A Little about Turbo-Owners.com Owner - Turbo-Owners.com

JoeThaMan · 10-22-2007, 11:37 AM

Hey All!

I thought I'd do a little introduction about myself and why I started Turbo-Owners.com.

I've been an owner of turbo cars since I learned to drive (12+ years). I've been a member of several mailing lists and forums that have all been specific to one vehicle, where all version of one model were mingled together, turbo, non turbo, sedans, coupes, etc.. Each group had their own "techies" that would share their info to the group so I sort of became the crossover guy and began sharing the info I learned in one group to the other groups. I figured, since each vehicle had their own group, why can't I start a group for something that I have a passion for. I wanted to start a group where the members would have something else in common besides the name on the vehicle they own--turbochargers! Turbo-Owners.com was born.

Now a little about myself.

I've owned turbo cars for 12+ years. I earned my driver's license and knew absolutely nothing about cars. My first car was a 1987 Subaru XT Turbo that was purchased in April 1995. It was an odd car, 1.8L Horizontally opposed turbo motor, all wheel drive, and had a pneumatic suspension. With a push of the button a compressor would kick on and raise the car about 2 inches. Only thing i did to it was add a stereo system. About 6 months after I owned the car we moved to Phoenix, Arizona. It was HOT. First Summer we were there it got up to 122 degrees. The car began having problems and would run hot. After a few months of the heat I decided to go back to Oregon. On the drive to Oregon my friend was driving and I was sleeping the car managed to overheat. We ended up in Redding, CA. They ended up having to relace the engine because it blew both head gaskets, the water pump, exhaust manifolds, and a dozen other things. The car was never the same. It always had cooling system issues and would always blow coolant hoses. I finally gave up and decided to get a new car.

My second car was a 1987 Merkur XR4Ti that i purchased in August 1997. I got it with 84k miles on it and it was in excellent condition. This car is what got me into turning wrenches. It came with a gremlin. The car ran excellent, except for every once in a while, it would run very badly. It would buck, run lean and just lack power. I replaced pretty much every sensor on the car, including the ECU, all of them at least twice. I began reading everything I could about fuel injection and emissions systems and ignition systems. I searched the internet for answers and talked to every specialist I could. I did the head gasket and replaced the camshaft and even rewired a lot of the car. For 5 years I never tracked down the problem. One day I said "F-it!" and replaced the ECU and harness with an aftermarket standalone, SDS-EFI, and never had the problem again. I never found out what the problem was but have learned TONS from owning the car. I think the best way to learn about cars is to buy a crappy one you have to work on all the time..

My 3rd Car was my 1989 Toyota Supra in July 2001. I've always loved the styling of this particular generation. I was at work one day and was reading through the paper and found one at a local wholesale lot fo $3995. I had to check it out. I went to look at the car and it was in very nice shape. The interior was nearly perfect except for some wear on the center armrest. The body was in so-so shape. It had 230k miles on it and you could tell it had a lot of highway miles on it due to the many many rock chips on the bumper. I took the car for a test drive and it was lacking on power, severely, and wouldn't build any boost. My buddies geo metro felt faster. I knew it was something minor, but not sure what. I BS'd the salesman, saying it was a blown headgasket because from doing my research, it was a problem that plagued the 3rd generation supra. The guy said it wasn't and tried to tell me he was an ASE certified technician, but I called his bluff. They lowered the price to $2995. I paid them $2k and wrote 2 posted-dated checks for $500 and $495. The $495 check was cashed, but the $500 check never was, ending up paying $2495 for the car. I took the car home and tried to figure out what the problem was. The compression was good and the turbo was fine, but what could it be? I bumped into an old co-worker that was a retired shop owner. He told me to take the o2 sensor out of the exhaust and see if it helps. So I went home and did what he said.. WOW! 2 lbs of boost and a lot more power! It was a plugged catalytic converter. I made the appoint to have a new downpipe, cat, and exhaust made. Wow, what a difference it made. From there I slowly started to build the car to where it is today with 518rwhp and 491ft.lbs of torque.

My 4th turbo car is my 1987 Plymouth Colt with a 1.6L SOHC turbo engine, the G32BT, a early version of the 4G63T engine used in the eclipse turbo. Basically a Mitsubish Mirage that was imported for Dodge. I chose it because i feel that factory turbocharged cars tend to be a bit more reliable and longer lasting than some other cars. It had 200k miles on it and still ran incredibly well and had good compression. It wasn't very pretty, but it got great mileage. Today, It's basically stock.

I've been in the automotive industry since 1996. I started at GI Joe's which had an automotive department as a parts counterperson. I worked there for about 5 years and got my ASE Certification as a Parts Specialist. After 5 years they were no longer able to give me any raises besides the .25 cent cost of living raise once a year so i started looking for a job elsewhere. In late 2000 I started my new job at Baxter Auto Parts, a local auto parts store and one of the larger speed shops in the northwest. While there I purchased my supra and joined the local PacNW Supras group and met a local MKIV owner that owned ****************.com. He needed someone to help sell parts for his online store and offered me more than i was making so i put in my notice. I worked for **************** for 2 1/2 years before things went south and put in my notice. At the time I didn't know what I was going to do and bumped into an old friend that had started his own business building intercooler and turbo kits called Extreme Turbo Systems and he hired me on the spot. I did some web design for him and began working in the shop, learning how to fabricate and weld. During that time ETS was building products for HPF, but they were moving on to other projects and not moving the product as agreed. Due to plans to separate ETS from HPF, they had to let me go. Currently, I work for a Ford dealership in Tigard, OR called Landmark Ford, one of the top 20 ford dealerships in parts volume in the US. I work in "tech parts" which is selling parts to the service department.

I've always loved talking turbo at work, outside of work, online or anywhere I can. I feel my knowledge is quite extensive and love to share it with others to help them reach the goals they have for their vehicles and hope to help all the current and future members of Turbo-Owners.com learn all they can about turbocharging they can. Welcome to Turbo-Owners.com and enjoy your stay!

Nakos-k · 10-22-2007, 11:20 PM

Post from "Joetheman"---{1-I've always loved talking turbo at work, outside of work, online or anywhere I can. 2-I feel my knowledge is quite extensive and love to share it with others to help them reach the goals they have for their vehicles and hope to help all the current and future members of Turbo-Owners.com learn all they can about turbocharging they can.}---

1-Who doesn't
2-This is for sure. Everyone has knowledge but not extensive. I am glad of being member in a forum like this.
so that we can share opinions and dreams. Joetheman good work!!!!
You are here for us, we are here for you, I think that this is the ideology of this forum
Turbo-Owners means Turbo-Lovers