I just wanted to share a good experience I recently had with a company/product that a lot of people on the forums don't seem to be aware of.
At around 165k miles, my turbo started sounding like a dentist's drill, so it was time for replacement. I'm already stage 2, so I didn't want to re-buy a lot of parts and tuning for a big turbo, and I didn't necessarily want to lay out $1500 for a new K04, so I did some searching and found this upgraded CHRA from Turbo Rebuild Ltd in England to try out.
With exchange rates at the time, it cost me about $350 shipped, and it arrived in 2 days to the east coast US from the UK. It took me a few months to finally carve out some time to install it, but the job went really smoothly; the guys at Turbo Rebuild were great about answering any questions I had, and the new CHRA fit perfectly. I'm still driving it gently to break it in a little bit, but it seems to be working well so far, no leaks or funny noises and it seems to be playing well with IE's software. One thing I've noticed is the compressor surge I got as the turbo spools up from around 2000rpm is gone now. I'll get it on a dyno soon to see how much it's actually putting down.
They also sell K03 cores and rebuild kits. It's a good option if your turbo has failed in some way but the housings are still good, or if you want a mild upgrade from the stock core.
At around 165k miles, my turbo started sounding like a dentist's drill, so it was time for replacement. I'm already stage 2, so I didn't want to re-buy a lot of parts and tuning for a big turbo, and I didn't necessarily want to lay out $1500 for a new K04, so I did some searching and found this upgraded CHRA from Turbo Rebuild Ltd in England to try out.
With exchange rates at the time, it cost me about $350 shipped, and it arrived in 2 days to the east coast US from the UK. It took me a few months to finally carve out some time to install it, but the job went really smoothly; the guys at Turbo Rebuild were great about answering any questions I had, and the new CHRA fit perfectly. I'm still driving it gently to break it in a little bit, but it seems to be working well so far, no leaks or funny noises and it seems to be playing well with IE's software. One thing I've noticed is the compressor surge I got as the turbo spools up from around 2000rpm is gone now. I'll get it on a dyno soon to see how much it's actually putting down.
They also sell K03 cores and rebuild kits. It's a good option if your turbo has failed in some way but the housings are still good, or if you want a mild upgrade from the stock core.