Engine: T5/R BSR Stage 1

[doingitsideways]

Originally Posted by kevvydude

did you not need to upgrade the con rods at 300bhp ish .sure i read it on here a while ago.as they throw their rods ??

Not necessarily.

Again, it's all about power delivery. Even more so with an auto like in my case, as with an auto, the engine will tend to sit right on the torque curve more of the time.
A properly set up T5 should see 300 on standard rods.

What tends to bend rods first is too much boost, too low down.
Some more crude maps bring the boost in too early, making them feel really quick, but that's not necessarily a good thing.
Mine for example, still feels really laggy even though it's on the standard 16t so should boost quickly, but it's the ecu intentionally holding back the boost until it's safer at higher revs. It also holds back slightly in 1st and 2nd to look after the 'box a little.
Mine's been up the 1/4 mile a good few times now and I can pretty confidently say that with inferior mods/maps, it wouldn't have taken launch after launch like it has without leaving the gearbox and/or bottom end on the tarmac!

You could take a standard T5, whack a set of injectors in and plumb in an MBC, it would probably make about 280bhp, it's been done before many times, but not for long.