Ricky@Race-Tech

This is going slightly of topic, i'm not sure if mods want to remove but it might help some people. I've no idea about the "large chunk of metal missing". The flange is alluminium, not the hardest of materials but it would take some force to do that. Remember the car was mapped once already, and I assume, didn't have an issue in this area. Therefore I am completely baffled how anything could affect the flange while it was still bolted to the car? Also if the flange wasn't flat, why didn't this cause an issue from the start? Why wasn't it noticed the first time it was mapped? As for the gasket, actual yes phenolic material is used often, it is much cheaper than PTFE. PTFE has a melting point of over 300 degrees (closer to 400 for the actual composition we use) It is a better insulator, it also doesn't required another secondary gasket to be used either side. Therefore I cannot see a single negative other than cost. Our gaskets are a similar price to people selling phonolic gaskets so therefore IMO they win in all area's. If anybody required we can make a phonolic gasket for approx 75% of the cost of our normal items. Regards Ricky

Hello, Right, so the issues that were causing the problem turned out to not fix it. It seems to me like the problem wasn't noticed to be the intake gasket until they realised it was one of ours? BOTH the cold start issue you had and idle issue are fixed in the map. The car no longer has an IACV so you wouldn't experiance "hunting" from a vacuum leak! Please return the gasket, i'll inspect it and refund if there is an issue. Your intake was covered under a warranty. If there were issues, why weren't they noticed upon fitting the first time around? Or the second time? I'm sorry, but when investigating a vacuum leak, who doesn't inspect the gasket first? Come on? You wrote "the TPS didn't sit in the bracket sometimes" I said, "how could it sometimes sit in the bracket", meaning; 'how does it sometimes not sit in the bracket?' It either does or it doesn't. It wasn't fitted, shimmed or bolted on by us, so i cannot comment. But we use the same item and don't have any issues. We have another couple of topmount turbo kits here, Both have fairly bad shortfalls, but this isn't the place to discuss that. You haven't asked me or told me about any of the issues. You just ranted off on here about how "bad" we are. For what, to me looks like a lot of instal issues or book passing. I don't intend to post on here again. If you actual want help with anything give me a call or send me a PM.

From what I have read we are talking about bolts coming loose and an intake manifold gasket thats is "faulty". Remember, we didn't tighten the bolts and i'll wait to receive the intake manifold gasket back to see what/if any issue is there. Matt sent me a PM at the same time as posting on here asking for a refund on the gasket. To which i've replied and will if it is returned and is indeed faulty.

Hang on a minute. It sounds like all your errors could be avoided. The intake was removed and pressure tested and a leak was found you say? Then it was put back on and the problem was still there? What made you/them look at the intake and NOT the gasket? Our intake manifold gaskets are PTFE, which is the best material you can use. The perform better than all the harder cheaper thermo plastic gaskets we tested against. In both sealing and insulation. The downsiide is its hard for us to cut and isn't cheap. But we stick to it because its the best. What you are saying here is the inlet was removed then refitted and the gasket was "laughed at" but only the second time around, why was it ever refitted? Vbands on the external wastegate don't make the seal, the valve seat does. I've never actually seen a leak here. What was done to make it seal? The Vband that came off? How did that happen? If it was tight? More to the point. How did you not notice it? The noise must have been horrendous. The TPS doesn't sit in the bracket "sometimes" how can this happen? What TPS is being used? Can you find a better turbo kit and intake for the Starlets? It seems strange you have wanted to slag off us/our products for the last few months. Yet when we offered for you to look over it, it was declined.

The excess heat and burning oil would cause an issue to the engine. The turbo isn't designed to run without a water supply.

Agree 100% here.

You called me on a Sunday afternoon, (if I remember correctly) shouting the odds and saying things you probably wouldn't say in person. Obviously there was nothing I could do to help you at the time, so told you to calm down and send the manifold back the following day. I didn't say it was to be expected, I said it sounded like you had a high EGT problem, and I wouldn't recommend running a TD04 at high boost for extended periods on track. You declined my offer, did you carry on using the manifold?

Sorry to quote you directly but what you are saying isn't true at all. The cooling circuit on a turbo doesn't cool the turbo much during the running. (the oil does most of the cooling, so the engine would get warm anyway) What the water lines are there for is to keep the turbo cool AFTER the engine is turned off. To stop the oil burning and causing issues with the turbo.

It is an old, Used intake. Most were custom made so it will have had a different temp sensor. As said, either relocate. Send it to us etc.

What sensor are you using and what seal?

You need it. Best place is boost pipe just before the throttle body. But if it was a standard off the shelf intake it should have the provision for the sensor. What is stopping you putting it in the intake?

Has it been repaired before?

Boost plot smoothing had nothing to do with the dyno. It's the electronics on the map sensor I fitted that work very well. When in the car does your boost go up and down on the gauge or is it nice and smooth. I'd hope the latter. So the dyno should read the same.

This along with most you type isn't true. You ordered a couple of days after I told you they were in Stock.

IIRC we turned it off anyway because the car was fueling badly?

At each stage if an item is out of stock I tell the customers. (unless its due within 48 hours or a length of time that is acceptable). Usually most items clear customs in 24/48 hours, in this case it was a couple of weeks. I haven't stolen anybodies money. Or refused a refund. Infact I've offered a refund many times, it was refused, in this case because we are considerably cheaper. We are trying to get in a position where everything is in stock that we sell. However buyers tend to be like buses. Nothing for months then 5 of 1 item in a week!

As said, you no longer wish to discuss so we'll leave it there. My courier collects from the airport/dock depending what it is. It is the cheaper way to import goods. On Monday I didn't know I would be off until Friday. I refunded you yesterday morning and sent an email so you had time to order them for the weekend as knew I wouldn't be able to get them out. When your EMU was connected to power it drew circa 10 amps from memory. However I find it most interesting we "fried" your boost control solenoid. How could this be? You could connect a boost control solenoid directly to the battery for a LONG time before it would become damaged. The actual boost controller would fail long before the solenoid. IIRC (its going back years now) It was a Gizmo, these are particularly weak on the PWM power supply so that would certain fail first.

I haven't been in work for the last couple of days. Plus only half of Tuesday. I wouldnt be able to get the rods to you until next week so refunded. I offered a refund many times while they were been held up in customs. Sadly customs can do what they want up to 28 days with parts. Just to make it clear I didn't call you trying to catch you out. I returned the missed calls I had from you.

When you called we had 2 sets in stock. As said on the phone. When you ordered, one set had gone out and the other had was going in one of our engine builds so we had removed the packaging, cleaned and checked them and started the balancing process, (this was all explained) I offered you a refund then, but told you another batch are due in. They had been ordered over a week so said they were due 7 days after. However customs held them 12 days not the usual 1-2. This cannot be avoided at times. Again a refund was offered but you declined. I spoke to you on Friday out of hours and said I might be calling into work in the morning, try me around 10, if I don't answer i'll speak to you on Monday. We didn't go into work on Saturday, you tried to call me around 20 times on Saturday and Sunday. I called you back on Monday, again offering you a refund then signed on here to find this. I can appreciate your frustration but cannot see what else I could do!

Mattyd. You have pm.

I'd say 50% of the jobs we do are to correct DIY errors.

Hello Nick, I spoke to you on the phone earlier. No mention of this thread. As said before you can have a full refund. When you ordered it was explained they were out of stock and the stock was due last week. We were held up with customs and cannot help this. I release you tried to call 20 times over the weekend but we weren't open and it took till around 1 today to get through the calls etc from the weekend.