That ebay one is fake. I'm all for saving a buck or two. But you got to realize that a turbo spins at 120,000-180,000 RPM's. Yes, 6 Figures. At those speeds 1,000ths of a gram of imbalance will cause failure. The Chinese are good at a few things, Tig Welding, Kung Fu, and Orange Chicken. NOT MAKING TURBO's (or anything under load or spin or you hope wont blow up for that matter).

Cheap, Fast, Reliable - Pick two.

Turbo choice is dependant on application and user. I myself prefer a broad powerband that has a lot of punch. But now I'm at a point where I want more power and a more linear power band. Its fun lighting up all 4 tires but, doesn't work too well when in the canyons. I basically gotta make sure the car is pointing where I want it to go before boost comes on. Then it feels like I get rear ended by a truck into which ever direction I'm pointing.

Sorry if I offend anyone who is Chinese who happen to be on the board. I myself am a Chino. If you get butthurt I'll buy ya a brew if you can answer this:
If you take and Oriental man and spin him around really fast. Do you disorient him?

ive got alot to learn.

cheapest way of getting a real evo 3 is on the forums they go for around 300-400 used...new you are looking at about 700+ plus the installation kit

You'll find some threads on dsmtuners that review turbos. From the goals that you're describing, the 16g sounds like the turbo for you. Early spool and a good amount of power. Lots of info and support for the 16g out there.

If you buy a "chinaBay" turbo it's a crap shoot. Sometimes they run for years, sometimes they break down within a week. By far the most reliable Chinese 16g is the "Evo III 16g GT" by Turbochargers.com. RRE used to sell them. They actually warranty the turbo, so if it blows up you can send it in and get a replacement within the first year. I pulled mine about 8 months after installing it and it had a little too much shaft play, so RRE sent it in and a new one showed up a week or so later. I don't know if they sell it anymore though. But, if someone is selling it used look for the "Evo III GT" on the compressor housing. I've been beating the hell out of mine for 3 years now and its holding up fine. No shaft play last time I checked it a few weeks ago.


EDIT: . Not sure if/where it's available these days. The page I'm linking you to is one of the reasons I bought this turbo, b/c it shows the extensive testing that went into this turbo, which is rare for the Chinese turbo companies.

or maybe you can visit local junkyards alot and hope to land on a galant vr4 with a big 16g on it like i did

bam. $90.

i have the same car as you. i've had a 16G, 20G, and now a HX35. the 16G hit hard @ 3300, the 20G @ 4k. depends what you want to do with the car. i personally like to drag race. i went with a turbo that has decent spool and basically unlimited top end. on the HX35 i hit 22PSI @ 3800. its bigger than the 20G and spools faster. and thats with a small leak, and a race sheet metal intake manifold. all depends on what you want to do. i say get a 16G. its a good turbo to get "your feet wet".

gettin my feet wet is probably what i need to do. ive got alot of reading to do on turbos and supporting mods. last thing i need to do is lean out my engine with too much boost from a bigger turbo.

i just read the codes cause the check engine light came on and its saying there is a malfunction with the tps. so while i was looking at the throttle body i started looking at my turbo cause i was thinking about putting a manual boost controller on it to see if it would get any better gas mileage if i lowered the psi during the week while the wife is using it to go to and from work but then raise it back up for weekend joy. anyhow i was tracing the vacumn hoses off the wastegate and there is 1 small hose that t's off and one direction goes to the turbo, the other direction goes to the frame rail and from there it has a plug which i assume is for the boost gauge in the dash and the other end is suposed to go to the air intake according to the hose diagram on the hood. well the one that was suposed to go to the intake was disconnected. i hooked it back up and took it for a spin, didnt seem to change anything however unless its my imagination it idles smoother now since there is no vacumn leak.

The thing by the frame rail is the boost control solenoid. It is what the ECU uses to control boost. You gauge in your dash is actually just a guestimate of boost based on other sensors.

Also, fyi, a simple manual boost controller does not allow you to adjust boost any lower than the spring of the waste gate actuator will allow. It can only raise boost by blocking boost pressure from reaching the diaphram of the actuator to compress the spring and open the wastegate. The best way to get the lowest boost you can is to directly connect a hose from your boost source to the waste gate actuator (remove the factory BCS or Boost Control Solenoid from the picture). There are hommade tricks that you can use to make an "on/off" boost switch using solenoids and check valves. Here's some info on that at the old archived Taboo Speed Shop page:



(note: the above links are dead websites that are archived on the wayback machine. read while you can b/c they may disappear forever)


Also, I think I mentioned it before, but here's a great resource for finding your way around the engine bay:
http://members.shaw.ca/dsm.1000q/Engineprimer/

gas mileage can be controlled with your foot. Stay out of boost, stay in good gas mileage area. The boost gauge in the dash is about as accurate as a blind man with gun. It guesses boost based off of airflow going through the MAF sensor (sensor at the air filter stands for Mass Air Flow sensor). You can disconnect the intercooler pipe off of the throttle body elbow and floor it. (if the car even runs) you will see that the gauge will go to max boost, even though there is no pressure in the intercooler piping or manifold. Get a real gauge, that thing is more of a boost leak guage.

28.56 mpg combined uphill and downhill along with interstate and intown, i have 0 complaints!