[n_aditya]

Originally Posted by vikram_d

Pics and reviews will take time to come up as I am running short of time at this moment to sit down and write a review.

Running short of time for a review?

Take a break. You've been practically living in that car now. One of us will be happy to help you pen that report.... (as in, borrow the car so you get the time).

Originally Posted by prabhuav

Whodunneet? Psycho?

Yes. THE madman.

Last time i was in blore (couple of weeks back) akshay and me were literally mauling each other to sit in the front passenger seat for a TD (i finally got to sit in the front). And what a ride it was... Lovely. And with the ABS, it just gets better. I still remember how the civic got pasted.

[ram_hyundai]

Turbo swifts are becoming common nowadays,lol.Good to see that you have done one yourself buddie.Expecting a detailed review soon.
ram

[theMAG]

Originally Posted by ram_hyundai

Turbo swifts are becoming common nowadays,lol.

Especially the diesel types.

[jassi]

i think ram meant the custom turbos - not the factory fitted diesels

i have seen two so far on the forum - gembella's and vikram's

I am sure once it becomes a reliable repeatable process, we will have plenty more swift owners lining up to get tc'd. Imagine all the whhhooosh whooosh bov sounds on the street in rush hour bangy traffic!!

[V-16]

Congrats Vikram for your new T/Ced ride. IN sure you are enjoying every bit of Psycho's "Mad" expertise.
Please do put up pics and a driving review.

Originally Posted by vikram_d

...The turbo does not requrie any special care. It only needs to spooled up and down for 30 seconds before and after a drive.

Putting in a Turbo Timer here will help and is highly recommended.

Originally Posted by vikram_d

...No other mods are necessary if you are looking at
6 -7 pounds of boost. ABS is preferred. Suspension is already pretty stiff in a swift. Max you might need strut braces.

I dont think there is any place in the front engine bay to put in strut braces on a Swift. The pods are hidden and are literally on the "A" Pillar making the job very difficult and the handling is good. Should be the same for the rear, though I cant comment on that as i have not seen that aspect.

[theMAG]

Originally Posted by jassi

Imagine all the whhhooosh whooosh bov sounds on the street in rush hour bangy traffic!!

Trucks and buses will be happy that cars seem to come with air brakes these days.

[jassi]

Vikram - I asked gembella this question and going to ask you too

"when you say daily driver - do you drive around in bumper to bumper traffic also during rush hour. How easy is it to drive if you get stuck in traffic or do you keep wheel spinning all over the place at a crowded junction"

[mclaren1885]

Originally Posted by Psycho

Not too sure but am sure of Cedia, Civic and Corolla.

Vikram, is this over a quarter mile from a standing start? Were the cars stock or modded cars belonging to friends?

[vikram_d]

Originally Posted by V-16

Please do put up pics and a driving review.

Putting in a Turbo Timer here will help and is highly recommended.

I dont think there is any place in the front engine bay to put in strut braces on a Swift. The pods are hidden and are literally on the "A" Pillar making the job very difficult and the handling is good. Should be the same for the rear, though I cant comment on that as i have not seen that aspect.

The review will come up shortly and so will the turbo timer. There is some amount of place available where you can fit a strut brace. It will basically be hidden and you will not be able to see it from outside or even when you open the hood.

Originally Posted by jassi

Vikram - I asked gembella this question and going to ask you too

"when you say daily driver - do you drive around in bumper to bumper traffic also during rush hour. How easy is it to drive if you get stuck in traffic or do you keep wheel spinning all over the place at a crowded junction"

It is my only car and no you dont wheel spin on crowded junctions. Wheel spinning depends on how you launch.

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

Vikram, is this over a quarter mile from a standing start? Were the cars stock or modded cars belonging to friends?

Corolla and Civic was over a rolling start. The Cedia belonged to one of our forum members itself. I think all the cars were stock. In the run with corolla I ws doing 190 in 4th gear. Feels absolutely awesome to have that kind of power under your right foot.

What's happening with your plans?

[jassi]

thanks vikram so it is a daily driver for real

yeah mclaren - long time not heard of performance mods on ur car

[PiranhaBoy]

Hey Vikram saw a similar looking Swift near the Tallwalkers near Ulsoor, you by any chance? :d

[alias]

nice to see you got time to write about your super machine....

the car's extremely fast it nailed a cedia without any problems

i know this since i was sitting in the cedia and watching the swift GO.....

but not driving well it was a nice experience

i m sure i m going to be having the same feeling as yours very soon

then we'll RACE!!!! what say

[needforspeed88]

BRAVO dude.. congrats.must be an amazing feeling to have that kinda power under your right foot.Great looking ride with the performance to match it.congrats to psycho too for great piece of work.

[vikram_d]

Originally Posted by PiranhaBoy

Hey Vikram saw a similar looking Swift near the Tallwalkers near Ulsoor, you by any chance? :d

If you saw it today then it wasnt me.

Originally Posted by alias

nice to see you got time to write about your super machine....

the car's extremely fast it nailed a cedia without any problems

i know this since i was sitting in the cedia and watching the swift GO.....

but not driving well it was a nice experience

i m sure i m going to be having the same feeling as yours very soon

then we'll RACE!!!! wat say

I'm sure you will and trust me you will enjoy every bit of it. No race wace for me, we shall have a friendly duel.

[vikram_d]

Well this upgrade has been the latest in a long list of minor upgrades my car had since i bought it. Let's go step by step.

Mod 1:
K&N Filter with off the shelf SS intake pipe
Automech FFE
Triphase Module from Viper Performance.

Mod 2:

Race Dynamics RD 0601 standalone ECU (major upgrade)

Mod 3:
Custom made headers from Raj.
Green cotton filter with custom SS intake tube from Raj
Enarged throttle body (DIY effort with technical inputs from Sanjay, Ex RAC, now with Race Dynamics).

Mod 4:
Realized that I was not happy with the power (in the sense that it was not enough). Sold the headers (exchanged them for the Swift's workshop manual with TheMAG)and went back to stock headers. Started collecting money for the turbo upgrade and doing research on turbos. (Google was my best friend).

Mod 5:
Exedy Stage 2 clutch
VI-21 oil cooled turbo
HKS iridium plugs
HKS high flow foam type dry air filter
Intercooler
Custom made log type exhaust manifold
Custom made mild steel piping (will be changed to aluminium piping in some time)
Blitz BOV (loaner from Race Dynamics Karthik till the HKS BOV arrives)
HKS Turbo timer yet to fix

I dont know what to say about this build exept that I am absolutely loving it. I until now had never driven a turbo petrol car. Infact Psycho (yes he did the build) at one point wondered how come a guy who has never driven an afftermarket turbo car is opting for a tiurbo build. I dont know what made me go in for it myself when a lot of people had given me other options like a baleno engine transplant, a twin cam 1.3L transplant. But somehow I knew that the linear power delivery of these engines would not keep me happy for long. And I had seen and heard of a lot of turbo builds going down the drain. After a long battle with pros & cons finally decided to join the dark side.

The build finally started with only one sentiment that it had to be reliable as it was my only car and it is going to a daily drive in bumper to bumper bangalore traffic. Also the Air-con cannot be removed and all the internals will be stock. The other criteria for the build was that it had to be done in one week flat, as I do not have a stand by car and I travel about 120 - 150 kms per day (yes in bangalore traffic).

We at first tried to mod the stock header to accomodate the turbo, but this effort went wrong as the height of the turbo was below the level of the oil sump and oil was flowing backwards into the turbo through the return line. So we decided to scrap this idea and build a simple log type manifold. Doing this enabled us to move the turbo 3 inches from it previous height and stopped the oil return problem. All this effort went in only because we had to preserve the Air-con and the engine bay in the swift is extremely cramped.

The log type manifold effort bore fruit and from then on everything went on like clock work. The build was complete in 8 days, only the ECU tuning work remained. The stock ECU would handle upto 2 pounds of boost after which it would throw the check engine light and start leaning out the mixture. Even the Race Dynamics ECU was tuned for NA form and not for a turbo build. So the first priority now became to get the RD-ECU tuned as with it I could not go above 4000 rpm for the fear of detonation occuring.

Psycho now gave me a few pointers of what I could and could not do with the car now. The biggest no-no is hard racing launches. Supposedly the gearbox in the Swift is it weakest point and will give way. Also before and after driving the car I have spool up and spool down the turbo for about 30 seconds. Currently am doing this manually but will soon have a turbo timer. He also warned me to keep a look out for engine temperature as the turbo heats up the oil quite fast and check coolant levels often.

Now on to the tuning. While tuning the RD-ECU we discovered that the turbo was generating only 4 pounds of boost even though it had an internal wastegate set at 8 pounds. Anyways got the base map loaded and got the wastegate adjusted. On a test run after this adjustment we found that ECU was not handling wide open throttle well (or so we thought and were proved wrong later). The air intake pipe which was going into the turbo had a small leak and due to which it folded in on itself. We changed this pipe and I went to Karthik for the final ECU tuning. Now we found that the turbo is generating 5.8 pounds of boost and the vehicle was flying. It is now a completely different animal with torque steer even on a rolling start.

I had never ever experienced torque steer and I was blown away. From here start the good times. After this we did an un-intentional and un-official test of the setup. This was after one of our saturday night Jayamahal Palace meets when I was showing the build to a few fellow Team-BHPians. With 5 people in the car we pulled down a civic and another cedia belonging to another Team-BHPian. Now I was really happy with what the car can do with just 6 pounds of boost. Needless to say even the other Team-BHPians were pretty impressed. I did not need anything more.

Now came one last hitch to the ride being a perfect one. During accelerating and braking the engine naturally moves forward and backward to some extent. This movement was causing the turbo to come and hit the protective shield built around the radiator fan and the fan would make a huge racket when it came on. Psycho and Vasu came up with a simple and yet functional remedy for this by just moving the radiator and Air-con condenser assembly forward by just half an inch and straightening out the bent portion of the protective shield. This simple solution solved this problem.

The vehicle has now done close to 2650 kms after the build and everything is looking normal. The engine temperature is the same as it used to be in NA form even after a long drive 90 km drive wirh Air-con working at full blast.

I guess it is pretty obvious by now that I am happy with the build and hopefully will be happy with it for a long time to some.

Thanks to the effort of all involved - Psycho, Vasu & his crew, RD Karthik, Pavan (Race Dynamics)

PS: Before anybody asks me for mileage figures, here they are. With sedate normal city driving I am getting 13.5 to 14.5 kmpl with about 50% A/C usage. With hard driving I am getting about 9.5 to 10.5 kmpl. Hard driving mileage will be again put to test on the next track day (whenever that happens).

PS2: For all the people wanting to know how much it cost, please contact Psycho directly. And for HKS parts costing contact RD Karthik and Pavan.