STS Systems
 

Anyone heard of STS systems and how functional they are? I did a search but nothing came up on the forum however I did find their site.

The idea has some merit to it, put the turbo's under the rear bumper and keep the heat away from the motor but seems a bit out of the norm to me, I mean exhausts are pretty air tight for the most part but I'd have to think it would lose some power from the joints?

There was a Vette on the show I was watching a week or so ago, car was crazy fast and the system is supposed to be in the $5-6K range so its reasonable. Lists a 350Z as an application so I have to assume they will have something for a 370 before too long.

There has been some discussion on these before, with some people saying rear-mounted turbo systems are terrible, some saying they are wonderful, blah blah...

The theory is that a rear-mounted option decreases installation cost and removes the ambient heat generation of the engine bay. They offer a kit for the non-NR motor 350Z, and I believe it is a single turbo solution.

One thing is for sure, they sound sick as hell with the turbo replacing the muffler :)


Edit: Also worth noting, as long as you size the piping right, long intake tracts shouldn't be that big of a deal.

I'm with you, sounds like a jet and it really does make sense. I'll keep looking for that thread as I'm really interested in it. The Vette they show had two turbo's and I thought I recall a two unit option on the Z as well.

I see a bunch of threads about the engine bay being too hot etc, I ran K24s on my porsche Turbo for a full year and drove it every day. Figure the venting on a 996 Turbo with the motor in the rear can't be any better then a Z car in the front, I'm not as worried about heat as long as the motor can hold up to the extra strain. On the other hand if STS can do for $5-6 grand what others want 9 grand for plus exhaust then STS may be the way to go...

damn that would sound so sick on a 370z. When it comes time to TT my car i might look into this some more.

Been there and done that in a 350z.... It wasnt an STS kit but we built our own kit for my friends 05 Z. Its still running strong as hell... The only problems he ran into was boost leaks. Once we were able to find them all and make sure everything was tight he never had any problems. He was putting down something in the neighborhood of 390whp and has been for about a year and a half.

People talk about the lag because its so far away from the engine bay but I didnt really notice much more lag than would be on any other single turbo setup. I think he hits full boost right around 32-3500... The car feels sick as hell.... I put down 426 on my Vortech and he beat me in the 8th mile, I was running between 8.3 and 8.5 consistantly... he was in the high 7's..... made me sad so I sold it all lol hopefully soon ill be grabbing up a 370 Roadster :) :tiphat:

Can't beat the prices, that's for sure. Other systems are coming back at $11K or so. I'll keep checking the board but sounding better and better the more I look. Thanks!

From what I have read, the tradeoff with lag from the length of piping is cancelled out by the fact that the air temps are within 5% of ambient temp by the time it gets back to the intake manifold.

They require lot's of plumbing, front to rear, and back.

I'm also thinking about doing something like this, for under 4k you could be boosted or Less with used parts.. Keeps heat and weight out of the engine bay

I watched some of the Youtube video's, they eliminate the mufflers so some of the weight is balanced out there but more important, things seem crazy loud! I like hearing the turbo's but I really wish I could see/hear them in person.

I have heard about this system for a few years now and because of this post have started researching it. At that price you can't beat it. I think it might be the best kept secret.

A friend of mine has an sts system in his Mustang GT. It's not loud at all...Actually it's very quiet. But when you hit boost and that wastegate opens up; all hell breaks loose.

Oh I forgot to mention how quick it spools up too. It's really, REALLY quick.

IIRC, there's a universal system as well.

Oh there is.

Squires Turbo Systems - Universal

$1695 for a single kit and $2745 for a twin kit. Holy hell that's cheap, lol.

I would love to see someone fab one of these kits up on a 370. There are several out there on 350s with varying degrees of success.

As would I. Pretty cool stuff.

I wonder what it would cost to get a shop (aam/jbm/forged/someone notable) to fab up the piping and install this on the z

I think an exhaust shop can do that.

Just finish speaking to the guys at STS hoping to talk them into making a kit for us. We spoke for about 30 minutes and after the R&D guys come back from SEMA they will discuss it. I have a feeling this kit will be available for us.

I would definitely consider an STS system. I hope they go through with it.

Is there room clearnce for it on our cars? We know the aftermarket mufflers stick out so will the trubos stick out too. Id hate to scrap one of them.

The mufflers are replaced by the turbos so that shouldn't be a concern. The other advantage of this system is there is no need for a aftermarket exhaust. The stock exhaust is used to aid in back pressure for the TT's. Less restrictive aftermarket exhaust would not be beneficial for this setup.

what turbo would be good for a single setup? you think a 35R would get it done or would a 37r or 40 be better?

Considering KindDavid's response I'm 100% in! Thank you GingaB.., I sent them an email but haven't had time to call. For this price I'm willing to give it a try. I bought the car last week with every intention of adding a turbo or two. I was ready to buy a Turbo Porsche as I love the feel but didn't want to spend the $ and wanted something I could build up a little myself. With a little reseach I'm just not ready to drop $14K or so for a new set, exhaust etc. I just dropped a few grand for a stereo and brakes are next on the list so 11-14K for some more HP is more then I can justify.

Anyway, I'm ready to give it a shot and hope they come through!!! Thanks again for looking into this

well if this happends ill defently do it when i complete my tour to afghanistan in 3-11. What im worried about is the safety inspections in my home town where i plan on moving back to in a few years, they are really strick. So im worried my car wont pass inspection if it has this kit on it.

There's your answer about lag.

Dont waste your time on an STS turbo system.


I would really steer away from them, don't own one but had to tune it and it just can't be properly tuned. I had to get it to the best aproximate safe tune.

- The turbos are tiny, tiny (twins) I would not expect upgradibility with such small things.
- The lag is just unbeliavable, this is my first time that I've ever had to do such long runs in the dyno so they could spool (dynapack dyno that you could apply 100% load as different than others), I even had to do the runs three times so the system would got to a level of temperature so the turbos would actually work.
- This is the lone FI car that when at WOT you would still measure vacuum for some time down low.
- To get it to a decent power level we had to replace the WG spring so it would make 8psi and get us into the 4xxTQ/HP range.
- They use quality stuff in their WG and BOV (Tial rebranded as STS) (or at least that is what it looked like)
- So they could get a CARB number they went thru the most incredibly complicated PCV control system that is a mess of wire and hoses in the engine bay. (A hobbs switch controlled purge valve to the intake)
- Everything sits pretty low, specially the piping that goes below the transaxle.

I would really look elsewhere for a turbo kit.

I don't believe passing inspection will be a issue. I wanna give thx to the OP. It resparked my interest in this system

I'll double check with my friend, but I don't recall him or his tuner having any issues at all. He has the same mustang as yours and it's been running perfect for over a year and a half. 490/470 and he hasn't had a single problem ever since. It spools up quick. Barely any lag. Installing and tuning wasn't a hassle either. He got it done at Mobile Mod Performance in south fl.

We don't have any carb issues to deal with since there's no inspections like that down here. But wow, first I've heard of this being a problem.

Oh but I'm not going to sit here and act like I installed it or something or I own his car. Sorry if I put it out there like that. Just a bit baffled, that's all. Maybe he got lucky? Or maybe you just got unlucky? Lol, I dunno. How long ago was this install?

Edit: So I just finished chatting with him. It's a little laggy but barely noticeable. Nothing bad at all. No issues with car whatsoever since having installed over a year ago. The install and tune went smooth with no problems. He is on a single kit. He still is making 490whp/470wtq with stock internals. We live in south florida where if it isn't sunny, it's raining...a LOT. No water damage, no cracked turbo, turbo was not mounted low. His car is lowered actually and everything has been ok thus far.

Such boost lag!!!

:iagree:

Crazy how many sway back and forth on this one. A buddy of mine owns a few local Chevy dealers and he said his Vette guys buy them often and can't say enough good things about them. The You tube video's are pretty impressive and the pictures looks pretty clean on the install. Hmmmm....let's see what they come back with the 370, maybe I'll just be the guinea pig on this one...

The vette may not feel the lag as much as the big engines have a good amount of TQ and kinda hide the lag but 4 & 6 cyl will probably feel the lag. But on my 2 turbos I was told the turbo provides the back pressure so you would want a bigger diameter exhaust for better flow. I was using a 3 in TBE w/HFC on my 2.0T engine and that exhaust provided another 20+ whp. The tune also ran the boost up to 19 -20 psi peak as they were small turbos meant for low end TQ and power.

Yeah, I was thinking about that too, wondering if the Torque would throw it for a loop. Surely there's a Z guy out there that's tried it and can tell us first hand. I have to think the 350z experience is going to hold true to our 370's. I'm going to search some other boards this weekend for comments.

I really don't NEED the HP, but it would be fun to run up on some 8's and show them what these Z's can do. Guess I could just pay the $ for the big kit but $13K or so would get another Sportbike to play with...

I'll let you all know if I dig up anymore solid info.

I have never seen a Z with twin rear mounts... Not that it wouldnt work... I just have experience with the Single... and like I said before the only problems we had were boost leaks... once we eliminated them there were zero probs....

Some vids

YouTube - 350z - STS Rear Mount Turbo - Awesome sound!

YouTube - STS Rear mount Turbo 350Z

YouTube - 350z Single rear Turbo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnFA93_U9hY

Got a question, does having the turbo in the rear with all the tubing really cause turbo lag or is it still just lag depending on the size of the turbo? And would using a diverter valve instead of a blow off valve help by recirculating the unused air back into the intake? Guess that really makes 2 questions.

also I went to the site and they are showing some with ICs, I thought an IC wouldnt be needed as the air was to cool off before getting to the intake mani.

Went to the vette forum and found this:

Pro's
Well designed kit
Good performance level
Small wait time for deliver compared to other kits
Good support

Con's
No mufflers (poping noises on deceleration)
Oil pump can be loud
Stock C5 air bridge is junk under boost (buy the upgrade they now have for the kits)

Most are liking it but say that there is some lag until things get hotter then the lags is less. Not sure how that will be with us only having 6 cyls. Also most say a better oil pump is needed. Id still like to see one on a 370Z.