How many of us could realistically afford a turbo

How many could realistically afford a turbo?

  • I could afford one and would buy one if possible

    Votes: 11 18.0%
  • Could afford one but don't want to go that route

    Votes: 26 42.6%
  • Can't afford but would buy one if I could

    Votes: 15 24.6%
  • Can't afford but wouldn't buy one anyway

    Votes: 9 14.8%

  • Total voters
    61
David Neibert said:
It looks like the 3.8 NA manifold will bolt right up and would be much better for turbocharging an SC.

David

That would be a good start. But I would chop the plenum off the thing and weld one on that had 1.5 times the swept volume of 1 cylinder of the SC engine. Then you would have something.;)
 
I suppose if you plan on making a flat out racer a turbo setup could be worth investing in but most of us are in to street/strip and work on our own cars...

I couldn't imagine the extra crap that would be in the way if we had turbos (You'll have to come up with a much more efficent intercooler I would assume due to the excess heat from the exhaust and the engine oil, plus all the extra piping invloved).

I'll stick with my M90 for now (plus theres just something about a blower.... and my ricer friends want turbos, I can't think like them [eww])
 
On the subject of engine durability with the turbo setup, I believe running a belt driven supercharger cost around 40% of the power it adds to engines output due to drag. I f your sc will add 100 horsepower to the engine, the engine will use 40hp to make it work. Turbos on the other hand, are using waste to run. A turbo engine at the same boost levels will outperform a sc'd engine and it won't have to work as hard to do it. THis will allow you to turn up the boost without any extra strain on the engine. There are, of course, lots of other things to consider but I believe these are the basics. So get to work and bring on the nines!:)
 
If I was going to use a turbo it would be in conjuntion with the SC. Some of this seems silly though as I am just as guilty as anyone in the quest for HP. I had two 928's. A 79 4.5L with Euro cams and headers. It made 225rwhp and a Euro 85 928 with a 4.7L twinscrew SC with 375rwhp. The 79 I had for years and I could beat on it like no other car I have ever owned. The harder I drove her the more she liked it. Well balanced just a awesome driver. The Euro became available and all I saw was that twinscrew and all that power. It was a pain in the butt on the street, hard to track, had to watch your throttle, the back end would get loose on first to second shifts with less than 1/2 throttle. It was harder to control and much less enjoyable to drive, but she looked good.

If all you want to do is go in a straight line and hit the gas then all that power is needed to have the ET"s for 1/4 mile racing. For a street car, a big block with turbo's OMG where could you use it on the street. 500rwhp good luck with that setup. Give me a 300rwhp SC and try to keep up with me on the street where there are curves, hills, breaking etc. Ricardo said it well in a tread about a well balanced SC with 300rwhp. I agree with him a 100% Well balanced in my mind also means ease of maintenance and not having to worry about stuff breaking. I just wanna hammer it and hammer it all day long, day in and day out!
I love cars and I love power but I want to be able to use it. I wish I had the money to setup a 1/4mile car but I don't. So that means I have to put things into perspective.
A turbo on a SC in conjuntion with the blower would be a mean machine. It would also sound like no other. That will be my quest. Just give me 7 to 8lbs of boost for the top end with a stock ported late model blower and let the power fall where it may.:D
 
If I was going to use a turbo it would be in conjuntion with the SC. Some of this seems silly though as I am just as guilty as anyone in the quest for HP. I had two 928's. A 79 4.5L with Euro cams and headers. It made 225rwhp and a Euro 85 928 with a 4.7L twinscrew SC with 375rwhp. The 79 I had for years and I could beat on it like no other car I have ever owned. The harder I drove her the more she liked it. Well balanced just a awesome driver. The Euro became available and all I saw was that twinscrew and all that power. It was a pain in the butt on the street, hard to track, had to watch your throttle, the back end would get loose on first to second shifts with less than 1/2 throttle. It was harder to control and much less enjoyable to drive, but she looked good.

If all you want to do is go in a straight line and hit the gas then all that power is needed to have the ET"s for 1/4 mile racing. For a street car, a big block with turbo's OMG where could you use it on the street. 500rwhp good luck with that setup. Give me a 300rwhp SC and try to keep up with me on the street where there are curves, hills, breaking etc. Ricardo said it well in a tread about a well balanced SC with 300rwhp. I agree with him a 100% Well balanced in my mind also means ease of maintenance and not having to worry about stuff breaking. I just wanna hammer it and hammer it all day long, day in and day out!
I love cars and I love power but I want to be able to use it. I wish I had the money to setup a 1/4mile car but I don't. So that means I have to put things into perspective.
A turbo on a SC in conjuntion with the blower would be a mean machine. It would also sound like no other. That will be my quest. Just give me 7 to 8lbs of boost for the top end with a stock ported late model blower and let the power fall where it may.:D

You realize this is a very very old thread;) Given that the nice thing about the turbo set up is you can dial up boost as needed. 6 to 10 lbs for street fun or 18+ for the romp at the strip. The kind of flexability you dont get as much with the blower other than swapping pulleys. Besides I use to be one of the guys that said I would be satisfied with 300 rwhp, yeh and the moon is made of Cheese:D We have come along way from when this thread started

Ken
 
Wow it is old. So are my eyes!:eek: I love turbo's,SC,small blocks, big blocks you name if it is fun to drive I am in!:D Ken your car is awesome and have loved watching it change over the years.

There comes a point were the power gets to high to be a DD car, if that is what you are looking for. What do you think is a highest HP level for this car that is reliable and streetable?
 
Wow it is old. So are my eyes!:eek: I love turbo's,SC,small blocks, big blocks you name if it is fun to drive I am in!:D Ken your car is awesome and have loved watching it change over the years.

There comes a point were the power gets to high to be a DD car, if that is what you are looking for. What do you think is a highest HP level for this car that is reliable and streetable?

I am probably not the best one to ask as my car hasnt ever been used as a daily driver. My car drives fine when ever I drive it and made over 400 rwhp, always starts, runs cool. I hope to make 600 rwhp and dont expect any diffrence in traffic as I dont expect to run a lot of boost on the street. I just like seeing it evolve into something diffrent. I want to see big HP numbers, great track numbers and win a car show are two;) and cruse the streets on occassion I guess im greedy:p

Ken

Ken
 
HP is not a good measure for street-ability. It really ends up being the mods that go along with supporting the power that lead to issues with street-ability. A well engineered turbo car should be able to be very progressive and fun daily driven (fine at low rpm, with decent torque, and not too peaking at more than part throttle). But add a high stall torque converter with no lockup, suspension mods and gutting to get the ET, then adding the cage to deal with the et, and suddenly the car not only isn't fun daily driven, but it's no longer safe.

Same thing with any powerful supercharged car, though they tend to need less engineering for decent torque at cruising speeds, they then sacrifice some for total power. The problem with positive displacement blowers is they tend to have a window of ideal rpm operation, and that window rarely encompasses the entire RPM curve you might want. So if you bias it to higher rpm, then you lose low end power, and you bias it to low end rpm, you loose higher rpm power. You can design around that pretty good though and still make a very street-able car. Again, though, it's the suspension changes, torque converter setup, cage and all that are issues.

Personally, I found driving a manual sc with the stock 5 speed gears and a 440rwhp motor to be damn fun daily driving. I think it was much more fun than a similarly powered auto car would be but I like manual transmissions. But I could see my next steps making it more difficult. next step would have been to get rid of the A/C, get a better seat for racing, cut some weight, and a number of changes that would have taken it further and further from a daily driver car.
 
I was happy with 450rwhp in my 3200lb turbo mustang. I'm sure once I crank it up to 600rwhp it will be a blast. I'm also fond of big stall auto's.
 
I don't know much of anything about Turbos or SC's, but I hear that Turbos are better if you're interested in drag racing but the SC is a funner daily driver.

I like the 1986 Mustang SVO (4-cyl Turbocharged) and the 1988 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe. Someday I might buy one if its a good deal.
 
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