The New turbo guide 2012

[Sophia_Bush]

Before we start with all the usual stuff I shall refer you to all the old threads

http://www.saxperience.com/forum/showthread.php?t=167335

http://www.saxperience.com/forum/showthread.php?t=419170

http://www.saxperience.com/forum/showthread.php?t=261617

http://www.saxperience.com/forum/showthread.php?t=389634

http://www.saxperience.com/forum/showthread.php?t=382364

http://www.saxperience.com/forum/showthread.php?t=264588

http://www.saxperience.com/forum/showthread.php?t=325588

http://www.saxperience.com/forum/showthread.php?t=261069

http://www.saxperience.com/forum/showthread.php?t=240147

now I've got that out of the way I am going to say I have no experience of playing around with 16vs at all best bet for these on here is : Ross, dannygti, atspeed, chrispug, jones & cherryturbo apologies if I've missed any of you 16v lot out but to my knowledge these are the guys with 16v boost.

Now what I am going to cover is the very basics of doing a turbo on an 8v on a lower end scale budget, realistically before you do anything at all is first and foremost think on how much power you want to achieve end target? then think once you've hit that do you want any more?

There is a reasoning behind this and it effects budget alot if you want scope for more potential in the future so if you want more future power then you will need to look into getting a cituning or dp engineering kit could always get most of the parts yourself and then build it but if you are not the most mechanically gifted person, don't understand what you are doing then best bet if get someone to do it.

BUT if you can do most of the work yourself and know enough people to do things for you then this may prove useful to some degree to yourself, now let's start :) The lower end of the scale 8v diy setups usually have a limit as to what they can push out but as not many people even get this far before giving up not many have had power runs etc. Let's start with a parts list

Hot Side

standard pre 2001 8v manifold and downpipe
turbo top flange, turbo downpipe flange
various mild or stainless pipe to make downpipe

turbo
oil feed & t piece
oil return
sump return pipe

cold side

intercooler
boost pipes & hoses
dump valve
boost gauge
mbc
various vacuum hose & t pieces

fuelling

bigger injectors (2.0 xu engine variants)
ngkbcr8es spark plugs
4 bar fpr

Now I am only going off personal experience as to what I have tried and know worked for me, everyone one will do things differently and have more things but you follow & do this at your own risk I don't take any responsibility as to if you manage to balls something up.

Stuff like compression, oil coolers, clutches to sorting fuelling etc is all up for discussion here but again I'm just telling you how I've done it in the past. Now the above setup I've done a few times with varying results made 120bhp on the 1.1 and 138bhp on the vtr with a knackered actuator arm, with the 1.1 I had it mapped up on standalone with wideband the vtr I didn't map it.

With projects like these you always needs to consider how to sort out the fuelling side of things cheapest end of the rainbow is mf2/sigcon middle ground is dastek and the pot of gold end is standalone, probably want to consider this first before you take the plunge and buy stuff.

Right back to how mine ran without it being mapped the honest truth? It went pretty bloody well to be fair, all I had was bigger injectors bigger fpr and an o2 clamp BUT wouldn't run any more than low boost this way long term will be chancing melting internals or destroying clutches don't do it on galactic mileage engines either ;) With this type of setup I did 6k miles before it went bye bye this was mainly down to the mileage of components rather than boost eating stuff up.

As to how much everything costs well there is the list go to ebay and look yourself don't have the ability to even do this then you have read to far already. Right that's about my lot the people that have been down the boost route can add more on but this covers most of the basic basic stuff I get pm'd about every other day.

Still confused after reading all the old threads and this? then don't even lift a finger doing any work at all! go to a company who will do the work for you don't risk it! Still determined to give a go anyway? Crabzy and Joe are on the way around to bum you with no lube as punishment

grazie

[sam_16v]

nice one gav:y:

[Ross]

Good post Gav. :)

[andyyy]

Bookmarked some very interesting stuff there

[stevie_m]

What about the intercooler size ? Is there a specific size it needs to be as I see a lot of different styles and sizes.

[jones91]

Ignore me im giving out shit information

[Ross]

What about the intercooler size ? Is there a specific size it needs to be as I see a lot of different styles and sizes.

Basically the bigger the better mate as the bigger the cooler the colder the air is getting into your engine, unless you have a pro ally one which will keep temperatures down better than say an eBay one. But generally goes by the spec of your build and how much power your looking to achieve

I'd disagree I'm afriad.

The smaller the better - both for space constraint issues in the engine bay, but also to reduce lag. Any space the turbo has to fill with air before the throttle body is a space that takes time to fill. The smaller the intercooler the better - providing it does the job required. If you're specc'ing something up to around 300hp and using the correct turbo (rather than hugely overspinning a littleun) then the smaller intercooler is fine. Don't forget though that if you're running high boost on a small turbo and it's working outside of it's compressor map (IE, a gt28 at 300hp) then you're generating a LOT of additional heat that you're asking the intercooler to dissipate. Better to spec the whole thing together in one hit really.

Titch made around 330hp on a small generic ebay manifold with no issues - and it was much easier to fit in the bay than my first intercooler (a GT3 one).

The pro alloy ones are nicely built but for the money you'd expect them to be. If you use them in conjunction with the pro alloy radiator, you wont see change from £1,000 - compared to using a diesel radiator and ebay intercooler, which will set you back around £200 all in.

One thing to bear in mind when shopping for your intercooler is the inlet/outlet size. 3" is no good at all, and 2.5" is as large as you'll want to go, with 2.25" being about best for most setup (again, unless you're chasing monster power). The smaller the boost pipes, the less air to compress / the less lag. Also, the easier the boost pipes are to route in the engine bay physically as they're smaller. (of course, the 2.5" pipes look nicer being more manly so ... up to the individual :p)

[yr51ocw]

A good target for plenum air temp is less than 50degC at all operating conditions. If you are regularly seeing higher than this then it could be time to change the intercooler for a more efficient/larger one.

But as Ross says, ideally you want a very small but very efficient one, as small as you can get away with.

[ThrushMotorsport]

Bigger intercoolers cause more lag when changing gears unless you can wot shift - if you have no lift shift it dosent matter but it can't be generated for our gearboxes, I switched a small 6 row intercooler for a 16 row and noticed the spool acted differently, looked meaner sticking out the bumper though that's the only difference, as ross said it takes more time to fill especially when your running a dv

I have a small universal one sitting here which whent in perfectly behind the vts bumper, I think you can get similar ones from toyosports or the alikes, no point going too big ;)

[stevie_m]

I'm just asking as it looked like almost every picture had a different intercooler.

Was seriously thinking of doing a conversion from VTR to VTS but I have to admit I like the idea of a challenge (turbo)

I'd like to see more pictures of the set ups so I can get my head around it first (oil pipes and returns then the air feeds)

[-kane-]

nice thread... helped me out