In need of advice, i need a actuator for a vf 35 because mine is not working properly and has hindered my power/torque gains alot from a remap.

what brand actuator should i get? i have seen a adjustable kinugawa would this be ok? and what spring would i need 0.8, 1.2, 1.5 bar?

 

I am in the same situation and was advised to get the forge actuator, they are approx £175. I have also looked at the kinugawa actuators but can't really find much info about them, but at around £50 it seems too good to be true.

 

I have gone for the turbosmart adjustable actuator instead of the adjustable forge one with reccomendation from my tuner. Yup they seem too good to be true I have also seen a mamba one on eBay its just the postage and package time from Japan during the xmas period otherwise I would have guinea pigged the kinugawa one for £50 if I wasn't in a hurry

 

Where did you the Turbosmart from and how much did it cost, if you don't mind me asking?

 

Hi mate, my tuner ordered it in for me it's £155.00 it's been fitted tomorrow with a remap tweak I will ask where they got it from and get back to you. but I've done a bit of searching on the Internet, various websites and I can't seem to find one.

 

AET turbos is where they do the adjustable turbo smart actuator

 

Acuator weak? Not just stick a helper spring on it to see if it helps it before splashing out on an adjustable one. Just incase it isnt your issue

 

That is the issue that was highlighted when I was getting the car mapped. Apparently the actuator was struggling to hold boost above a certain point.


I am currently in two minds whether to buy the actuator and get the map tweaked or wait a little while and replace the turbo for something along the lines of an 18 or 20g, which would probably end up cheaper in the long run.

 

I have been remapping my blob sti with a vf35, after my first attempt and going on a dyno I realised I had a bad actuator (common problem on vf35s). I did some (a lot) of research and went for a kinugawa 0.8 bar actuator. Very good quality item, arrived quickly. Only problem is you can only use 2 of the 3 bolts to hold it onto the turbo, but no problem, it holds just fine and tight. At the same time I fitted a 3 port.

Here are the dyno graphs for before and after. The little kink in the after map has since been mapped out, need to book onto the dyno again. But you can see with the weak actuator how much the torque dropped. You can also see a big peak power difference after a new actuator was fitted.

 

Nice work!
Think im going to buy a kinugawa, as i slowly get car ready for a map.
Will buy it more for peace of mind than anything else

Just a quick question........how do you know what spring is required, as JF asked in his 1st post?

Dan

 

The spring determines at what pressure the wastegate is open at. You want to make sure you have a spring at a pressure rating lower than your target boost, otherwise it won't open and you can't control the boost.

For example, if you are targeting 1 bar of boost but you fit a 1.5 bar actuator, the actuator will still be closed when you reach 1 bar meaning you will then continue to over boost.

By fitting an actuator with a spring rated at a lower pressure than what you are targeting, the ecu can then control the boost controller to bleed off air that the wastegate sees, allowing you to then increase the pressure beyond the spring pressure.

If you fit any wastegate actuator other than a stock one and the spring rate is different (most likely), the car must be remapped as the wastegate duty cycles in the stock map would be for the stock spring.

 

I understand now, thanks for explaining
Ill probably just leave my actuator alone then, unless mapper see's something i dont

 

My car only has 42k on it and the actuator was going bad. Not saying all will be bad but the vf35 is notorious for having bad actuators so I've heard.

For the sake of £60 for the kinugawa actuator and 30 minute to fit I would fit one and a 3 port before going for a remap.

 

Mines @85k so ill get one ordered! Saves messing in the long term.
Could you advise which spring to get with it, looks like theres a few to choose from, 4 - 25 psi?

My boost gauge at present reads/peaks at 1.2 bar, car is standard 53sti ppp with panel filter, ported headers and grimspeed up pipe, pfr7b etc
Not sure what it will be /target after remap, im guessing a 0.8bar spring would surffice?

cheers

 

The 0.8 bar one will be just fine Just remember it will need a remap straight after as the stock one is 0.5 I believe.

 

ok mate, cheers.

 

I have an un-used hks one I purchased from sumo power never used it
Pm if your interested

 

Hi Guys

Glad I stumbled onto this thread as I might have issues with mine but I can't find the operating pressure of the actuator/wastegate so I can test it before going back for a map tweak due to a bad 3 port solenoid ��

But after reading this I might just bite the bullet and get a replacement ��

 

The vf35 stock actuator is 0.5 bar I believe

link to the kinugawa 0.8 bar actuator I have.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/131800912069

 

Thanks for the message and reply on here supersai

Just went to your link and there all sold and only have the 1bar actuator so I've mailed them to see when there back in stock :-)

 

If it's a vf35 then you are most likely aiming for around 1.3 - 1.4 bar of boost in which case the 1 bar one will work fine too. I got the 0.8 as it creates a slightly safer buffer in case the ecu needs to cut boost for what ever reason because the wastegate pressure is lower. If you are in no rush wait for the 0.8 bar one if you need one asap them the 1 bar one will also be fine as both will need mapping in anyway

 

There is this billet one if they have no standard ones
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1219494935...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

thanks for the link whit

Sent a message regarding the 0.8bar actuator and when it will be back in stock but if i have no joy i will get that billet one with the 0.8bar spring fitted as they do options