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Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 565
Senior Member
2000 Toyota Celica GT
Senior Member
2000 Toyota Celica GT
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 565
Everything you read is my personal opinion based on my personal experiences. I am not affiliated with any company, I just try to give my point of view..


This has become a pretty long write-up without pictures so if you're not interested in a Turbo and C2Power's kit in specific, I advise to skip to the next topic


Okay, so my Stage 1 Turbo is in about two weeks now... estimated current power = 190/200 hp (We'll get to that later )
Here's the story
After I installed my AEM CAI and Invidia exhaust I found the power gains to be to minimal. I was looking into a lighter flywheel, headers etc. and reaching 200bhp N/A. Since this would be a too costly operation I decided to go the Forced Induction Way...
At first my eye fell on David Draper's kit, but since they are very limited on stock and the fact it takes a few weeks to get a reply from him I decided not to go with that kit.
Stafford's kit seemed like a good alternative, but once again they are (were) hard to contact and information was minimal at that moment. Also from the pictures I have seen I wasn't too impressed with the parts I saw. The fact I cannot have control over my own engine management without sending a unit back was a big con for me..

I got in contact with C2POWER actually for the lambo doors. These guys are in Hungary (which is part of the European Union since the 1st of May) which is a lot closer than the United States and is also better for customs and taxes. I decided to not go for the lambo's and go for their Turbo instead.
Seeing is believing I always say and I got in contact with a fellow dutchman (Hey Bing!). I met Gaspar (c2gas) and Bing and we took off to Bitburg in Germany for a german meeting. There I got a chance to see and feel what a Stage 2 Turbo does to the celica. It also gave me a chance to talk to Gaspar which made me very comfortable since he really knows the celica and is very enthousiastic.

I kept in contact with Gaspar and we made a deal to do the install at the end of July, which made me happy because finding a decent company in the Netherlands that gives me enough faith they can install the kit is nearly impossible, not to mention the costs.

So at the end of july Gaspar came over with a friend/collegae Lacee (pronounced Latsji ). I rented a bridge in a garage (which was pretty messy but cheap and did the job) and we started the install on wednesday round 10.00. I made pictures along the way to show the time needed for each part of the install, but some F#@#er decided to steal my camera so I haven't got a single picture of the install

They started off with taking of the bumper, draining the oil and coolant, then taking off the oil pan. Next taking off the midpipe of the exhaust and take off standard header.
The hardest part is getting in the new header, it's bigger than the standard header.
Taking off the crossmember is a way too, but something Gaspar didn't want to do and I can imagine why, you'll see.
Gaspar took of the valve cover and tilted the block forward, but the header still wouldn't go in.
After removing the battery, waterlines and moving around some cables he was able to slide the header in from the side where the battery is located.
Mounting the header and the Turbo to it is fairly straight-forward.
Waterlines need to be mounted to the Turbo and connected between the standard waterlines..
If I remember correct this part took about 3 to 4 hours.
Rest of the day was filled with connecting lines and cables, installing the intercooler and fitting the pipes.
The Turbo had a new way of connecting the oil return line (Gaspar, correct me if I am wrong) which made the oil return line sit pretty close to the Turbo-outlet where the compressed air comes out. This wasn't really a problem rather an interesting challenge to fit the elbow-hose and oil return line

In a nutshell this was day 1, I probably did not go into every detail but this write-up is getting longer than I expected already.

Day 2
We came back to do the rest of the install.
Gaspar prepared the oil pan for the oil return line and made a flange for my oil-temp-sensor to go in.
While Soceur/C2PowerGTS and I drove back to pick up my laptop, Gaspar and Lacee offcourse went on with mounting the Turbo to the block and putting everything back together for that part. We came back and we were ready to shorten the midpipe and GTS injectors of ebay, since more air means more fuel..
This is moment you realise you should always use new o-rings. We started the car and I felt relieved as it started almost immediately again, but I had to turn it off because we had a fuel leak, due to re-using o-rings.
We replaced them and all was fine. Gaspar held the Turbo-wheel because it's a new Turbo and there's no oil in it yet. Holding the wheel will get oil in the Turbo before it starts spinning. After letting the engine run for a few minutes enough oil was in the Turbo and we turned it off again to finish the rest.
Time to connect the pipe from the intercooler to the Intake body.

Maybe some of you remember the sound my Invidia exhaust made from the clip I posted once. Well... now my car sounds almost stock, the Turbo really takes away almost all the sound. I will be putting in a straigh 60mm midpipe in the future, that should give me back some sound..

For the next part, just turn your eyes away from the car a while. Time to cut wirings from/to the ECU.
On day 1 we shoved the wires for the Greddy E-manage through the firewall which isn't as hard as it seems actually. The wirings were connected and the e-manage was prepared for business.
During this I was connecting my gauges...

Ok, all set, time to load the fuelmap into the e-manage and put everything back together and take off.
I was really psyched offcourse to see what my car would feel like.. Gaspar drove with me to make some changes to the fuelmap for better Performance. After about 10 seconds Gaspar said my clutch sounded weird (which I didn't hear because I was too engaged with my car). Turned onto the highway, put it in 6th and floored it... 2000 rpm, boost being created... 2500 rpm, 6 psi boost and clutch slipped... DAMN, this means my clutch is really on edge and I cannot put down the new power I have
Also my EGT and oil-temp didn't work at the moment (I hadn't connected the gauges to 12v yet) so we tuned the car to be rather conservative in power.

The install took two days with 2 people. I can imagine companies not accustomed to the kit would need about 3 days with 2 people but surely not more than that. This kit is as bolt-on as it gets.
I think that installing it yourself is possible too, assuming you have access to a bridge and enough time to leave the car on it. You need some welding skills, technical skills and offcourse commons sense..


Since my clutch only slips in higher gears or higher rpms I tried it out offcourse and man this so cool. It's so fast... After driving with boost for a few minutes I understand why it's so addictive, HOWEVER I think the power the stage 1 kit makes is more than enough. More power means stuff will probably break and you're looking at more costs.
Most of the time you won't even be running on boost. the Turbo will just pushing air in the pipes to counteract for the vacuum the engine makes adn this gives a very good amount of torque in the entire rpm-range...
After a few days my ECU settled and my CEL came on, like expected. It's running too rich now.
Gaspar will come back with his new Wideband o2-sensor to finetune the car since the one he had was broken.
By that time I hope to have my SPEC stage 2 clutch + SPEC flywheel in so I can really push my car. I expect to gain about 30+ whp due to tuning and the flywheel..

So the sound of my exhaust is a goner, but the sound of the Turbo is so much better, from 2000 rpm it sounds like a jet taking off in my engine bay, lettings go of the gas gives a good woosh and a nice fluttering sound. This attracts even more attention than the loud exhaust

Since this Turbo spools up very fast (full boost @2500 rpm) it makes the car really nice to drive. Use the throttle easy and you have a super-driveable celica with more torque. Kick down the throttle and you have a rocket. Why get a GTS and try to land in lift when you can have a boosted GT in which it's supereasy to land in boost! I cannot push too much offcourse but I did a run from 0 to the end of the 3rd gear, and man my heart was racing..

Overall impression of the kit:
The kit is very good and very well thought through. the Turbo is perfect for the celica and the piping is very nice. Choosing the E-manage is a good one because you have an open and customizable system. The power gains are indeed through the entire RPM-range but the car is still very driveable. The power is very easy to control.

My advice when you're interested in going Turbo is this:
read... read... read... understand what's gonna happen and think this through, your car will no longer be the car it used to be.. it's a lot faster and more fun to drive but it needs to be a lot more taken care off.

My advice when you have decided to go Turbo:
Get a new clutch, your standard clutch will not hold up and if it does, it won't be for long.
Get gauges to monitor everything that happens in your car.

There is so much to say and I probably forgot a lot, but this gives a good impression of the install and the kit.
When my new clutch is in and my car is tuned I'll make a new clip for your viewing pleasure..

Big Thanks go out to C2Power (especially Gaspar and Lacee) and Bing and Mouse.

Immo

Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 5,125
Speed Omen
2002 Toyota Celica GT
Speed Omen
2002 Toyota Celica GT
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 5,125
awesome - congrats on the Turbo bro... ask Gaspar if he can use the PowerFC instead of the EManage for fuel management and tuning purposes on an auto GT

- the stage 1 is a kit I've had my eye on for awhile... thumbsup

Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 565
Senior Member
2000 Toyota Celica GT
Senior Member
2000 Toyota Celica GT
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 565
He can use the PFC but from what I've heard he likes the e-manage better. You can get the stage1 kit without the e-manage and get the PFC yourself and have it tuned.
also stuff like a pressure sensor for the pfc is $500 whereas the sensor for the e-manage is aroun $100

Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 5,125
Speed Omen
2002 Toyota Celica GT
Speed Omen
2002 Toyota Celica GT
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 5,125
yeah - some people have a preference for certain products either because they have more experience with them or whatever... even my Performance shop said that they didn't like the Apexi unit - idunno

- from what I know, it's the best around... but the GReddy EManage is decent as well and may turn out to be my choice after all since people have recently been suggesting that the PowerFC may not work with autos

Last edited by Sultan; Aug 16, 2004 2:43am.

Joined: Jun 2004
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Specialist
2001 Toyota Celica GT
Specialist
2001 Toyota Celica GT
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,283
How much are the kits? I've seen these and if the price is low then I'm gunna have to go with this kit, when I go to buy one...


My car is gunna be 10x faster than yours...haha... I'm gunna buy like 10
of those speedchips! I figure if 1 gets me 20hp then 10 will get me 200hp!

Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 5,125
Speed Omen
2002 Toyota Celica GT
Speed Omen
2002 Toyota Celica GT
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 5,125
$3200 for the GT (stage 1)

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Specialist
2001 Toyota Celica GT
Specialist
2001 Toyota Celica GT
Joined: Jun 2004
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What about the stage 2?


My car is gunna be 10x faster than yours...haha... I'm gunna buy like 10
of those speedchips! I figure if 1 gets me 20hp then 10 will get me 200hp!

Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 5,125
Speed Omen
2002 Toyota Celica GT
Speed Omen
2002 Toyota Celica GT
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 5,125
Originally Posted by CelicaGTizzle
What about the stage 2?

just add the price of wiseco pistons and crower rods... (+ $1250 retail)

- check out mwr @ www.monkeywrenchracing.com [monkeywrenchracing.com]

Last edited by Sultan; Aug 16, 2004 7:16am.

Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 2,371
SHO - NUFF
2003 Toyota Celica GT
SHO - NUFF
2003 Toyota Celica GT
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 2,371
its a little more, but you have to rebuild your block with lower compression internals

Joined: Jan 2004
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SHO - NUFF
2003 Toyota Celica GT
SHO - NUFF
2003 Toyota Celica GT
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 2,371
yeah, then you have to get the valves, and valve springs, and the labor for rebuliding your block (around $2500 usually), and a new clutch...I bet the stage 2 is fast as all hell tho!!!!!

Joined: Jan 2004
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Speed Omen
2002 Toyota Celica GT
Speed Omen
2002 Toyota Celica GT
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 5,125
yeah - stage 2 for the GT is supposed to be over 250hp...

Joined: Jun 2003
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Specialist
2001 Toyota Celica
Specialist
2001 Toyota Celica
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Originally Posted by Sultan
yeah - stage 2 for the GT is supposed to be over 250hp...
tasty


[Linked Image]

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ECelica Staff
ECelica Staff
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Turbo tasty ... next year's project thumbsup

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Senior Member
2000 Toyota Celica GT
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2000 Toyota Celica GT
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Originally Posted by Sultan
yeah - stage 2 for the GT is supposed to be over 250hp...


only in my dreams can I have this... cry DAMNIT WHY MUST I BE AWAKE?!

Joined: Aug 2003
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Senior Member
2000 Toyota Celica GT
Senior Member
2000 Toyota Celica GT
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 565
Originally Posted by RicePowered
Turbo tasty ... next year's project thumbsup

You'll love it..

Joined: Sep 2003
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Senior Member
2000 Toyota Celica GT
Senior Member
2000 Toyota Celica GT
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Posts: 823
Originally Posted by Immo
Originally Posted by RicePowered
Turbo tasty ... next year's project thumbsup

You'll love it..


I can't wait until I can say that...

Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 327
Member
2002 Toyota modded 5-Speed
Member
2002 Toyota modded 5-Speed
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theres a GB intrest thread on ncDOTorg for the stage one (GT&GTS). the more people the cheaper the price!! so check it out! thumbsup

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Member
2001 Toyota Celica
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2001 Toyota Celica
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man...id jump into the GB but i live in California and they have all those smog and emissions laws...so unless it becomes carb legal...this can only be a dream

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ECelica Staff
2000 Toyota Celica GTS
ECelica Staff
2000 Toyota Celica GTS
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great story. very interesting and exciting.


Satoshi from JAPAN

Joined: Aug 2003
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2000 Toyota Celica GT
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2000 Toyota Celica GT
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 565
Originally Posted by Satoshi
great story. very interesting and exciting.
Hey man, glad you like it.
Feels like paying back for all the times I read your pages smile

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what kind of gauges do you need? how do you tune your car? i live in the hawaiian islands and no one hear tunes cars. do you know if the xs kit ready to be installed without tunning?


NO SCADE...RACE'UM CUZ!

Joined: Jun 2004
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Specialist
2002 Toyota Celica
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2002 Toyota Celica
Joined: Jun 2004
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^^ what island are you on? Is there a dyno anywhere on your island? If so, you can tune it yourself on the dyno (after learning how of course). Ask Team Controlled Inertia. I think they do their own tuning. You'll want to tune the XS kit or any Turbo kit for safety and Performance. Every car is different as well as the climate you're in. Get an FC Commander for sure to monitor for knock. Unfortunately the FCDatalogit is on worlwide backorder. That is unless you want to fly to New Zealand and harass/beg/bribe a couple of guys into making you your kit.


I get my kicks on EC.

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2004 Toyota Celica
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2004 Toyota Celica
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oustanding I think I will wait till my warrentiy is up before I do the Turbo kit


[Linked Image]

Joined: Nov 2003
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oas
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did you not need to pay taxes for the extra horses?
have you got somthing broken in the engien til now?
wath was the total amount of mony you had to pay for every thing fhished with clutch and innstal?
and damn congrats with a nice car with some nice speed.

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