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Old 09-14-2021, 11:29 AM   #1
philchan
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Default 2020 Wrx Fa20 Turbo upgrades

Has anyone had any experience running a more budget friendly turbo on the FA20 wrx platform than the FP Blue Ball Bearing turbo like the Tomioka GTX29 or Steamspeed 71r? I am not wanting spend $3k on the turbo alone only to need to build a new block for thousands more just to handle the power the blue is capable of pushing. I spoke with a few more tuners near me and they do not recommend the SOCAL V3 turbo any longer so just wanting to get some thoughts/recommendations
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Old 09-14-2021, 05:28 PM   #2
Unabomber
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You buy turbos based on WHP goal. Let's say you want a 350WHP car. Go to the power proven bragging forum and search for your car or one very similar in terms of model year and mods. Making up some lies here: Make a spreadsheet. Soon you'll see that people on dynojets (the dyno in your area) that are making 330 to 370WHP on 93 octane are running a Blouch 3.5, a Garrett GT3582 and a FP Red. Now you have your shopping cart. Take the shopping cart to your tuner and say, "Hey tuner, I want 350WHP on your Dynojet on 93 octane, I have supporting mods X, Y and Z and am considering these 3 turbos. Which should I buy, do you have an alternate recommendation and what other supporting/maintenance mods do I need to ensure a drama free tune?" Then buy exactly what your tuner recommends.

If I tell you get a Tomioka GTX29 and you net 280HP which isn't close to your goal, you can't punch me in the mouth. If your tuner recommends a Blouch Dom 3.5 for your 400WHP goal and you buy $1000 in supporting parts and only make 280HP, you can perform a chargeback and/or punch him in the neck and/or spraypaint honky on the side of his car.
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Old 09-14-2021, 05:48 PM   #3
K3rm1tth3fr0g
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FP Blue.
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Old 09-14-2021, 06:17 PM   #4
timpala11
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I made 364/359 with the stock turbo on E74 and 330/330 on 93. Didn't even do all of the bolt-ons either (I did most of them).
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Old 09-15-2021, 12:24 AM   #5
philchan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by K3rm1tth3fr0g View Post
FP Blue.
I'm running 360 whp with e85, fmic, jpipe, catback and intake currently I'm looking to make 400-420 so I would like to avoid spending $3k on a turbo just to make another 40-60 whp but could you elaborate why you feel the FP blue is the best option?
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Old 09-15-2021, 12:28 AM   #6
philchan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by timpala11 View Post
I made 364/359 with the stock turbo on E74 and 330/330 on 93. Didn't even do all of the bolt-ons either (I did most of them).
Nice I'm right around that my tuner said. To get 400-420 range the fp blue ball bearing is best option. Just seems a little steep for the some of the other options out there.
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Old 09-15-2021, 09:13 AM   #7
timpala11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by philchan View Post
Nice I'm right around that my tuner said. To get 400-420 range the fp blue ball bearing is best option. Just seems a little steep for the some of the other options out there.
I guess I'm kind of confused because from my understanding 350/350 is considered to be the "safe" limit for a stock FA20. I wasn't going to do any more power adds (turbo, header, meth) until I built a motor.
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Old 09-15-2021, 09:17 AM   #8
K3rm1tth3fr0g
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Quote:
Originally Posted by timpala11 View Post
I guess I'm kind of confused because from my understanding 350/350 is considered to be the "safe" limit for a stock FA20. I wasn't going to do any more power adds (turbo, header, meth) until I built a motor.
Wrong.

Fa20 can make 400whp on ethanol all day long
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Old 09-15-2021, 09:51 AM   #9
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From my knowledge base:

The good of the FA20 is you can safely max it out at ~400HP. Other than an odd occasional failure, the engine/trans can handle this.

The bad of the FA20 is there are no good common injector upgrades so you are rather stuck at 400. It's also a good thing.

Disclaimer: I'm no DIT expert, so if there is a $400 injector swap these days like for EJs, I'm sorry.
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Old 09-15-2021, 10:29 AM   #10
timpala11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by K3rm1tth3fr0g View Post
Wrong.

Fa20 can make 400whp on ethanol all day long
I guess I should clarify that I would be more concerned about extra torque than HP. Do you mean straight E85? OEM HPFP doesn't like more than E60, and I've seen a few discussions that Nostrum's HPFP can't actually handle straight E85. I think my car could have hit 400whp with a couple extra bolt-ons I didn't do, although I did ask my tuner to keep the tune relatively conservative for the sake of my block.

With that being said, if 400 is the number, surely aiming above that would make me think about building the block. My car was my daily though, so that wasn't an immediate option for me.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Unabomber View Post
From my knowledge base:

The good of the FA20 is you can safely max it out at ~400HP. Other than an odd occasional failure, the engine/trans can handle this.

The bad of the FA20 is there are no good common injector upgrades so you are rather stuck at 400. It's also a good thing.

Disclaimer: I'm no DIT expert, so if there is a $400 injector swap these days like for EJs, I'm sorry.
I'm confused as to why there isn't an injector upgrade for the FA20 after all these years. I guess there weren't enough people maxing out the OEM ones for a vendor to justify it? I wonder if that will change with the new FA24 STi and if you'll be able to swap them into a FA20 eventually.
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Old 09-15-2021, 09:41 PM   #11
philchan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by K3rm1tth3fr0g View Post
Wrong.

Fa20 can make 400whp on ethanol all day long
Exactly so since the socal v3 is no longer an option which turbo is the most budget friendly turbo that doesn't cost as much as these fp blues
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Old 04-12-2023, 08:58 PM   #12
tunermt
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I have had a lot of hands on experience with the FA20dit powered WRX's over the years. IMO the best "budget friendly turbo" is the FP blue. *considering cost to performance*
While the turbo its self is not the cheapest option on the market it is a complete stock location bolt in turbo (use all your existing parts which saves $ and it performs better than any other stock location turbo upgrade.)

While there are other cheaper/lower cost stock location turbo options out there non of them perform as well as the WRX FP blue. (DOM turbos are a bit lazy/laggy compared and the GT29 is only a small performance bump over the oem turbo as far as power goes but the GT29 is still decently responsive. I'd say GT29 is good 2nd choice option.)

If you are limited to 93 octane fuel and want more power its def worth saving up the extra $$ for the FP blue. You won't be disappointed once the turbo is in your car!
Those with e85 or flex fuel available can likely reach their goals on the OEM turbo so if you want more power and you have ethanol fuel around get on it!
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Old 05-09-2023, 12:05 AM   #13
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Recently tuned a 2018 WRX that was running the "GTX29 turbo". Car had full bolt-on mods and 93 octane. The GTX29 still gives decent response/spool time and is MUCH happier holding 18psi+ all the way to 6800rpm than the stock turbo. Over all not a bad upgrade but i'd still like to see what it would do on a built a block and 25psi before i pass to much judgment on the lil GTX29.
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