I love that everyone is throwing opinions out here. I'm not giving you mine without more information.

How many miles are on your car?
What other mods?

 

Fair enough - more detail below

The car has about 103K miles on it - to my knowledge it's the original motor. Runs well. Powertrain is basically stock with the exception of

AVO Catted Downpipe
Electric Cutout at the muffler
Grimmspeed Lightweight Crank Pulley
Cobb After Maf tube
Walbro Fuel Pump

I have no intention of changing injectors or really doing any more power mods.

The car is driven daily . Dependability, throttle response and powerband is much more important than peak power

 

Have you looked at any other options for replacement turbos? If you aren't going to change injectors, then the 16g is a replacement.

There are other options as well, custom billet VF turbos - STI Single Scroll Turbos 02-07 WRX 04+ STI VF30 VF39 VF43 VF48

 

Thanks for the information. I just kind of laugh when I see a bunch of opinions about what someone else should do when they have no idea what that person's goals are and what the car's history is.

I could come on and be like... hey what turbo should I get. Some ding dong tells me to put a 20g on it and guess what. My car explodes on the dyno because that's the last damned thing my car needs.

I'm guessing some folks already knew... but I didn't so I asked. Hope you weren't offended by it.



Given this information
1. 2.5 liter.
2. over 100k (you do a timing belt yet?)
3. Gone this far without huge power.
4. Daily driver that does auto cross. Not a track car.
5. Mike knows what he's talking about.


I personally like the xt and xtr turbos. I think the 16g is a great replacement turbo. You'll get a little more HP than you got from the 39 and it'll probably spool faster. It'll be great in the low and mid range which is what you need for auto cross and what is fun on the street. Top end will be about where you're at now. It'll run out of air. It's a relatively small turbo for a 2.5 liter car.

The 18g would be great too. You won't loose much spool up. You'll have a bit more HP available to you if you choose to use it but not so much that your 100k car is going to bust a seam the first time you put your foot in it.

20g. That turbo is too big for what you need and what it sounds like what you're looking for. It's a great turbo but for a street car that sees autocross driven by a person that doesn't care about swinging his big dick dyno sheet around. Same goes for 30r and 35r. Etc. Both great turbos but not what everyone needs or can handle. You start talking about those turbos and you're talking about a lot more mods than you have or are looking to do.

I personally wouldn't run anything over an 18g on a stock motor.

Beyond that... you're not looking to do injectors and other supporting mods so you slam a big turbo on there you're going to max out your injectors. Not safe or smart or necessary.

So given that you're not looking to do that... the 16g XTR is a great recommendation with the second one being the 18g. I wouldn't go larger.


But I'm also conservative. Might be why my car is still alive at almost 235,000 miles. LOL!

 

Agree 100%. What he said is what I said minus the book. LOL!

VF34. VF30 would both be good too.

 

The 34s are ball bearing turbos, not easy to come by but if given the opportunity to obtain one for a good price then I would jump on it!

 

I think that clenches it...
16G it is OMA's logic makes sense... and I either trust my tuner (GST) or I don't.

 

That's kind of it. It's always what I tell people with tuners. I have my personal favorites but what people need to do is find one they have confidence in and stick to them. People that hop tuners like $2 hookers end up with messed up cars.


16/18/vf34 would be my personal choices.


Kenley... on your note... I tried to trade my 18g xt for a 34 about a month ago but the dude ended up just using the 34. LOL! It's my favorite turbo for the 2 liter.

 

Isn't the 30 ball on one side?