Hi guys a need a little advice. I really want to rebuild my engine with a turbo setup. I have been doing a lot of research, but I just can't figure out what I want to do. I want a good amount of power, but I still want it to be drive-able on the street.
I have a 1987 firebird trans am gta with a chevy small block 350 and a holley 670 street avenger. My transmission is a borg warner t-5 5 speed manual.
I would really like to hear all of your suggestions for an engine rebuild including a turbo setup. I am open to changing to fuel injection instead of getting a blow-thru carburetor.
I would like to hear all of your suggestions on what to do.
Thanks

 

What is "a good amount of power" to you? What is your budget?

You can get 350 to 450 HP easy out of a 350 sbc w/o any power adders. I had a carb'ed 355 in my camaro that was a true daily driver, running 11.40's in the 1/4 mile and getting on avg 14 mpg.

Turbo setups are cool, fun and work great but they are not cheap and takes alot of skilled fab work to pull off. We ran a twin T3/T4 hybrid turbo setup on my dad's 327 in his '82 firebird.

Your T5 will not hold up very long behind even a really well built N/A 350, your rear end will not hold up to a stout built N/A 350 or a turbo'ed 350... So that's other things to think about.

A good 9.5:1 to 10.5:1 350 running a 22X/23X @.050" cam, vortec heads or aftermarket alum heads, and a few other little things will get you in that 375-425 HP range

 

For a good amount of power I was thinking to have the engine put out about 400HP naturally aspirated and then add a turbo setup to add about 200HP. I am not too concerned about budget right now I am just trying to gather ideas.

Since the t-5 and the rear end will not hold up well, do you have any suggestions as to what I should replace them with.

 

For rear end... Aftermarket Moser, strange, Mark willams, quick time performance ford 9", chevy 12 bolt, or dana 60. Those will run you $2,000 to 3,000 with about $2500 being avg.

I run A moser ford 9" housing and 31 spline axles. Ford iron third member, Nascar used take out Detroit locker.

For transmission.. If you want to keep a manual trans.. T56, or TKO for overdrive units. Old M22 for a 4 speed.

If auto. Performance/race built 700r4 or 200 4R for overdrive, or th-400 or th-350 for 3 speed auto

 

Fresh rebuilt L98 based roller block. Nothing to fancy for internals. Small cam or even stock cam lt1/zz4/l98 type. Single plane efi or stealth ram equivalent.

76 mm single. .96 ar t4 turbine 64-68 mm exducer minimum. Should support 400-450 whp which is 500-550 crank. May stretch more out of that turbine. China p trim stuff maybe not but turbonetics type f1 wheel 65-68mm should handle 600 crank hp easy. China based gt45 or 7875 also would work extremely well and larger turbine wheel for less backpressure and more hp