Basing it off of guesses I suppose. However, Im not sure about any company that does this kinda shit. Makes post without actual facts.
Guesses? All the data Tony provided is public knowledge of the GT2554R, the fact that the MRX has an upgraded compressor wheel in it doesn't change it's lack of performance. You have the turbo yourself and you are unhappy. To date, I have tuned 4 MRX kits, and each one has not performed better than any of the GT2554R's we have tuned from ATP. If you take a second and do some searching on the GT2554R you will see we were the first one to break 300whp with it and it took methanol and ethanol to get it there. Comparing logs from the MRX to the GT2554R that made 300whp there is zero difference in power output. The airflow is the same (for those of you that think that airmass calculated instead of an actual measurement is a realistic way to measure turbo performance), the power output is the same boost for boost.
So even though Tony isn't tuning these, I am and I have other results to compare it to. It isn't rocket science to know what compressor wheel is being used. You don't actually think Mountune is machining these turbo's themselves and making the compressor wheel do you? Being 10-blade tells me that is sounds like they used an off the shelf compressor wheel, more than likely from KTS (
http://www.ktsturbobilletx.com/) all someone would have to do is take off the compressor cover and measure the inducer and exducer to confirm. I'm guessing it is a 2860R wheel 10+0, PN#2806, 12.02 Nose ID, 42.20 Inducer, 60.40 Exducer, 64.07 Extended Tip Exducer, 4.17 Extended Tip Height. If anyone wants to confirm my suspicion and has a MRX laying around get your calipers and confirm the measurements I provided above. It would be the easiest combination to get into the GT2554R and just swapping the compressor cover to a GT2860 style cover, which I also I'm assuming (again, no proof just lots of experience with turbo manufacturing). I'm assuming is a ZAGE compressor cover, just another Chinese casted housing which they can machine to whatever wheel you want. (
www.zageturbo.com).
So, facts or not, it isn't hard to dissect a turbo. Why is it so hush hush anyways? The full specs of what Vargas is assembling is all right here in this post...
Beyond that, your only combat everytime is "look up BMW failures" yea, well the only thing people need to do is go back to the first time you said that and where I outlined that nearly every factory frame turbo upgrade for the BMW had issues, similar ones at that, and guess which company is currently the only one still around and pushed through the issues and came up with a resolution? Vargas. Nearly every stock frame big power BMW out there is running a Vargas turbo. Simple as that.
Garrett is one of the original names in turbos. Who's Vargas again?
I'm still interested in what you guys produce, but you have no standing track record older than maybe 10 years and you're shitting on a giant in the industry. Not a great way to make fans. Stop guessing about their stuff and focus on proving your own.
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A lot easier to take a turbo that someone makes and force it onto a car. Instead of making a turbo from scratch that is properly suited for the vehicle it is being made for. The GT2554R is not a proper turbo for the 1.6L, just look at the results from the "manufacturer" themselves, 4600rpm peak torque on the MRX on the graphs they are using for marketing. That is not a desirable turbo for a car that is meant to be torquey down low and "quick" up top. This isn't a realistic 400whp+ car, and I don't think anyone buys the Fiesta initially to make it that. 90% of the people like the torque it makes but the higher RPM leaves a lot to be desired. So why not deliver both, instead of just coming up with something to sell something?
As far as "shitting on a giant in the industry". Nobody is shitting on anyone, Garrett's turbo's off the shelf are all great, they just need to be selected correctly when putting on a car. And Garrett is not the manufacturer of this turbo, so nobody is saying anything about them. If Garrett though the GT2554R would be a good candidate for a compressor wheel upgrade there would be a GTX2554R variant just like the rest of the turbos they once offered, and are now eligible for an upgrade.
Vargas says Garrett is his favorite turbo manufacturer nearly weekly. I swear everytime we talk about the GTX3076R he gets a raging hard-on.
The fact the 2554 has been around a while could be considered a good thing as it's a known commodity with a proven track record. The MRX kit seems to be exceeding initial expectations and so far the people who've put them on seem to be happy with their decision, for the most part.
Personally, I don't want to lose the quick spool. I absolutely love the quick response the FiST offers, both when tipping into the throttle and in handling, and don't want to mess that up. I'm anxious to see how this Vargas offering turns out.
Just because it has been around awhile doesn't mean that a lot of people are using it. Ideally this turbo should be used in pairs for a small displacement v6, say 3.2L and under. The turbine housing is way to big for a small displacement 4cyl, especially a 1.6L. As far as it exceeding initial expectations, I couldn't disagree more. The one person with constant complaining in all turbo threads (RE-RX7) dislikes his turbo, and the others that we have tuned all feel the turbo should be much more, especially in the top end. We have gotten the fastest spool out of the MRX compared to the other results I have seen posted (24psi at 3900rpm), but it immediately dives just like the factory turbo. Why, because a chinese wastegate was used and has a super low base spring. If I was part of the MRX development, the very first thing I would have noticed when tuning is that it needed a stronger wastegate. I wouldn't have even released it with the wastegate it has. The performance gained from just a wastegate would have been tremendous and they are just now looking to offer a fix AFTER the fact.
However, throwing a wastegate on isn't going to fix all of the boost taper. We ran a 18psi wastegate on a GT2554R and it still died down to 18-19psi up top, with a peak psi of 26psi. Now, the MRX does have an upgraded compressor wheel but unfortunately if it is the size I mentioned above (60.4 ex) the turbine wheel it is paired with isn't going to get the compressor wheel up to the proper shaft speed to actually get it to perform and move some air. That is what Vargas was referencing when he said "mis-matched wheel". If you have a high speed compressor wheel, and a low speed turbine wheel, you are just going to run the turbo in surgeline and it is going to have a hardtime making power. Additionally you have reliability issues because there is more force from one wheel versus the other, you need to have proper thrust load from both the turbine wheel and the compressor wheel so you don't ride along the thrust bearing inside the turbo. Ride on it long enough and you'll seize the turbine wheel right to the bearing. No Bueno.