another 3rd gen turbo conversion
 

wanted to try something new so i put my 04.5 turbo on my 96'. the swap was pretty straight forward but i rotated my exhaust housing and made a custom wastegate bracket so intercooler tubing would be better aligned.
in terms of performance, i think low fuel boost has better response. drivability is fantastic, egts are slightly higher, and increased power isn't overly noticable. was it worth the effort? sure if your old one is worn out and the new one is free. would i change out a perfectly running hx35...probably not. i would save up the money and just upgrade.

How much boost are you pushing with it?

35-40 when foots to floor. 30-35 normally. still fighting egts through, not sure if its the tuning or the exhaust housing really doesn't like the 12v fueling parameters. may throw the other on for comparisons...we will see.

One think you might try is adding a couple of washers under the wastegate actuator head to space it up from the compressor flange that it mounts to. This puts more spring tension on the wastegate to ensure maximum spoolup.

You can only add two washers before you space the head up so far that you cannot thread the two bolts on the backside to hold the whole assembly in place. I know my truck ran doggish and kind of hot till I got proper preload on the wastegate puck. I know you rigged up your own bracket, so I question whether or not you have enough preload on the wastegate to ensure all drive pressure is forced through the turbine wheel.

Spoolup is a dead giveaway if your wastegate is leaking/bleeding off exhaust drive pressure. If spoolup is not just as fast as HX35, I'd say you need more tension on the puck. If you have nearly identical spoolup, your guess is as good as mine.

Oh, when I'm at full power with the Adrenaline and have a good load, 45-46 psi on my setup.

that seems like alot of boost for the he351! i think i agree with your tension philosophy. i will try the washer idea after i finish my 04.5 engine swap. then i will work on tuning parameters with the 12v. hopefully that will make a difference.
thanks

Yeah, 45 psi is a lot of load on the HE351, but it can take it and it makes more power on the top end when I let boost go that high.

yikes, i don't want to know what the drive pressure would be with that 9cm housing at 45psi !!!

60+ psi at 45# boost and its about 75# drive pressure at 50# boost.


FYI, I was seeing nearly 70 psi drive pressure at 43 psi boost on the HX 35.