Tsi Turbo Kit on Rzr 4

I have been asked by a few about my Turbo Specialties kit that I put on my 2010 Rzr4 so I decided to do a little write up about my experience with their kit as well as why I decided to go with their kit.

First off I have been off-roading most of my life. I ride 8 or 9 times in a season at the sand dunes, and my other riding is done in the desert close to my home in Mesa Az and some up in the mountains in northern Az. I bought my first Rzr in 2009 and put about 1500 miles on it in a year, then I sold that and bought a 2010 Rzr4. I love the 4 and had a great time duning it this last season. I have always felt that the Rzr platform was underpowered for my dune use, but it is such a blast to drive that my quad just sits. I like to dune really hard. Although the rzr lacks power to go straight up the race hills it is a great duning machine. I ride with big rails and quads and we know how to run the dunes. I have been thinking about adding some power to the machine since day 1 so that I don't have to run so hard to hang with my buddies. I have seriously considered and studied out every option out there. Initially I was leaning away from turbos because I wanted to be reliable. I nearly pulled the trigger on a Holz stage 3 bb kit. I had figured that that was a good safe amount of power for the conditions I ride. My wife oftens drives the rzr so I had to make sure it was as wife friendly. I would have bought the stage 3, but after reviewing the total cost it would have been close to costing the same as the Big 3 turbo kits. I really had no desire to spend that much even though I could afford it. I finally decided that I wanted either the Bikeman turbo or the Tsi. I've not found hardly any customers reviews of the Bikeman kit out there, so that steered me away a bit. The Tsi kit has had mixed reviews, but after reading and talking to owners and also shops that install these I decided it was the right route for me. The main thing that Scared me about the turbo was I didn't want an unreliable bike or to be constantly tinkering with it. There have been many succesful turbo owners with thousands of reliable miles on the forum with all the kits.

I found a used tsi kit on Craigslist. The guy had installed it but he didnt know it wasn't compatible with a standard Rzr, so he took it off. This kit will only work with an "S" model or Rzr4. This kit is very simple, much more so than all the others I looked at. I did make a few modifications to make it like I wanted, but I would have done the same with almost all the kits on the market. Sorry for the long post- Now to the install.

I began by ordering a 2mm shim and pushrods from Mcx turbos. It lowers the compression to prevent detonating, but the use of pump premium is still needed. The head shim and pushrods cost $110. I removed the entire bed assembly from the Rzr-
(now is a good time to wash the machine)Then removal of the exhaust and intake parts attached to the head. I drained the coolant and took the head off. Note you may need a large breaker bar with a pipe on it to break the head bolts loose. Mine were very hard to break loose. Here is the top of the pistons after about 1300 miles-

I installed the shim after copper coating it (not necessary but I thought it was a good Idea)and then reinstalled the head making sure to torque properly. I then installed the oil fitting on the side of the block and the new dipstick oil return tube. Do these before mounting the turbo and it will be much easier. Next was the turbo. I bought new slightly longer exhaust bolts since the oem ones were a little short since they go through the cast iron manifold. The cast iron manifold is rock solid and I like the fact that it is very durable. I also like the wastegate actuator being so accessible if one decides to adjust the boost level. Here is a shot of the turbo installed.-

Here is where I deviated from the instructions. I didnt want the air filter up in the bed and wanted utilize my UMP intake in its original location. The kit was designed to put the inter-cooler under the bed where the oem filter goes, which I wasn't a fan of. I cut the x cross bar to allow room for piping. Complete performance does that with their kits so I figured it would be fine. You can stand on the cut off section and it barely flexes. In these 3 pictures you can see how I routed the intake to the turbo.-

I then used a couple 90's to hook up the throttle body-

I welded in a bung on the exhaust for the wideband o2 gauge. I bought an aem gauge but there are lots of good ones out there. The gauge came with the bung-

There is a Blow off valve (BOV) included with the kit that I installed right before the throttle body. Then as you can see in the next pictures I mounted my lines to go up to the inter-cooler. I measured the bed to get them close-

I mounted the inter-cooler on the bar behind the seats. I cut 2 short lengths of alum. 3/4 angle and screwed them to the inter-coolerand drilled holes in the angle pieces to line up with the holes on the tube clamps. I bought the clamps from a place that sells sandrail stuff. I think they are made by Empi. They were 12 bucks each.

I hooked up the oil line and return to the turbo, changed the oil and topped off the coolant. I fired it up before I installed the fuel controller just to warm up the engine to purge air from the coolant and to heat cycle it. I then installed the piggyback fuel controller that takes 2 seconds. All you do is unplug the injectors and put the controller inline and then install a ground wire. The controller does need a boost reference. I ran a length of line the the intake where the new intake piece included in the kit has ports for boost and also to hook the BOV to. I was a bit nervous about tuning the motor for the turbo, but it really wasn't very difficult with the 02 sensor. You just watch the gauge and the fuel controller has lights to tell you what range or mode it is in. Then you add fuel to the ranges that run lean. You want around a 12-1 while under boost.

After i got the fueling close I turned to clutching. I called over to Alba Racing. They sell and install the Tsi kits so I knew they could get the clutching close. They sold me the primary and secondary springs and some fixed clutch weights, but they said I could change out the weights for free (you do have to pay the shipping) as many times as needed in order to get it right. I was a little off on the first set and needed a little heavier weight so I called them up and they sent the new ones out right away, even before I sent the others back. My Clutching is real good now thanks to Alba. They were great to work with. Btw if you are interested in a Tsi setup Alba has great prices on them with gauges and clutch kits included.

I took the machine out to the desert for final tuning / testing before I reinstalled the bed just in case I had any leaks or any problems. The only problem was I couldn't stop giggling every time it boosted.

I now have a few hundred miles on this setup running close to 8psi of boost. I have had no issues whatsoever and the new found power has been amazing. I have a riding area I like that I could only get up to 40mph because of the soft deep gravel. Now i can go as fast as I have courage for. I look forward to dune season when it cools off around here. I haven't taken any pictures with it all finished up but I will and update this thread with them.

New Tsi kit-$2600
02 gauge-160
Boost gauge-40
a couple extra silicone elbows-25
Clutch springs and weights-170
Adjustable clutch weights- 150
Larger injectors- 100


There has been many threads on the forum for a moderate turbo setup for about $3000. This set-up does that. This kit uses a Garrett turbo that is very common and is very reliable. If you are looking to sit at the hill all day and race and like spending lots of coin to be the fastest then this kit isn't for you, but If you are like the majority of rzr owners who just want some more reliable power without spending 8k on a turbo bb stroker, then I think you would be very pleased with this kit. I am more than happy with my purchase.
-Paul