autopsy from late 2024 proved that the turbokits.com specific components have held up well and the remainder of the components are commercial off the shelf (COTS) products with COTS warranties. I'm happy to discuss with anyone my experience with the kit, my install experiences, additional products I chose to use, why, and how they have performed, but as I've stated all along, Jesse @TurboKits is a for profit business and I am not an employee. New Years 2025 seems like a great time to reestablish this demarcation. Don't be alarmed if I talk about meeting up with him for food. His fabricator is an hour away, there's good food around, and they're genuinely good people I would like to stay in contact with. What a year, Jesse!

My 2025 focus areas:

performance: i want to be in the 500whp/550wtq club, simply for bragging rights. what does that actually mean, though? a dragy time of 5.0 second 0-60mph is essentially my end goal on the current config. anything in the 4's is a wish list/unicorn/unintentional but pleasant surprise. i like to think it'll get there without a ton of issue, but until the transmission woes plaguing some of the SC crowd are fully figured out i don't know what more i really want out of a full size truck weighing just under 7k lbs. while it's fun to talk about numbers at cruise nights and local car shows, and regardless of times, 8psi for a passenger is a heck of a surprise.

towing: it'll be nice knowing the fueling is my new safety net and the water meth is essentially reserved for higher boost. outside of that, aside from having some reserve in power, i'm good with where i was this season. only a few of the mountains left me wanting anything more than what it was delivering on stock fueling in the 3psi range as part of stage 1. i'll review the stage 1 requirement, but this may be checked off the list as complete.

sustainment/tinkering: at this point i'm more curious about the refinement and testing of new products to replace existing (e.g. DEI wraps vs XXX, OEM trans thermostat vs bypass vs removal). My immediate thoughts go back to my summer 2024 observations and obsessions. Can i keep my ECTs at 196* without any spikes, ever? If yes, then: Can I keep my trans temps under 200* all the time without any heat soak (that I had even on a stock NA powertrain)? If yes, then: Just how cool can I keep the IATs (can I be at ambient even in traffic)? I will also continue sending in oil samples and capturing the engine health, at 5k mile OCI, even in Stage 2 - monitoring engine health throughout this entire process has been informative and reassuring and I intend to maintain that insight. I'll also be able to loosely track before/after W/M utilization while towing.

With the amount of detail captured of my first season, if there is interest in additional information or updates, just ask. It may take a while based on situation/environment required to replicate, but I'll get you an answer. If it is a Jesse @TurboKits topic/question that I can be of assistance in, he knows I'm not afraid of logging, and he has (or has access to) the data to help get you sorted. I'll continue to write about things as I experience them, but I'm expecting my traffic to be slower than 2024 while I get to enjoy the build and refocus my time and energy into other areas not Tundra.

 

Tested the upfitter switches and worked as expected. Ready for the install!

https://youtube.com/shorts/lbSEVbp31aQ?si=AMoi5Z-fqZyaWmqg

 

UPDATE: 01/14/2025

After 2 round trips of the ECU to G7 and back, still DOA, we switched to the junkyard ECU and VIN coding... Happy to say that as of today, the truck is ALIVE! Most of the delay was the holidays and shipping the ECU back and forth multiple times. We got it back the second time on Sat, was at the truck on Sunday, had the Junk Yard ECU in the truck Sunday after the first ECU failed to work again. Confirmed ECU was able to read OBDII and write the flash file, but no start due to Immo and VIN matching... Was up with my 15yo Windows XP 32bit laptop this morning and VROOM VROOM, it's alive! We'll continue to update the board as always.

I'd like to thank @Ponderosa_Pine for his write up here! It does work when done properly - How to Recover/Replace ECU Thread | Page 3 | Toyota Tundra Forum

 

Thank you for the journey and for everything you've done during this process. Hands down the best customer service I've ever experienced. Simply a fantastic job and I'm beyond envious of your future customers. They're in great hands with experience you bring to the table. Great job, Jesse!

Everyone has seen the Dyno numbers @TurboKits has posted. I said a few posts above my goal is to reach 5s (meaning 5.0s, flat). Within an hour of picking up my truck and barely relearning how to drive it, it did a 5.62s 0-60mph at only 5.7psi, with over a full G of acceleration. Lots left on the table and I'm excited to see where I can get it to. My goal is well within reach. The before/after Stage 2 with the additional fueling is extremely noticeable and the smooth delivery of power is something that simply can't be explained. My grin still hasn't faded.

EDIT: 5.21s this morning (1/15/2025)

 

5.21 hell yea! getting closer!

 

Thanks! I'm confident my goal is achievable and the issue is 100% me. Pretty awesome finally being able to put some butt dyno and actual math together, though. It's yet to hit above 6.7psi, too. There's plenty left.

 

Post that Dragy! I'll add it to the site Congrats!

 

Check the other channel so I don't get in trouble!

 

Saw it, already added to the Stage 2 product page... Nice work Bri!!

 

Sir. I purchased a product. I get to smile and show off the results like I did something, but this is 100% you. So, Kudos to you! IMO, not a bad showing since you have a hack behind the wheel. lol

 

just keeping it real... i do truly apologize for now pivoting to documenting the improvement of my own driving skills instead of being able to just smack the table with best/final time for your kit. I'll do my best to make it up to you!

 

Honestly, this is better for the proof of our product than a professional driver putting down some unobtainable #... So keep doing what you are doing!

 

Blackstone sample is in the mail. This will be 4k mile OCi, half towing on stage 1.5 and then all of the upgrade, tuning and testing of Stage 2.

More to follow in about a month.

 

Stage 1 + injectors ordered. Now to ask for forgiveness from the wife.

 

NOT A TURBO ISSUE but a cautionary tale for anyone with water/methanol.

Okay, bad news doesn't get better with age, so here we go. Please be gentle because I'm still processing this myself. I'm glad to have gotten 1.5 days and some good times with the truck.

There was a catastrophic failure in the water methanol system overnight/first start of the day yesterday (11* outside). I lost an entire 1.15 gallons into my engine and oil pan and it hydrolocked and seized 2.5 miles away from home after a 10 minutes remote start warmup and gentle cruise through town. Failure occured at ~2k RPM, light throttle, less than 20mph. My engine is done. A pop, silence, and more silence when turning the key. It's completely seized.

During investigation, all of the boost juice drained out of the oil pan first, then the frothy oil layer came. Ended up loosening the crankshaft pulley bolt while trying to break it free after pulling plugs and pouring MMO into the cylinders. Here's the draining and the oil that eventually came out.

Hard kick to the nuts on this one, but I guess there's no better way to kick off the new year than to work with XAT on a built long block. Still debating if I want to go that route or if I want to go "on the cheap" and get a used engine with 60k or less miles (truck has 60,156). Since I'm paying labor, I'm leaning towards bleeding once and never looking back. So, unfortunately, my latest oil sample will be the last of the baseline of this implementation. I wish there was a cool story. I wish there was an explanation. Believe me I wish I could pin this to anyone/anything other than seriously shitty luck.

For anyone running water methanol, please PLEASE add whatever second and third safety nets you need to ensure you don't fall victim to this. Truck was running fine, no codes, no smoking, and this happened in light throttle while taking my kid to school. And entire 1.15 gallons disappeared either overnight or within 15 minutes, 10 of which was remote start idling in the driveway.

Open to constructive input on the motor side of things. To put this bent fuck stick of a hurdle behind me I'm debating just paying them the premium for a core so they can ship the replacement build up here ASAP.

Because this looks shitty, I will die on this hill: this was NOT a turbo issue and Jesse has been supportive and is trying to find me savings where ever he can to help me, but this is absolutely not his issue. If it wasn't for the water/methanol snafu (not his product), I'd probably already be at my goal of 5.0s 0-60mph. But that's not in the cards for another month or so now.

Positive: my 8-9psi cap is about to be lifted, so there's that.
Positive: me and the kid learned how gracefully a motor can catastrophically fail and why we always were appropriate winter attire in 11* weather, no matter how short of a trip it is.
Positive: the truck is parked in its spot in the garage.