hey hey,

i have always been a big camaro fan. I just bought a 91 Z28 305 5spd about 4 months ago. I have had enough fun with the little 305. A friend of mine is giving me a 350 out of a 92 Z28. I have always like turbos on vehicles and i finally got to drive a 4th gen with turbos. Id like to build my own. I have done lots of work to suspension and minor engine stuff but nothing big. Here are some questions i have.

I have decided that I would like to go for a 355ci engine with the BBS twin turbo kit. I am going to go with a Stealth Ram intake and thats just about how far my knowledge goes. From the searching that I have done that seems to be the best set up. I am going to have a shop that deals with turbos all day long do a chip and tune out the bugs

Is there a complete rebuild kit that would be good for a turbo setup or would I be better off to piece together the bottom end?

Also which complete heads would you choose?

Money isnt an issue but I would prefer not to spend 10's of thousands of dollars on just the engine. Got lots to do Also this is going to be a car for the strip but I would prefer not to take it off the street completely.

Thanks for the help

 

F/I = Big money forged items. Rods, Pistons

You can't afford to go cheap

 

Sounds like a fun project. Mine's similar.

Even though you have a shop to tune for you, you still need to thoroughly read all about the in's and out's of turbo setups before you start a turbo project. The stickies at the top are great.

First of all, how much power are you going for? You wouldn't need to spend as much on a 500hp bottom end as you would on a 1000hp bottom end, and such.

Which BBS kit are you looking at? The 'street/strip' TT kit (the one I have), or the 'race' TT kit.

If you have a bunch of money to spend and it's a primarily strip car, I'd say go with the 'race' TT kit (A/C delete), and spend the bucks on a nice forged bottom end. In that case, go with splayed 4-bolt mains (if you use the L98 block), and a good forged crank, rods, and low compression pistons (there are many, many choices for SBC's). You can have a rebuild kit put together at a shop like that, or you can spend less and piece it together yourself. Either way a good machine shop is a must for proper block work.

As for heads, either way since you have a nice budget, get aluminum heads. Not only will they offset the weight of the TT kit, they'll resist detonation better than iron heads. AFR makes nice, but expensive heads. Less expensive heads will also work well, but with less power or low end torque than the AFR's.
A rule of thumb is that it's better to have a small head chamber and a deeper piston dish, than a larger head chamber and less dish.
Overall you don't want your compression to be so low it's a snail off boost (7.0-8.0ish), but not so high it limits the boost you can run (9.5+ish). It's hard to say exactly, as many factors come into play.

Don't forget about fuel, and if you're going for anywhere near the 1200hp the race TT kit can support, you're going to need a lot of it.


OTOH, if you want budget and ~500-550hp at the crank, get the street/strip TT kit.
Buy a stock rebuild kit for the L98, then throw in GM powdered metal rods, Speed Pro forged 'turbo' pistons (-21.1cc dish), a decent set of aluminum heads, and a mild cam. Have a shop bore the block and balance the rotating assembly. Top all that with the Stealth Ram and a Walbro 255hp in-tank pump with some 42pph Lightning injectors, let the shop at it for tuning, then rev to 6000 all day long and have fun. That's my route, soon (except I do my own tuning).

There's a ton more that you need to know, but these are the basics. Read, read, read. And post pics of your Z.

Oh, and either way, that 5-speed is going to die a painful, but glorious death.
T56 6-speeds are fun too.

 

thanks steve for all the info. when it comes to the mech side of it all i under stand turbos and the rebuilding of engines, how it goes together. Now how to match numbers and all for the best flow combo and stuff like that, i havnt gotten enough knowledge about that stuff yet. thats why i was looking for some specifics so i can piece it together in my mind to make sense.

im looking for something that street and strip, the t56 is in the works as i type now.

i know money is going to thrown into this motor as i realize the project i want. i just want to make sure i get best bang for the buck, not build a 15k motor and it only runs 13s.

while i was searching tonight i found that banks is making turn key engines with turbos, and their own turbo kit for 5.7 engines. has anyone gotten these yet. they look and sound bad a$$.