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LITTCO is38x - who actually runs one?

B

billbadass

Drag Racing Champion
Location
your moms house
figured may as well upgrade/replace my turbo while in doing the downpipe since I have 2015 GTI with 45k miles and am scared of my is20 exploding.... 90%+ of my driving is around town so is38x is perfect match to keep good spool but with OEM drivability for me and still (hopefully) make 380whp on race gas tune, maybe 340whp on 91 octane pump gas tune

turbo defines the personality of a car so would like some direct feedback before putting it on my car if possible, especially around spool and reliability


does anyone in here actually have a LITTCO is38x turbo on their car?


-overall thoughts on is38x
-comments on spool vs is20 or is38
-how many miles on it? reliability?
-dyno sheets?
-what fuel you're running, what psi are you pushing


https://www.littco.co.uk/
 
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M

monkibouy

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Fountain Hills, AZ
billbadass said:
figured may as well upgrade/replace my turbo while in doing the downpipe since I have 2015 GTI with 45k miles and am scared of my is20 exploding.... 90%+ of my driving is around town so is38x is perfect match to keep good spool but with OEM drivability for me and still (hopefully) make 380whp on race gas tune, maybe 340whp on 91 octane pump gas tune

turbo defines the personality of a car so would like some direct feedback before putting it on my car if possible, especially around power and reliability


does anyone in here actually have a LITTCO is38x turbo on their car?


-overall thoughts on is38x
-comments on spool vs is20 or is38
-how many miles on it? reliability?
-dyno sheets?
-what fuel you're running, what psi are you pushing


https://www.littco.co.uk/
Click to expand...



*raises hand*

I’ve been running this turbo for a year and a half (~25k mi) and it’s been solid. I worked with Dan after sourcing a turbo in the EU to have it rebalanced, right around the time he was working on his bearing upgrade. Our conversations lead to those upgrades being included and I took his suggestion to clip the turbine as well.

I originally ran UM’s OTS IS38 tune but recently jumped on the COBB bandwagën with Stratified (their traction control makes the power more usable in 1st and 2nd gear). My protune is still in progress but I’m hoping for similar numbers to what you mentioned above, I’m planning to do a dyno session on 91 and e30 once they’re finalized. My current rev 91 map peaks at 25-26 and tapers to 21-22. Spool difference compared to IS20 is noticeable but still totally reasonable for a daily driver, especially above 2k RPM (a TCU tune is a must to make the most of it). The power band is broad with most of the meat in the 3-6k range.

Would I do the same turbo again? Honestly, I’d take a hard look at the EQT/L450 for not a lot more $$$, more potential on pump gas, and similar reliability.
 
B

billbadass

Drag Racing Champion
Location
your moms house
awesome. 25k miles of fairly aggressive tune is good vote of confidence too.


you are running the normal littoc bearings he upgrades in your is38x right? I've heard of him doing dual ball bearing is38x turbos is why ask


That's interesting on the spool too, I'm coming from jb4-only is20 GTI so I'm hoping the spool improvement from aftermarket downpipe and e25 fuel together will help keep is38 spool time not that big a difference vs. is20 with oem downpipe, especially with better dsg tune that will actually downshift

hopefully the slight decrease in ultra low rpm torque doesn't matter much around town punching it from random stop signs for fun


from what i can tell the is38 maybe spools like 400rpm slower than is20, and then the EQT spools like 400rpm slower than is38, and I think for me I'll never take this car >400whp so to me sacrificing the maybe 40whp more an EQT turbo can make for me, is not worth the reduced response time and lag, although EQT turbo does seem to spool super quick! especially for something that will make >500whp potential

If i had a golf R that could put the power down better I'd do an EQT and MPI though for sure
 
B

billbadass

Drag Racing Champion
Location
your moms house
any thoughts on your COBB pro tune vs. UM OTS is38 tune so far also?

traction control is big reason going with COBB, that and Ed at EQT will be doing my tuning and he tunes COBB


honestly I'm secretly hoping to make 400whp on is38x with crack cocaine tune on e20+ 100octane unleaded+ torco, but I don't like to get too hung up on dyno numbers, but if is38x is worth 10-15whp more than normal is38 like Dan at LITTCO claims (which makes sense if lower EGTs allow 1-2* more timing as he has said) then 400whp should be pretty doable on ultra aggressive tune I think

will be super curious to see what kind of dyno numbers your car puts down and the shape of the torque curve (even more importantly imo)
 
B

billbadass

Drag Racing Champion
Location
your moms house
navindralr said:
I'm interested in the is38x also. Were you running an is38 before you got the is38x? Or did you go straight from is20 to is38x? Does the car feel quicker on the stratified protune?
Click to expand...

if you're doing it for making more power then i highly doubt anyone would notice the ~12whp more high end power the is38x would make vs normal is38. if this GTI wasn't my only car i just wanted to keep reliable and simple I would do the EQT in heartbeat
 
SugarMouth

SugarMouth

Drag Race Newbie
Location
Nevada
I would feel more comfortable running 28psi on a L38X than 22psi on a stock IS38.

This translates into a bunch more power out of the L38X than a stock turbo because of the level of reliability at high boost levels.
 
M

monkibouy

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Fountain Hills, AZ
billbadass said:
any thoughts on your COBB pro tune vs. UM OTS is38 tune so far also?

traction control is big reason going with COBB, that and Ed at EQT will be doing my tuning and he tunes COBB


honestly I'm secretly hoping to make 400whp on is38x with crack cocaine tune on e20+ 100octane unleaded+ torco, but I don't like to get too hung up on dyno numbers, but if is38x is worth 10-15whp more than normal is38 like Dan at LITTCO claims (which makes sense if lower EGTs allow 1-2* more timing as he has said) then 400whp should be pretty doable on ultra aggressive tune I think

will be super curious to see what kind of dyno numbers your car puts down and the shape of the torque curve (even more importantly imo)
Click to expand...

It's still early for a UM vs. Strat/COBB since I have at least a couple revisions left but I can say the boost taper on the protune is far less pronounced (I know UM was trying to keep IS38s from going boom). Power would fall off over 5.5K whereas the protune keeps the party going until almost 6.5K. I'm really curious to see how the power band will change on e30.
 
N

Navi

Autocross Champion
Location
BK/NYC/Hamptons
monkibouy said:
It's still early for a UM vs. Strat/COBB since I have at least a couple revisions left but I can say the boost taper on the protune is far less pronounced (I know UM was trying to keep IS38s from going boom). Power would fall off over 5.5K whereas the protune keeps the party going until almost 6.5K. I'm really curious to see how the power band will change on e30.
Click to expand...

did you have an is38 before this? or an is20?
 
M

monkibouy

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Fountain Hills, AZ
navindralr said:
I'm interested in the is38x also. Were you running an is38 before you got the is38x? Or did you go straight from is20 to is38x? Does the car feel quicker on the stratified protune?
Click to expand...

I went straight from stage 2 (IS20) to IS38x so I can't speak to much on the IS38 vs IS38x. I think the car feels "better" so far on the protune than on my UM tune but my butt dyno might not be calibrated right (I had to run the COBB IS38 OTS for about a week in between and that was a turd of a map). However, my calculated MPGs did go up a bit (~8%) since jumping ship, so, there's that at least.
 
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