Educate the uneducated. Turbo'ing an NA car.

Phate

Phate

Phate

Caporegime
Joined
1 Nov 2003
Posts
35,691
Location
Lisbon, Portugal
Hi guys,

So without the obvious "lol, a turbo" suggestions.

What is needed to turbo an NA car? :)

If you had a car which had no turbo version available and you wanted to turbo it what do you need to buy?

So lets start with the obvious

1) Turbo


Anyone who is well educated like to help me out?

This is a pure curiosity question, as I'd like to know :) Maybe Drex can help out as he did turbo the teg?

Cheers,
Jake
 
Biggest issue will be the ECU/engine management.

Anyone can bolt a turbo onto a car.

Very few can then tune it so that the engine is reliable and will not self-detonate quickly.
 
Decompression plate, another HG, new pistons manifolds and exhaust, ECU, intercooler + pipework...

...and a lot of time and patience!
 
ok so,

1) Turbo
2) A Car
3) Decompression plate (where does this go?)
4) Another headgasget (for what exactly? :))
5) Forged Pistons
6) Custom Manifolds
7) High flow exhaust
8) Intercooler
9) Pipework

Ok so far so good, keep going.
 
Phate said:
ok so,

1) Turbo
2) A Car
3) Decompression plate (where does this go?)
4) Another headgasget (for what exactly? :))
5) Forged Pistons
6) Custom Manifolds
7) High flow exhaust
8) Intercooler
9) Pipework

Ok so far so good, keep going.
Click to expand...

you forgot mine:)
 
1) Turbo
2) A Car
3) Decompression plate (where does this go?)
4) Another headgasget (for what exactly? )
5) Forged Pistons
6) Custom Manifolds
7) High flow exhaust
8) Intercooler
9) Pipework
10) Megasquirtz and tuning

Stupot, already got one, check!
 
I will be using the mx5 for my example. For that you need to do the following (to make good power, ie 250bhp area)

1) new manifold
2) new downpipe at minimum or a full large bore exhaust system (3" ideal for mx5)
3) new injectors
4) new fuel pump
5) intercooler
6) pipework to connect it all
7) cone filter
8) megasquirt
9) wideband o2
10) boost guage
11) some form of boost control

On other cars you may have to alter internals too.
 
Some way of delivering or metering the right amount of fuel - be it aftermarket injection, a piggyback system on the factory ECU, an aftermarket boost sensitive system and an extra injector into the manifold, or a set of carbs.

You don't need forged pistons either. Depending on the engine, standard cast ones are usually fine for a few pounds of boost, if not more. Forged pistons can make things easier though as they give you a larger margin of error - but if things are that off, you'll have other problems anyway.

You don't necessarily need custom manifolds - you can hack standard ones around to fit a turbo for the most part, as turbocharged cars aren't so sensitive to manifolds to some extent.

You can sometimes use two headgaskets to lower the compression ratio - fitted together. Alternatively, you'd need two if you had a decompression plate as obviously you'd need a gasket top and bottom :)

You'd need some additional instrumentation as well - maybe intake air temp, boost (obviously), oil temperature and so on.

You'll need a return line (i.e. modified sump or a suitable existing factory tapped hole) to run oil from the turbo back to the sump, too.

If you wanted to do it real cheap, you could take:

- Old car
- Turbo on hacked about factory manifold
- Carburettor
- Electric fuel pump and maybe a rising-rate or boost-sensitive fuel pressure regulator
- Additional hoses
- Different plugs/ignition timing and modified curves, if needed (if using a distributor)
- Oil return/feed line

You don't need an aftermarket ECU to get the job done, there are various other ways of doing it :)
 
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