This was brought up in the Prodigy Turbo thread, but I think it deserves it's own thread...
STS Turbo announced a while back that they "released" a turbo system for the 3.6 Wrangler: http://ststurbo.com/blog/jeep-wrangler-v6-turbo/
No, pricing, dyno charts, or specific peak power/torque numbers have been released yet, as far as I can tell. Website says "call for price".
Unlike the Prodigy turbo, STS makes "rear mount turbos", where the turbo is under the vehicle, toward the rear (often right at the tail pipe for may sporty cars). There are various pros/cons to this (some real, some potential, some imagined).
Some advantages I see:
- Retains stock catalytic converters.
- Retains stock air filter box (no cone filter hanging out in the open).
- Seems like it doesn't really require much relocating/modifying of anything in the engine compartment.
Some concerns I have:
- Completely replaces the cat-back exhaust, but without any mufflers. It's loud! (sound clip video). And you're stuck with their exhaust system, or one-off custom exhaust. Can't use any existing after-market exhaust systems.
- Oil-less turbo seems over-hyped. Prodigy turbo is easy to maintain: change engine oil normally, and use quality synthetic oil. STS says you may need to add grease to the turbo bearings every other oil change. How is this done? How easy is it? The benefit of not needing an oil pump to return the oil from the turbo is a problem/solution unique to rear-mounted turbos, so that's not a benefit over the Prodigy front-mount turbo (oil drains via gravity to oil pan with the Prodigy turbo).
- Conventional wisdom says that all that extra length of exhaust pipe between the engine and turbo, and intake pipe between turbo and engine, would create extra lag. How much more lag? The internet cannot agree on this. Some reasonable sounding explanations say that STS specifically configures the turbo to spool up faster to offset the extra pipe length and keep lag comparable to front-mout systems, but it comes at the cost of power output in the higher RPM range. Other people say the rear-mount turbo has both noticeably more lag and less power than a front-mount turbo running the same amount of boost.
- The STS turbo is in a location that can easily get dunked in water. How much does it stress a hot turbo when dunked in cold water? Does water deteriorate the turbo blanket in any way?
So who's gonna volunteer to harass STS for details and try one of these kits on their Jeep?
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