Associate
Got my Evo 9 that has turned into a bit of a project so here we go! This thread is a summary of numerous posts from another forum so I'll try and stitch them together to give a fluid timeline at least 
Was fortunate enough to win the car from Dream Car Giveaways on 01/12/23 and collected it on 03/12/23 which was as soon as I could, super chuffed as you'd probably imagine. Regretted selling my last Evo 9 (Sold it and my 360 to buy my 650S) so was a little unreal to win this one; albeit buying many tickets on every Evo competition that came up!
Full spec is;
56,000 Miles, with pretty much a bare metal restoration by RG Motorsport - genuinely crazy how clean the car is.
5 Speed Gearbox as they're stronger than the 6 Speed.
552hp on High boost / 480hp Low Boost
Fully Rebuilt Engine - 2.0 Long Rod, 1400hd Wiesco 85.5 Pistons, 156mm Oliver I-Beams, Manley Springs & Retainers, GSC S2 Cams, ARP Main Studs & Head Studs, ACL Bearings, Tubular Manifold, S205b Turbo, ETS 3" Intercooler, 3" Intake Pipe / K&N, 3" Russ Fellows Exhaust System
Link G4 Ecu with antilag and aforementioned hi/low boost switching
Water Methanol injection fitted (AEM controller / gauge / tank)
Lots of Xtreme Carbon external bits fitted
Handling; Cusco Power Brace, Superpro 24mm Rear ARB, Meister R ZetaPro Coilovers
Work ZR10 Alloys
At home alongside the 650S
So enjoyed it on the odd good day in December and generally having a great time with it. Took it down to my parents for Christmas and had a great run out along the south coast
Fast forward to mid Jan and the S205B turbo decided it no longer wanted to be part of the world, broken down in a woods from 2pm-8pm was not the nicest experience Used a 50p coin to get the intake off and the turbo had an absolute huge amount of play in it and had obviously rubbed the turbine against the housing.
Got recovered and was a horrendous experience, had to wait for the roadside guy to agree it wasn't repairable at the side of the road (not his fault he tried to skip the visit after speaking to me but its all gps linked and he had to inspect) also told the AA about 10 times I had my dog with me and they said it would be fine to have her in the recovery truck then they sent someone who refused to take me because of the dog and he eventually agreed on the basis my dog would have to stay on her own in the car on the back of the trailer.
Anyway old turbo off to Turbo Technics for inspection, diagnosed as overspeed. It's on the limit of what the turbo can handle really and was 9 years old having been on the car for about 5-7 years or so. As it was completely goosed with nothing reusable on it I ordered a replacement S205B (like for like) turbo from Turbo Technics, that arrived just before I went on holiday. Went on my holiday, got back and lost my job (great timing ) which gave me time at least to fit the new turbo with all new hardware etc.
Had a great shakedown run out all good, about 50 miles in total (with stops to check on everything etc) then took it on a run out to the Cotswolds, again great fun
However on the run back home the car had a huge hesitation when I was overtaking someone and found no boost. Limped it the final couple of miles home and sure enough turbo was goosed once more. Got it straight off and drove it back up to Turbo Technics, complete with the Circlip that was hanging out of the oil drain :/ This time the failure was diagnosed as oil starvation, no warranty cover or anything like that sadly so they sent me an quote for yet another brand new turbo at more or less full price after a lot of effort to try and get some goodwill contribution from them.
Engine seemed fine but obviously will need to give it another complete look over. Oil level was at the minimum (having filled it to max) and the missing oil was sat in the catch can presumably having been pushed there by boost pressure when the turbo let go.
I don't think I can do the same again given the failure so soon after replacement so I've ordered a Precision Turbo PT5858 Ball Bearing kit from Ross Sport and now playing the waiting game for that to be delivered. That should actually be a decent power boost but more importantly gets me away from the fragile S205B turbos.
So in short, amazing car let down by a seemingly very fragile turbo which is admittedly running at the limit of its capabilities. Hopefully put that right, get the mapping adjusted to suit and move forward with it
Sat ready for the arrival of the PT5858 turbo kit
Recieved the turbo for the Evo and the Manifold is a work of art from JMF, absolutely stunning welds etc
And got the turbo all clocked correctly etc and bolted together
Annoyingly I then decided to redo all the VBand clamps to put the threaded sections more hidden etc. I then snapped the final clamp as I went around tightening them all.... so now on hold again while sort a replacement V Band Clamp
Got a local place to help weld in an extra lambda port on the downpipe for the wideband Lambda kit, great guys and amazing work. Fortunate to be in the motorsport corridor of the UK so some very skilled people about.
Replacement v band clamp came and I tidied up where all of the fastners were sat to hopefully be more presentable when all is done (I may regret this if any need tightening!)
And started getting it fitted. Messed up cutting the oil return hose and turbo to IC pipework so have had to reorder both of those and just waiting for them to come. You may also spot a very pinched hose looping the water feed/return (new turbo is only oil cooled) am also waiting on a 180 degree hose joiner to come to replace that Need to find some black vac hose also but for now the yellow will do
So it went downhill from there really. I got the turbo kit fitted and ran the car at idle and realised the catch can I'd emptied previously was filling up fast with oil from the engine and sure enough it seemed to be breathing heavily. Balls.
Decided caution to the wind I'd book it in with RG Motorsport to check it all over and had to wait for a slot. The time came last week when the car went off to RG. Loaded into the trailer and hopefully last time I'll see the car while it has issues
Sure enough Rich at RG messaged to say it was a little low on compression and that combined with the heavy breathing decided a new set of rings would be the course of action. He reckons the ring seals butted against each other and scored the bore a little as a result. He honed the bores and cleaned everything up. Insides look great now, much better than the before pics anyway!
And that's where we're up to as of Friday. The speed Rich at RG Motorsport has been turning this around I don't expect it'll take much longer and we'll be back up and running etc. Then as I understand it it'll just be a case of waiting for a timeslot on the dyno for Rich to map it all for the new turbo... not going to lie I'm really excited to see where that gets the car up to!
Was fortunate enough to win the car from Dream Car Giveaways on 01/12/23 and collected it on 03/12/23 which was as soon as I could, super chuffed as you'd probably imagine. Regretted selling my last Evo 9 (Sold it and my 360 to buy my 650S) so was a little unreal to win this one; albeit buying many tickets on every Evo competition that came up!
Full spec is;
56,000 Miles, with pretty much a bare metal restoration by RG Motorsport - genuinely crazy how clean the car is.
5 Speed Gearbox as they're stronger than the 6 Speed.
552hp on High boost / 480hp Low Boost
Fully Rebuilt Engine - 2.0 Long Rod, 1400hd Wiesco 85.5 Pistons, 156mm Oliver I-Beams, Manley Springs & Retainers, GSC S2 Cams, ARP Main Studs & Head Studs, ACL Bearings, Tubular Manifold, S205b Turbo, ETS 3" Intercooler, 3" Intake Pipe / K&N, 3" Russ Fellows Exhaust System
Link G4 Ecu with antilag and aforementioned hi/low boost switching
Water Methanol injection fitted (AEM controller / gauge / tank)
Lots of Xtreme Carbon external bits fitted
Handling; Cusco Power Brace, Superpro 24mm Rear ARB, Meister R ZetaPro Coilovers
Work ZR10 Alloys
At home alongside the 650S
So enjoyed it on the odd good day in December and generally having a great time with it. Took it down to my parents for Christmas and had a great run out along the south coast
Fast forward to mid Jan and the S205B turbo decided it no longer wanted to be part of the world, broken down in a woods from 2pm-8pm was not the nicest experience
Used a 50p coin to get the intake off and the turbo had an absolute huge amount of play in it and had obviously rubbed the turbine against the housing.
Got recovered and was a horrendous experience, had to wait for the roadside guy to agree it wasn't repairable at the side of the road (not his fault he tried to skip the visit after speaking to me but its all gps linked and he had to inspect) also told the AA about 10 times I had my dog with me and they said it would be fine to have her in the recovery truck then they sent someone who refused to take me because of the dog and he eventually agreed on the basis my dog would have to stay on her own in the car on the back of the trailer.
Anyway old turbo off to Turbo Technics for inspection, diagnosed as overspeed. It's on the limit of what the turbo can handle really and was 9 years old having been on the car for about 5-7 years or so. As it was completely goosed with nothing reusable on it I ordered a replacement S205B (like for like) turbo from Turbo Technics, that arrived just before I went on holiday. Went on my holiday, got back and lost my job (great timing
) which gave me time at least to fit the new turbo with all new hardware etc.
Had a great shakedown run out all good, about 50 miles in total (with stops to check on everything etc) then took it on a run out to the Cotswolds, again great fun
However on the run back home the car had a huge hesitation when I was overtaking someone and found no boost. Limped it the final couple of miles home and sure enough turbo was goosed once more. Got it straight off and drove it back up to Turbo Technics, complete with the Circlip that was hanging out of the oil drain :/ This time the failure was diagnosed as oil starvation, no warranty cover or anything like that sadly so they sent me an quote for yet another brand new turbo at more or less full price after a lot of effort to try and get some goodwill contribution from them.
Engine seemed fine but obviously will need to give it another complete look over. Oil level was at the minimum (having filled it to max) and the missing oil was sat in the catch can presumably having been pushed there by boost pressure when the turbo let go.
I don't think I can do the same again given the failure so soon after replacement so I've ordered a Precision Turbo PT5858 Ball Bearing kit from Ross Sport and now playing the waiting game for that to be delivered. That should actually be a decent power boost but more importantly gets me away from the fragile S205B turbos.
So in short, amazing car let down by a seemingly very fragile turbo which is admittedly running at the limit of its capabilities. Hopefully put that right, get the mapping adjusted to suit and move forward with it
Sat ready for the arrival of the PT5858 turbo kit
Recieved the turbo for the Evo and the Manifold is a work of art from JMF, absolutely stunning welds etc
And got the turbo all clocked correctly etc and bolted together
Annoyingly I then decided to redo all the VBand clamps to put the threaded sections more hidden etc. I then snapped the final clamp as I went around tightening them all.... so now on hold again while sort a replacement V Band Clamp
Got a local place to help weld in an extra lambda port on the downpipe for the wideband Lambda kit, great guys and amazing work. Fortunate to be in the motorsport corridor of the UK so some very skilled people about.
Replacement v band clamp came and I tidied up where all of the fastners were sat to hopefully be more presentable when all is done (I may regret this if any need tightening!)
And started getting it fitted. Messed up cutting the oil return hose and turbo to IC pipework so have had to reorder both of those and just waiting for them to come. You may also spot a very pinched hose looping the water feed/return (new turbo is only oil cooled) am also waiting on a 180 degree hose joiner to come to replace that
Need to find some black vac hose also but for now the yellow will do
So it went downhill from there really. I got the turbo kit fitted and ran the car at idle and realised the catch can I'd emptied previously was filling up fast with oil from the engine and sure enough it seemed to be breathing heavily. Balls.
Decided caution to the wind I'd book it in with RG Motorsport to check it all over and had to wait for a slot. The time came last week when the car went off to RG. Loaded into the trailer and hopefully last time I'll see the car while it has issues
Sure enough Rich at RG messaged to say it was a little low on compression and that combined with the heavy breathing decided a new set of rings would be the course of action. He reckons the ring seals butted against each other and scored the bore a little as a result. He honed the bores and cleaned everything up. Insides look great now, much better than the before pics anyway!
And that's where we're up to as of Friday. The speed Rich at RG Motorsport has been turning this around I don't expect it'll take much longer and we'll be back up and running etc. Then as I understand it it'll just be a case of waiting for a timeslot on the dyno for Rich to map it all for the new turbo... not going to lie I'm really excited to see where that gets the car up to!
Last edited:
