Hey guys. I just spent a GRUNDLE of money on my car, new GM ramjet motor, tranny, shift kit, stall, shifter, etc. I am now thinking of a turbo for my car, I love the performance increases, and the sound of the turbo. Am I crazy? I dont know much about them, thats why im here. That ramjet took up alot of my engine bay, and it seems so dang tight right now. What steps do I do to put in a charger? What do I do with my headers? If I buy acharger how much can I expect to pay someone to put it in? are they worth it? How do they fit in our cars? please give me the low down on all of this, so i can help make a decision. thanks guys!!!

P.S. I NEED A POSI REAR END BAD! if you know of someone, let me know!

 

well nobody makes a direct bolton kit yet but alot of guys have their own setup running already. they can prolly help you more than me but I wanted to reassure you that you are not crazy!! turbos kick ***!!! vroooom ppssshhh!!

 

Who would i talk to about someone making a setup for me? I really want one, But its just a space thing, I dont know if I can fit it! Where do you recommend I start? How much should i expect to pay on a turbo setup? anyone willing to help me out on building one and I pay you? this is the thing, im new to turbos, i know they kick ***, I know I want one, but I do not know where to begin.. let me know guys

Nate

I AM EAGER AND WILLING! BUT HELP ME FIND A REAR END!!!!!! I NEED ONE FOR MY CAR BEFORE ANY MORE MODS, once the rear is in, I can weld on my SSM traction kit, and then put on the turbo :-) let me know guys!!!!!!

 

If you lived closer Id say drop it off and I'll build a set of headers for you.

I am nearly through building a tubular header system for my turbo. I went big and big. Big turbo, big tube headers. And I converted to motor plate. Did i have to? In hindsight Id say no but it doesnt bother me at this point.

Take a look through my website and see a little of what is involved.

http://home.webworks2000.net/guido

 

what type of money are we talking, i'm interested and I live in Rushville, hehe Now I know to look out for a Blue camaro in the area. lol Do you know Jerry? Don't remember his last name. He's like 20 or 21 probably. Anyways, i'm dropping in a 383 this spring and quiet interested in a Turbo, or possible twin turbo???

 

haha Yeah Jerry is my best friend.

You can come over and check out the car sometime. Probably have to be a little while as I am taking it out to have the roll cage finished this weekend though.

Twins would probably be easier. We can hook up and talk sometime if you like.

 

cool, i'm at purdue right now. but i go home occasionally i've probably met you at kims place b4 just don't remember... yea i'm trying to decide to supercharge/turbo/ or just nat asp. Have to see how the money situation is when it warms up. but i'm definetely going with the mini-ram OR a modified LT1 intake on the 383. The L03 305 is killing me right now... lol 170hp, don't need to say any more, hehe.

 

Dude, you should definitely go for a turbo project. It's expensive.. but you can do it in parts, and it'll be worth it in the end. I have my twin turbo headers all ready (just waiting for turbos and wastegates), and, to go with Guido, it's a HELL of a lot easier than plumbing for a single turbo. I originally tried mapping out a plan of attack for a single turbo before I decided on twins... it would've been waaaaaaaaaay too much work.

Have fun!
Jon

 

Hey 82resto, do you have any photos of what you are going to be using?

 

Guido.. it's a secret
Umm.. actually, I don't have any photos on hand. But it's going to be a simple, low power street setup. I have two spearco manifolds that are designed for rayjay/mitsu turbos, and i'm just going to plumb them into a large intercooler. It's going to be quite a simple setup, for my car is a daily driver. Much of my design i am copying from Twinturbo 358's car. However, I am keeping my LTR setup for it's streetability on my.. gasp.. 305.

And Guido, if you ever wanted to offer me help/advice, I'd love it... I'm still learning much about turbos.(I'm expecting to start putting everything together this summer).

Jon

 

If you have questions, post em here. Thats what this board is for.

 

well, dont know how well it would hold up if you do the turbo, but Ive got a near perfect 9-bolt sitting in my garage just taking up space. Its only got the 2.73's, but I know there are a few guys on here that have gears for them. e-mail me and let me know what you think

 

I went to a highly recommend mechanic that does turbos on cars, and he said with my RAMJET motor, if I put on a turbo, it would only give me about 4lbs of boost because of my compression ratio, and he said it wouldnt be worth it, it would be too expensive and not enough HP gain to justify it, what do you guys think? he said to put an underhood super charger, but this is some serious cash, and i cannot afford it, any thoughts? I REALLY need a POSI 3.73 rear ASAP, anyone know where I can look? anyone know who has one for sale? let me know

Nate

 

I am not sure what the compression on the ramjet motors is, but even if it is high, then it is no more SUPERCHARGER safe than it is TURBOCHARGER safe... Would he be the man installing this stuff if you purchased it? Thats probably why he told you supercharger. Because it would be easier to install than a custom built turbo kit.

What IS the compression on the ramjet motor?

 

9.4:1
So you could run slightly less boost than a stock tpi motor. The guy is probably right, without an intercooler you could only run about 4 psi. But, with an intercooler, you could probably get away with 8.

Jon

 

<-----ran 12psi with his procharger on pump gas with a 3 core intercooler

when i didn't have a fuel problem, my car ran great

that was with 9.3:1 compression

82resto...where did you get those manifolds?

from GMI FAST?

 

Im running 9:1 and plan on running 20psi.

Course Im running C16 too.

 

Guido,
After everyone else gets to you, I will eventually need a set of headers also. I didn't know there were so many people this close. Don't worry, with the things I have going on now, it will be a couple years.

 

Yeah, I got them from GMI Fast
He doesn't live too far from here, so it was kinda cool. They're some old-school spearcos. The only issue is that since they're old, i'm going to need to find an adapter from a 3bolt flange to the standard 2 bolt to put the planned wastegates on.

Jon
I have pics now....

 

3 bolt wastegates ? LOL, nope those manifolds are meant to be single turbo, used in older kits for vette's and 2nd gens, seems like they'll work fine the way you want, but normally that 3 bolt flange was for the crossover pipe and the wastegate was either in the crossover or internal, havent seen one close enough to tell for sure, maybe interested in using as its meant for single and selling one ?

 

I know it's more efficient to put one large turbo than two, but i'm worried about too big of lag times. Would there be a good size turbo that would make it easier to justify a single turbo? I see what you're saying, and that'd probably be more fabricating, but easier in the long run to run. Since I already have SLP headers, i could use one, and use one turbo manifold, and work from there....

Jon

 

As far as price, its always gonna be cheaper if you can find someone here to hook you up or if you do the work yourself. Guido is doing alot of the work himself so his cost is going to be alot lower than the average Joe. I'd say for the average person to *really do it right* it would cost between 6-8 grand. That would include rebuilding the engine with foarged components and better rings that can handle lotsa boost and the complete turbo setup including the electronic boost controller, intercooler, BOV's, piping, manifolds, turbo's, everything. Now if Guido can hook you up and you have some friends that can rebuild your engine then you can prolly do it for a couple grand cheaper.

I know 6-8 grand is alot of money but thats actually not that bad considering whats possible. Heck I've heard of people who have dumped 10 grand into their turbo setup alone to reach the power levels possible with our cars. I know people dont like to talk about imports on this messageboard but you have to admit they have some of the most advanced turbo setups out there. I think there is alot we can learn from them. I've read about a supra that dyno'd 935 rwhp on a single turbo inline 6. He put 10 grand into his turbo setup (not even the engine). Now that guy is running really high boost, like 25-30 psi and his engine is taking a beating. With the bigger displacement engines we are planning to use (or are using) we can get the same power levels at a lower boost settings. This is good because it always leaves room for improvement and the eniges should last longer. I'm pretty sure we can reach 900+ rwhp at around 20 psi on our v8's. Imagine if we tried to push 30 psi!!!

The cost also depends on how crazy you want to get. Is 600 rwhp enough for you? I know the LS1 kits put down around 600rwhp at 9 psi on a stock block. If you dont want to rebuild the engine you could prolly do it for 3-4 grand total but you won't be able to run high boost safely (9 psi would be max). With our engines im sure you could hit at least 500 hp on low boost settings without rebuilding the engine ... 600 hp is possible. Is 600 hp not enough? You'll need to rebuild the engine to safely push high boost. I mean you can always slam high boost through a stock engine but its going to take a beating and it will eventually blow up. I've seen too many imports do this to make the same mistake myself. I plan to run high boost so I will definately rebuild the engine. Sounds like you just swapped in a new engine, so the 9psi max and no engine rebuild might be the best deal for you if you'd be happy with 600 hp. Im not sure what your goal is.

You were also talking about needing a new rearend and not knowing where to start as far as the whole turbo setup. I think before you actually turbocharge your engine you should get the car ready for the power you're going to make. Really think about how much power you want to make and if your drivetrain can handle it. If you need to upgrade the rearend anyway, might as well get it ready to handle 800hp!! It sucks because it starts out as a good idea (turbocharge it!!) but when you realize how much its gonna cost to cover all the aspects to protect your investment you might want to think twice. Think about .. how much can the tranny handle? How about the driveshaft? Rearend? Will the suspension be able to hold up at the speeds possible with the power level's we're talking? What about braking? Will you be able to stop it fast enough?? hehe. All these things have to come into play.

Best bet it to write down what your goal is. Then write down what you've already done and figgure out what still needs to be done to reach your goal. My goal with my project camaro is to build a car that could beat a highly modified 935 rwhp supra in a street race (not 1/4 mi). I know some people might think thats a stupid goal but looking at what the supra guys have done so far, I honestly think the highly modified supras are the fastest cars on the streets today and I want to beat them.

 

Jeez, I never thought a turbo would be like 4 grand! thats crazy! is that totally true? what do you think i would be in cost to put a turbo on my car, look at my SIG and you can see what I have.. what is a intercooler exactly? where does it go? Where in the heck would I put the turbo? my engine bay seems so crammed right now it would be weird to see something else there.. I want more speed out of my car, im trying to find a damn posi rearend, but it seems impossible since ive been looking for 2 years. I have a SSM suspension kit waiting to go on, once I get my rear end in im trying to find, so that will really help my acceleration, but once I get my posi 3.73 rear in, and the SSM kit, what other mods that are cost effective do you recommend? Keep in mind I just spent a GRUNDLE on my car with the motor, tranny, etc. Let me know my best increases for the money, and what is best to do, thanks guys!

Nate

 

82resto did you get my email yet or did it not go through ?

 

4 grand is the average price for a direct bolt-on turbo kit for most cars. They mostly make turbo kits for imports but now there are some for newer model camaros and older/newer mustangs. Like I said before, there aren't and direct bolt-on kits for our cars yet (SBC) but a few are supposedly in development. I would expect when one does become avaliable it will be around 4 grand maybe more. But I'm sure if you get together with Guido or some other people that are willing to help you out, it can prolly be done cheaper. If you want to get into forced induction, its gonna be expensive. Even superchargers are a couple grand. If you want cheap HP you might want to look into NOS.

Ok, a little on intercoolers. An Intercooler works to increase horsepower not by increasing boost, but by lowering the temperature of the air. It should be known that there are two types of intercoolers ... Air to Air, and Air to Water. Basically there are two parts to the intercooler, the front part and the back part. The cooling technique takes place in the front part (Air or Water). The air being used for the focred induction passes through the back part. Air to Water intercoolers are better than Air to Air because water can soak up more heat than air and it transfers better. The intercooler should be located at the nose of the car, usually immediately ahead the coolant radiator. The intake air passes in through the airfilter, from there it travels into the turbo compressor. Then the intake air is compressed (to a "boosted level") and pumped into the intercooler. The path the boosted air takes to the engine's intake system should be as direct and short as possible, so that pressure loss is minimized. When the air is compressed it gets hot .. not from the hot turbo, but due to the fact that when air is compressed it gets hot. The colder the air is, the more densely packed its molecules are. Therefore, more air can fit in the same combustion chamber volume. Additionally, by lowering the temperature of combustion gasses, engine wear is reduced and longevity increased. On our cars a good place to put an intercooler would be where the driving lights / liscence plate is. I think Andris put his intercooler there on his project z28 tt. Cars can also have dual intercoolers, but this is even more espensive and usually only done on european cars.

As far as where the turbo's will fit, you'll definately have to ditch the A/C system. You'll also have to sell your headers because when you switch to turbo you dont use headers anymore. You can prolly sell the headers and use that money to get some custom turbo exhaust manifolds (replaces the headers). I honestly think you should work on getting that new rear and finish all the mods you have. Then you can get all your power to the ground and see where you stand.

 

z28, you've got mail

Jon

 

Money Money Money!!! I wish I had more of it!!! Just wondering guys, If I ever do get a dang rear end, "IF I CAN FIND ONE" what do you think my car can do in the 1/4? You know my car by the sig, it is the ramjet 350, edelbrock tes headers, 3" exhaust, B&M megashifter, 1800stall, transgo shift kit, and SSM SUSPENSION kit. And hopefully soon to have a new rear end, around 3.42's posi. Can you guys do an educated guess on what my car can do in the 1/4 right now with my stock 2.73 rear, and with my new rear? two different times.. thanks guys.. let me know. By the way, is there anyone around utah that does good custom camaro stuff? it seems like all you camaro guys are back east, anyone by me that can help me with all this stuff? let me know, and let me know if you know of a rear end for sale.. thanks guys!