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You are here: Home | News, Events & Advice | X-57 vs S280 Turbo Comparison
X-57 vs S280 Turbo Comparison
We're here to talk turbos and we are often asked "why should I get the X57 instead of the S280". This article is nothing more than a comparison between the two turbos showing the differences in construction, performance, warranty and fitment. We are hoping to explain the differences between the two and clear up any questions you may have and make your purchase an easier decision to make.
Let's start at the beginning and look at the construction of the two units.
The cores themselves are different in each of the turbos; the S280 has the K03 core whereas the X57 has a K04 core which is built to be more durable and upgradable..
Both the X57 and S280 turbo have a 360 degree thrust bearing holding the internals in place. This gives more reliability for the high pressures flowing through the turbos.
Within the core of the X-57 the exhaust wheel has clipped or cut-back blades as they are known, these vs the non clipped in the S280 will certainly flow a little more gas which does mean that the X57 will give a little more power than the S280.we estimate the difference could be as much as 10-12 bhp and so far in testing this has been verified.
( image of cut back vs non cut back blades on my other phone)
There are pros and cons to cut back blades, additionally to the obvious power increase is the fact that the freer flowing exhaust side will have an effect to lower exhaust gas temps which has to be good news when tuning and for longevity of all the engine and turbo components.The main drawback of the clipped blades is that the turbo will spool a tad slower, but testing has shown that its as low as 100 revs and when the units spools up well below 2500rpm its irrelevant to the track user and almost undetectable to the daily road car user.
On the cold side of the turbo, the X57 has a larger 62.85mm extended tip 7 blade design compared to the60mm non extended tip 6 blade design on the S280. The blades 'grab' the air coming in from your intake so the extra blade on the X57 will deliver a higher flow through your hot side pipe to the intercooler.
( image of extended tip vs non on my other phone)
Secondly, let's talk about performance.
All turbos can only perform as well as the surounding conditions allow. The weak link on a turbo charger of this size is 100% the fuel system of the Fiesta 1.6 Ecoboost itself. On stock injectors and a brand new HPFP stock Ford pump the system can only flow 350-360bhp ( dyno dependant ) .We have seen this time and time again on the many Garrett GTX units we have mapped, Pumaspeed advertise the X57 as a 360bhp capable turbo but we know with more fuel the turbo can produce a little more.
Customer's independent dyno reads are a good way of showing the power our turbos make. We also have our network of dealers across the UK who help develop different set-up ideas and have dynos of their own and can contribute to achieving the figures we put out to the world. Our highest X57 dyno read as a business is XXXbhp and as a customer is XXXbhp. To our knowledge, the highest S280 dyno read as a business is XXXbhp and as a customer is XXXbhp.
**Wayne Allan Video - STealthWERX Video** 101 Fuel Dig?
Pumaspeed performance comes hand in hand with the MAXD Out mapping software. MAXD Out have provided mapping for Pumaspeed Fiesta STs on the X27, X37, X47, X47R and now the X57 turbochargers. As mentioned above the MAXD Out software has made XXXbhp out of the X57 turbo but did you also know that on 27th September Jamsport rang us up with a Collins Performance customer who was running an S280 with a full 'stage 5 kit' which was only making 303bhp. On that morning, Pumaspeed were able to send over a base file and make a few dyno runs, tweaking the map each time. By the end of the day the car made 373bhp on the MAXD Out software, an increase of 70 horsepower from a base file.
The importance of mapping is relevant because the X57 will make over 360bhp with mapping alone, without the need for uprated injectors as seen in the STealthwerx research and development post where he made 365bhp on stock injectors. (*Insert STealthwerx graph*). The S280 set up requires both injectors to make the quoted power.
Moving on to Warranty, thirdly. On Friday 15th November we called Collins Performance, a retailer and tuning company of the S280 turbocharger, and they offer only a manufacturer's warranty on the turbo against manufacturing defects. Collins Performance offered no warranty themselves. Pumaspeed and all dealers of offer a 12 month warranty with the original purchaser of the turbo fitted to their car. Further X57 warranty information can be found from the Pumaspeed website.
Finally, we move on to fitment. The X57 is designed as a direct bolt on in place of the stock turbocharger on the ST180 on the standard manifold without any need for modification of the block or need for grinding or welding. The S280 will require some grinding of the block for all units, and some modification of the driveshaft mount to fit if the unit is not clocked correctly. See here an image from Laird Performance website where you can see the required size of your engine block to be ground off by your tuner before fitting the S280.
(*Insert image from Laird website*)
