Turbo seals are done, need advice :(

[ms6acton]

Here goes my story.

I noticed oil in my intake track last week and finally was able to take it into my local mazda dealer today. They then told me that my turbo seals were shot and thats why i had oil coming out of my intake. They quoted me $2100 for a new turbo and hardware, plus $730 to install it.

Im definitely not paying 2100 for a normal ko4, so my question to you guys is what route should i take. BnR rebuilt, protegegarage rebuilt, used one off a member on here?

The car stills runs fine, just has some starting issues once it warms up, and oil leaking out of the intake a bit. So i would like to get this done ASAP.

Any insight on the different turbos or another possible route is greatly appreciated.

 

[vrspeedemon]

I've heard good things about the BNR, close to stock...no tuning needed.
Guys on MSF are blowing motors with the PG without tuning
That's all I have, sorry couldn't be of more help.

 

[ms6acton]

thats actually lots of help, narrows down my choices. Thanks!

 

[PPO2Kane]

I've tuned one MS6 with the BNR (I actually got that ball rolling a few years ago); I really liked it, the install wasn't bad, the change in how the car drives is pretty huge. At 18PSI, that MS6 with BNR is a violent violent car.

 

[Ok Red]

I may be able to help a bit, as I was recently faced with a similar issue.

BNR makes 3 turbo upgrades - stage 1 and stage 2 both bolt on, with stage 1 being a better quality version of the stock unit and stage 2 getting about 10% more flow. Stage 3 requires mods to the car but if you want to make a lot of hp then it might be a part of the solution (along with pistons and connecting rods).

I have a motorcycle (my commuting vehicle) and a truck so the MS6 is my 'fun' car, but I didn't want to get really radical so I chose stage 2. This model requires tuning and a new fuel pump to really unlock the potential of the new turbo... and if the downpipe had to be removed then I figured I would replace it as it is also a chokepoint.

I started with a 2006 speed 6 with Cobb Ram Air Intake, Cobb Turbo Intake and Cobb AP. I opted to not get a base dyno run, but if I had it to do over I would have done that. While I had the car at the tuners I added the following: BNR stage 2, cp-E fuel pump, cp-E catted downpipe, cp-E engine mount and cp-E rear diff mount.

The final dyno was 265 whp and 305 ft-lbs tq at 18 psi boost. I'm in Arizona, so we only have 91 octane gas. I'm guessing that doing a full exhaust would have added maybe 5-10 whp, but I really wanted the car to remain quiet and so I haven't made that change. The seat of the pants difference was pretty noticable - the car pulls like a bear right up to redline. Going from the stock ECU to the cobb AP map was a step difference in performance and this was a similar step difference.

During the Az Mazda club dyno day (last saturday) the best MS6 (with just bolt on mods) was 245 whp, so a loose correlation is that the turbo was worth at least 20 whp and probably more as most folks go with aftermarket exhaust and as noted above that would probably get me another 5-10 whp.

Replacing the engine and diff mounts made an amazing difference in response, and upon close inspection i could see why - the elastomeric inserts in the rear diff mount were completely gone, and the inserts in the engine mounts were honecombed with holes.

Next up for me... and probably the remaining major work I will do... is a top mounted intercooler, transmission mount, coilovers and swaybars.