I'm working on a turbo project, and I'm at the point that I need to buy some new front suspension.

1. What k member/suspension setup will give me the most room up front for tubing/headers/turbos?

2. Would it be worth it to go to a rack and pinion setup to gain some more room for the turbo kit vs. the stock steering box setup?

3. Are coilovers worth buying in terms of freeing up area? I want to be able to fit 8" or so front wheels on the car... I'm just not sure how useable the area between the strut and a-arm would be as well as the area that the stock spring occupies.

Thanks in advance!

 

If you do it right, you can get by on the stock kmember, but any aftermarket tubular piece should make things MUCH easier, especially for down pipes.

The steering box setup on these cars isnt much of a problem as is the stock brake booster and master. Those get in the way more so than anything else. Not sure how big of a turbo you are trying to fit, but you should beable to make manifolds rise up and over to the front of the valve cover, and hang the turbo upside down there, with the downpipe going back under the manifold and down the stock location.

I did a different approach which left the turbos sitting up out of the hood, and the down pipe goes between cylinder tubes 5 and 7. PITA to work on, and its a tight fit but functions good so far. Looks kinda cool as well, most seem to like it.

 

I'm all about making it easy, as I'll be fabbing the kit myself and really want it easy to work on if possible. I want to be able to change plugs, run valvelash, etc. without having to do too much work.

I'm either going to do a big single (if I don't sell my turbo) or two smaller twins, looking at a bullseye S375 twin setup or similar. I'm thinking about moving the battery and coolant fill tank and either putting the turbos there, or below those trays and using an oil return pump. A big single would involve radiator relocation and all sorts of fun.

My goal is to keep the stock hood, we will see if it happens. I'd like to be able to run 4" downpipes out of the engine bay, maybe with dumps and then a Y to a 5" oval pipe out the back of the car.

 

4" pipes would be HUGE and for big power numbers. Definately would consider tubular K-member for routing those. I'd think dual 3" is good for anything up to 800whp. 3.5" after that would be best but there are guys out there making more than that on 3". Easy to route them.

When I upgrade my setup I was considering 3.5" dual into single 5" but thats a huge pipe to hang under the car.

What are the goals for the setup? S300 series are awesome turbos

This will be the best bet. still have room to move downpipes back, under the manifolds. Only problem with that is you may have difficulty reaching plugs with downpipe in the way. NOt a problem if you use Vbands and can make the downpipe removeable. Still may need to get under the car to do so however. Tough call, you have to buy the turbos first, and then start to visualize the layout.

 

I have an outlaw 10.5 racecar, I would like to have a streetcar. I have an engine from the outlaw car that should be done at the machine shop in the next week or so, 432" smallblock that has been redone with steel rods instead of aluminum and a streetable solid roller. I want to be able to make 1500-2000 flywheel hp on e85 or C16 (if e85 won't hack it) with a frontmount air to air intercooler. I have a billet PT114 from my outlaw car, but I think that twin S375 or S380 turbos would do what I want, and be much more street friendly.

 

Thats a heck of a build Much easier to fit the borg warners instead of a PT114. Those are huge. If you consider a pump for an oil sump type system on the turbo drains you can really move the turbos up under the nose alittle to get more room for everything.

Sounds like you have some money to spend so definately look into an all tubular k-member and A-arms. I'm sure you know what the underneath of these cars look like, so routing the pipes will be much easier that way especially with pipes over 3". I think for your goals, 3.5" will do but trying to bend those towards the stock exhaust location for a big single 5" isnt going to be easy. I got dual 3" to move around where the stock ypipe would normally go and its a tight squeeze. Its a pretty tight fit down the drive shaft tunnel for dual 3", but possible a normal diesel like 5" can be run under there. Depends on ride height, my car sits abit low, but you may have some clearance.

Keep us posted on this build, that sounds like a nasty motor. I hope to take my next build to the 1400-1500hp range

 

well i have all of the above ,plus motor plates. you will have room to mount that 114mm. here some pics of my setup to give u an idea.

 

That's pretty sexy! Got any more pics? What k-member and a-arms are you using?

Thanks!

 

im using pa racing k-member and a-arms. i have a few more old pics.

 

That really frees up more room than I thought it would. Just by looking at those pics it looks like you are free to come up with some good pipe routing ideas. I may need to change my setup to accomplish my goals

 

HOLY CRAP!!! Look at all that space!!!