GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hi, I have owned my Vibe since around August 2009. Here it is as it sits before the snow fell. Oh yeah, I did build a turbocharger system for it ...

Some videos I took while tuning. Using a Greddy Emanage Ultimate for fuel and ignition control. Tricky getting the tune where I want it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpO6zp1hsRY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXaFdyAqkYQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A3ocrfMvZw



Some screenshots of the datalogging done (The tip of the tuning iceberg. Seriously.):

The car is sitting on 1st gen Matrix/Vibe Tein H-Techs, with the stock 2010 base struts/shocks. Rims are 16" OZ Adrenalina with the stock Eagle RS-A's. Interior is stock except for a TRD carbon shift knob, and the AEM wideband/boost gauge. Transmission and clutch are stock except for a set of brass shifter bushings. Engine is an internally stock 2ZR-FE, as shared with the Corolla and Matrix, and ( ) the supercharged 2012 Lotus Elise S.

My turbo system is non intercooled, centering around an MHI based TD04HL-16T, with a 7cm turbine housing, and integral bypass valve on the compressor housing. Wastegate actuator is a 5 psi Garrett unit, however in this installation allows 5 psi at ~2000 rpm increasing to 8 psi by redline. Using an AEM Dryflow filter (the biggest I could get with a 2.5" neck) with the stock MAF sensor in a draw through position (pre turbo). I am using the stock fuel pump and regulator setup, with a set of larger injectors from Toyota's 2AR-FE 2.5L I4. Greddy Emanage Ultimate handles the chore of piggyback fuel and ignition control. Aem's wideband AFR/Boost failsafe gauge provides realtime data sampling, and its analog outputs are fed into the Emanage for datalogging purposes. A Dashcommand OBD2 software suite rounds out the engine management tuning/monitoring strategy.

Not much else to tell. I do have a Magnaflow 15759 enroute meant for the 1st gen Matrix/Vibe, that I intend to modify for 2nd gen duty. The stock exhaust is far too restrictive up top for a turbocharged 1.8...

PS

Im glad I found a straight Pontiac Vibe forum LOL.

Nice job!

Questions - 1) Did the inside of the ?-shaped pipe from the turbo to cat get internally polished?
2) You should make a run on a dyno before and after you swap in that magnaflow exhaust!
3) Please tell me you left some room in your budget to get better tires!!! RS-A's are a horrible tire!!!

This is the first FI 2nd Generation Vibe I've seen on this forum! Looking forward to seeing much more of it and your progress!

star_deceiver wrote:Nice job!

Questions - 1) Did the inside of the ?-shaped pipe from the turbo to cat get internally polished?
2) You should make a run on a dyno before and after you swap in that magnaflow exhaust!
3) Please tell me you left some room in your budget to get better tires!!! RS-A's are a horrible tire!!!

This is the first FI 2nd Generation Vibe I've seen on this forum! Looking forward to seeing much more of it and your progress!

Thanks! It has been a lot of planning, a lot of fabrication, and a ton of time. Little bit of cash didnt hurt things either LOL.

Answers:

1) If you're talking about the downpipe/o2 housing, than no, it was just deslagged, then painted with ceramic based high temp paint. If you're talking about the collector at the first cat, then yes, it appears to be polished. Not by me, but by the supplier. The donut flange and collector is from Vibrant, one of their 'JDM' 2.5" header collector kits.

2) I agree! But probably wont end up doing that, as the nearest dyno is 2 hours away, too close to my inlaws LOL! I will get a decent idea of the flow gains by monitoring and comparing the Gram/Second air measurement from the MAF sensor. The datalog with the new exhaust should show a MAF input trend that continues to climb right to fuel cut-at least, thats the hope!

3)The RS-A's will stick around till their done LOL. They are the very worst tire Ive ever used Winter time here anyway, so winters are on now. Went on in Oct, will stay probably until April. Gotta love Manitoba's winter. Not.

Pretty much everything turbo related was hand built, fabricated from scratch, or from OEM parts. Their is nearly no aftermarket for this platform, and even less for the 2ZR-FE 1.8. Sad, but desperate times (if you can call it that, I can ) call for desperate measures. Maybe Ill send the hard parts to China for mass production... HEHEHE

Great looking Vibe and thanks for sharing!

Very nice!! Im loving all the angles in your pics! That turbo sounds sweet in the videos!

Impressive build

Have you been able to get everything dialed in yet?

Awesome mod to your Vibe What took you so long to find us OR join for that matter? It wouldn't have anything to do with the "thousands of hours" spent engineering and building this impressive mod .... would it ? As an extreme modifyist myself, I highly admire the fabrication that this took to create and then to your success that it worked as planned Congrats! Lots of TIG welding (one of my passions BTW) in order to make all this fit. Thanks too for sharing the several photos highlighting your successful work! Looking forward to anything else you have to share with us here

Man thaat is way cool. I'm sure alot of hard work went into it. Did you do the welding? How are you handling the ECU Spoof? Are you throwing any codes? Did you hard wire the e-manage?

Awesome Vibe! I'm impressed with your turbo. Pardon me if I can't read your charts, but what kind of power is it putting out?

peacock wrote:Great looking Vibe and thanks for sharing!

DVibe wrote:Very nice!! Im loving all the angles in your pics! That turbo sounds sweet in the videos!

Thanks! I figured 2nd gen 1.8L guys would like it LOL. I will try to get a bunch more videos up, as time allows. For the turbo sounds, they are quite muted, what with the stock exhaust and stock intake pipe in place. The car is rediculously quiet now, quieter than stock through the exhaust, and quieter than the intake on the induction side.

Once the Magnaflow is fitted to this, turbine spool up/down should be much more apparant!

SeattleJeremy wrote: Have you been able to get everything dialed in yet?

Tune is probably 80% where I want it to be. Fueling is pretty good to go, timing is probably a tad conservative. Looking to switch a couple things with the Emanage as well, like using crank angle instead of tach for ignition timing adjustment accuracy, and possibly tapping the knock circuit for datalogging. Once the new exhaust goes on, it will probably require me starting from scratch on the tune... Hard to find the required time with the responsibilities of marriage, and parenthood.

tpollauf wrote:Awesome mod to your Vibe What took you so long to find us OR join for that matter? It wouldn't have anything to do with the "thousands of hours" spent engineering and building this impressive mod .... would it ? As an extreme modifyist myself, I highly admire the fabrication that this took to create and then to your success that it worked as planned Congrats! Lots of TIG welding (one of my passions BTW) in order to make all this fit. Thanks too for sharing the several photos highlighting your successful work! Looking forward to anything else you have to share with us here

Not sure! I guess I was a bit distracted with Toyota Nation, but kinda felt like a leper there with my Pontiac LOL. Seems like a great site though-just not Vibe specific. If Im going to contribute, might as well be on a site where guys are hungry for this kind of work on this specific car. I sincerely hope it was not thousands of hours LOL. All MIG'd, I dont know how to TIG. Thanks for the Kudo's though, it was a lot of work, but I love this kind of brain work, at least on the planning/engineering side. It sucked doing the install in the snow, in my driveway, on a jack Labour can suck big time. Thankfully, it went really smoothly.

Salsa Guy wrote:Man thaat is way cool. I'm sure alot of hard work went into it. Did you do the welding? How are you handling the ECU Spoof? Are you throwing any codes? Did you hard wire the e-manage?

I did do all the welding, MIG, using gasless NR211 self shield Lincoln wire, and a Lincoln MIGPak 140. 120v, shadetree style welding that anyone could probably do, given some practice.

The ECU is handling things fine, ZERO check engine lights or codes since installation. Turbo went on with new cat on 19 Nov, and car has been breathing compressed air since the 23rd. Big injectors went in on the 25th. And like I said, no codes. I did hardwire the Emanage Ultimate, right to the ecu harness. First pics are shot of the Emanage to ECU, last is where the Emanage and AEM harnesses enter the passenger compartment, through the steering boot:

KITT222 wrote:Awesome Vibe! I'm impressed with your turbo. Pardon me if I can't read your charts, but what kind of power is it putting out?

The charts are just some screenshot datalogs, showing some of the tricky bits of tuning this car with the piggyback management. No dyno. All street tuned, countless 3rd gear pulls, WOT from 2k rpm to 6500 rpm.

One thing I should add: This is our only car right now, daily driven, with two baby seats in the back. All the work performed has been with a nod to (hopefully) long term durability and reliability. Since it is the daily driver, the installation and progress with this project had to be broken into stages. Originally, the plan was this (from my posts on ToyotaNation.com:

"My intent is to keep torque at a level the stock clutch can handle. This will probably limit boost in the midrange to 5-6 psi. As rpm increases, boost should be added to keep torque nice and flat. Aiming for a meaty powerband, from 3K rpm to 6500 rpm, with no torque fall off towards redline. That probably wont be fully achieved until Stage 2...

Stage 1:

-5 Psi
-No boost control solenoid, actuator only
-Non Intercooled
-Turbo non watercooled
-Stock injectors
-No oil catch can
-Keep stock exhaust after primary cat

Stage 2:

-5-8 psi
-Electronic boost control (using solenoid, and sub injector map in Emanage)
-Turbo water cooling
-2AR-FE fuel injectors
-Complete 2.5" exhaust

Stage 3 (Maybe?):

->5psi
-Intercooled"

As it sits though, and within a couple weeks (for exhaust adaptation) should look like this:

-5-8psi (base actuator boost curve)
-2AR-FE fuel injectors
-3" downpipe, into 2.5" cat, into 2.5" 2nd cat delete/extension, into 2.25" Magnaflow 15759.

Nice build you got going there. So are you just doing some street tuning or are you rolling on a dyno? If on a dyno what numbers you looking at right now.

Welcome to GenVibe! Very nice looking Base you've got there and a very impressive engine setup as well ! I look forward to seeing your continued progress.

mac99d wrote:Nice build you got going there. So are you just doing some street tuning or are you rolling on a dyno? If on a dyno what numbers you looking at right now.

Purely street tuning. Haven't been to a dyno with this car. Nearest one wants $150 for 2 runs, and I cannot justify that sort of money for a piece of paper.

vibenvy wrote:Welcome to GenVibe! Very nice looking Base you've got there and a very impressive engine setup as well ! I look forward to seeing your continued progress.

Thank you. Lots of polishing to be done on this kit for sure, but at least the infrastructure is there. I gotta say, I really liked this car before the turbo, pretty much a perfect balance between practicality/economy/fun to drive. The only thing that was lacking was power. Not anymore LOL.

Here is another video, 2nd gear, 3rd gear, and 4th gear. HD, from IPhone. Car really is that quiet inside LOL:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_-K80_Z ... r_embedded" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Nice video ... although a bit "shaky" but then again not many cars run smooth @ 120+ MPH Just what stretch of road did you run this on where you didn't get caught going those speeds? Hope you were not holding the camera also

tpollauf wrote:Nice video ... although a bit "shaky" but then again not many cars run smooth @ 120+ MPH Just what stretch of road did you run this on where you didn't get caught going those speeds? Hope you were not holding the camera also

LOL It was not 120 MPH, but 180 km/h. I live near mucho farmland, in the middle of the praries. There is plenty of open, straight roads with visibility for miles!

I fully expect the new exhaust to free up a chunk of torque up top, so time to speed will be even faster. It really is misleading when I punch it at 2k, from the basement. When going through 1-4th, shifting at redline, the car accelerates hard all the way through! Torque steer FTW

Update:

Heavily modified a Magnaflow 15759 cat back for the 2003-08 Matrix/Vibe's. Ran a 2.5" pipe into the resonator, then a 2.5" pipe to just before the axle back. Also replaced the dinky <~2" flange with a 2.5" donut. The improvement in mass flow through the engine is staggering. Went from 8 psi at 6500 rpm to 12(!) psi... Gotta get that boost back down LOL!

More details on the exhaust mods can be found here:

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/150-2 ... d-gen.html

First couple shots are of the turbo setup, you can see how that ceramic based paint has baked into a nice gold, from its original grey:


















Also reworked the turbo's compressor inlet pipe, for more filter clearance. MAF sensor has been moved lower:

Outstanding, that is a lot of thought and time. Awesome starting from scratch and getting results inline with your goal. Thanks for sharing all the detailed information. Considering trying something similar down the road. Aside from the performance change, what have you seen in fuel economy?

I want to watch that video, but its set to private