i was looking at a 79 pontiac trans am. i know it wasnt a thirdgen but it had a 4.9 in it and it was a turbo. i am wondering if turbos ever go out, on a car?

 

With that engine, you have to worry about the engine first.

But too many factors come into play when saying something will/can fail.
Usage, being hard (heavy boost) not running a turbo timer, not running a BOV Not getting enough coolant/lubrication....
the list goes on.

Typically, a turbo being under normal usage, and propper setup can go for years. But also depends n the quality of the turbo...

 

Skip it. The 301 Turbo, as cool as the 'cool factor' might be, was a dog. Get the car, swap a Pontiac 400 or 455 into it, and enjoy.

The 301 motor has very weak mains, and generally grenades around 4500 rpm.

 

you are thinkg of 80 or 81 trans am. 79 trans am's came with 403 olds BB my mom used to have a 403 in her 79. Also 79 T/A's came with a pontiac 400 as well.
Im dropping a 455 in my 68 firebird. But in reality 400's and 455's are almost identical in power so i have seen from 1/4 times etc

 

My uncles friend had one of them 2ng gen turbos and it was nice but cold blooded big time. When the temp dropped it got real flaky.I'm sure cause it was all mechanical and not computer controlled?

Only turbo I have ever heard about going was a guy who bought my 72 charger. he had a 911 turbo and said about every 3 months it went out and cost him $1500.

I quickly lost interest in the 911 turbo.

 

Turbos like to go out on the weekends, and sometimes during the week is there's a fifty cent draft night at the sports bar

Most turbo failures I have seen stem from a lack of lubrication, failure of a wastegate (diesel application) or as has been mentioned blow off valve, or sucking in a foriegn object.

Eric

 

yepp my bad its a 80. lol sorry for that. but i have no clue about this car he is asking a little to much and it isnt in the greatest condition. so who knows right now just looking for a sports car to mess with.

Pontiackid:lala:

 

Seeing as you are from Wisconsin any 1980 Trans Am that has spent it's life in the upper midwest will be nothing but bondo over tinfoil from the middle of the doors down and then some!

Eric

 

ya we dont have any nice cars around here

 

Well I grew up in Minnesota and if you had a nice hot rod you kept it in the garage six months of the year- I wasn't meaning to offend anybody, I know there are some nice rides up there but if they aren't cared for and are driven in the salt it doesn't take long before the rust monster takes over- and unless a car has great sentimental value you're usually better off finding a solid car in a no road salt state.

Every time I go to a junkyard here in Georgia I see clean, rust free cars getting crushed all the time that people would be scrambling for up north.

Eric

 

no offence, ya just dont know till ya see it though (good or bad) there are a lot of people that have winter beaters just for that reason so some times cars are nice, sometimes not

 

Yeah, I remember "winter beaters" except they usually ended up being my "summer beater" as well.

I spent MANY hours cutting pie shaped pieces of metal from old car hoods and either pop riveting or brazing them into fender lips with a coat hanger and smoothing them over with various brands of body filler (whatever was on sale) as a teen ager and I don't miss it!

Eric

 

lol yeah i know there is alot of people that put there imports or Sports cars away for half of the year and drive old beaters the are rusted through. But i dont have a car so i usually get around on my snowmobile. well atleast the places that are near the trails. or a friend will take me. lol

 

I had a '71 Ski-Doo Elan that was slow, but would crawl up any hill I wanted to go up. That was a looooooong time ago, I ahven't been on a sled in 12 years at least- I just never go up home in the winter.

Eric

 

yeah i know what u mean. i think the best thing do to when u want to mess around is to ride a snowmobile. it is alot of fun