Turbo ?'s

[Little Bob]

I'm at the point of setting up the turbo plan. But I have thinking latley about the twin turbo thing. I'm thinking about going with a single turbo instead. Can someone fill me in on how they are dealing with issues of heat, tunning and fitment of the systems? I'm more concerned with a heat issue. I plan on driving the car as much as possible.

[ProStreet R/T]

How much power do you want to make, and with what size/rpm engine?

If by heat you mean the underhood temps from all the exhaust plumbing it's not too terribly hard to deal with. Ceramic coat everything and put a heat shield around the turbine housing if necessary.

What car is it going in? Twins are usually easier to package but you have more work to do on the cold side. It's all relative to how big of a system you want to run. Single vs twin isn't a huge issue, they both have ups and downs, running 5" downpipes from a big thumper is no fun at all, everything is HUGE, but you only do it once.

For tuning, are you using efi?

Any plan for an adjustable boost controller?

[Little Bob]

How much power do you want to make, and with what size/rpm engine?

If by heat you mean the underhood temps from all the exhaust plumbing it's not too terribly hard to deal with. Ceramic coat everything and put a heat shield around the turbine housing if necessary.

What car is it going in? Twins are usually easier to package but you have more work to do on the cold side. It's all relative to how big of a system you want to run. Single vs twin isn't a huge issue, they both have ups and downs, running 5" downpipes from a big thumper is no fun at all, everything is HUGE, but you only do it once.

For tuning, are you using efi?



Any plan for an adjustable boost controller?

I don't want a ton of power. I just want something that will scare me a little. The engine will be a stroked Pontiac 400 backed by a Turbo-400 tranny. The car is a 68 GTO convertable. Pontiac engines are not known for high rpm's.

I noticed that alot of people are mounting thier turbo's close to the hood and intake. I was wondering what effect that has on the paint of the hood and surrounding components. If I did a single turbo setup. I was planning on putting it offset from the engine in the location of the battery tray.

I'm not to worried about space. I'm going to figure out the fitment as I fab things out. I allready plan on moving the master cylinder under the dash so that does not get overheated.

How is everyone dealing with power steering, air conditioning, wiring and other misc. items?

As far as tuning goes. I would like to use efi. I will have to see how it fits into my budget. I would like to have a well balanced car. I see so many cars that could be great cars. But it looks like they ran out of money to complete the package.

Thanks

[jakespeeds]

Rob,

Don't take this the wrong way but if you are looking for a well thought out and good running turbo system then you need to wait until a budget is not the question. There are some excellent working systems out there that run well that can be done on a budget but I have never seen a one that did not have some problems or when the chips were down just did not run right at all. I have had a couple of turbo systems in more than a few of my cars. Innovative turbo has always been the place I get everything from and there stuff always works. But it has never been anything that could have been built on a budget. But it was always worth the money. If this is your first system I would recommend keeping it simple to start with. Keep an eye on ebay or a couple of the other places and buy a simple single turbo setup. Use in non intercooled and then add up from there. And start with a carb. You will be happy with what you get and the risk to the motor will be much less.

[shmoov69]

It CAN be done on a budget...........But it just depends what your budget is on the bells and whistles! Needless to say, Charlie's budget is ALOT more than my budget!
My turbo's do put out alot of heat, but I have not had any major problems, just alot of little PITA problems. Like my stock rubber power steering lines got smoked, had to put in solid upper control arm bushings because the poly ones melted to a blob on the frame, had to wrap all close hoses and wires with that DEI heat wrap stuff and the biggie was the heat was eating my plug wires, I actually had 2 catch fire (litteraly) 2 different times in a spot where there was too much radiant heat and no air movement. To fix that, MSD sent me some of thier super wonder heat wrapped top fuel style wires! I have not had any problems with eating paint (knock on wood!) off the hood in the last 4 years. My pipes are HPC coated also.
Twins are easier to package than a big single is because of the tubing size as stated earlier. A good website for info is www.toohighpsi.com
Mike has helped me out alot on "budget minded" ideas!

[jakespeeds]

True. Budget means different things to different people. But I have seen a lot of turbo systems come in for rework because someone tried to use a budget item. Then they find out how much the item will cost that works right. That is usually where people start to lose interest. A 175.00 POS wastegate off of ebay will work. But it will leak boost at higher levels causing boost creep and fuel problems. That same size wastegate for 900.00 from a company like HKS will work faster, not leak or stick and provide years of good service. That is more of the point I was trying to make.

[Little Bob]

Thanks for the answers guys. I'm going to research this more.