22/10/2026
STORY TIME… 👀
As you’ll have seen from our recent post, we’ve had an Abarth in with some rather “different” ideas when it comes to turbo installations!
Time to tell the full story…
Back in October 2025, Lee Downing contacted us about a car he’d recently bought which we’d previously tuned.
The car was running fine, apart from the usual lambda fault that was bringing the EML on. We had a good chat, but nothing came of it at the time.
Fast forward almost a year and Lee got back in touch.
He’d initially gone down a different route and, because of the distance involved, he had chosen a company closer to home.
To cut a very long story short, after a blown engine, thousands of pounds spent, a car he wasn’t happy with and almost a year of being on and off the road, Lee had finally had enough.
We had another good chat and arranged to get the car in with us.
First things first onto the Dyno
Before doing anything else, we put the car on the dyno to see exactly what we were dealing with.
It was making respectable power, as these setups often do, but the AFRs were extremely lean.
It wasn’t something I was comfortable allowing the car to continue running with, so we needed to find out exactly what was going on.
What we found
THE TURBO
Lee had been sold a GBC-250.
When we inspected the car, the turbo fitted was actually a GBC-300. 🫣
THE INJECTORS
The car was still running the standard / stock 330cc injectors.
For reference, we’ve tested the standard injectors ourselves and, in our experience, they reach their limit at around 235–240bhp.
THE TURBO KIT & INSTALLATION
As you’ll have seen in our previous post, the fabrication and installation left a lot to be desired.
What made it even more concerning was the response Lee received when these issues were raised.
And I quote:
“I’ve looked through the photographs and whilst I appreciate that some of the fabrication isn’t particularly pretty, that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s anything technically wrong with it.”
🤔
Now, I’m all for function over form where appropriate. Not every component needs to look perfect, and a good-looking weld doesn’t automatically mean the installation is right.
However there’s a difference between something that isn’t pretty and something that raises genuine concerns.
A turbo-to-manifold adaptor that was effectively a door wedge and complete unnecessary, clocking the turbo and fitting a proper spacer plate would have been a much better option
An oil return adaptor with a bolt hole passing directly through the oil return flow, then covered in silicone to try and fix an inevitable leak is more than not looking pretty…
A shortened sports cat with fabrication and welding that, in my opinion, was well below an acceptable standard.
AND THEN THERE’S THE ECU CALIBRATION…
Despite the hardware fitted, there had been very few changes made to the calibration.
The car was running permanently in open loop, which tied in with the lambda control issue not having been properly resolved.
Boost control duty was effectively flat, and the lambda table had been changed to a target of 0.6 lambda. 🫣
These aren’t details you can simply overlook when calibrating a modified turbo engine.
You need the right hardware, enough fuelling, proper boost control and a calibration that works with the whole setup.
Making a number on the dyno is one thing.
Making that power with the fuelling and control strategies properly sorted is another.
Am I being harsh?
Genuinely, I’d like to know what you think.
We’re not saying everything has to look factory-fresh, and we’re certainly not saying mistakes never happen.
But when a customer has spent thousands of pounds, suffered an engine failure and ended up with a car they’re unhappy with, surely the quality of the installation and calibration matters?
Especially when you’re paying a specialist to do the job 🤷🏼♂️
We removed the lot and started again.
✅ ADE260 bolt-on turbo fitted.
✅ ADE FMIC Kit
✅ OEM oil feed and return pipes.
✅ Properly fabricated ADE sports cat.
✅ Bosch 390cc injectors.
✅ Fully custom ECU calibration, with the fuelling and AFRs correctly addressed.
The result?
A car that looks and drives OEM+, makes the owner happy and is much closer to what Lee originally wanted.
No unnecessary complications. No bodged fabrication. No cutting corners.
Just the right hardware, fitted properly and calibrated correctly.
There’s a few other little issues we are working through so Lee can hopefully enjoy his little 🚗 again
