Mikelly

Guys, I've been having discussions with Dennis (a member here) about turbocharging his 2002 C5 Z06. I'm personally unaware of anyone running turbos on a DE car right now, and I know back when I had my C5 DE/street car the general consensus was "Heads and cam" and keep it simple and easy to maintain.

My questions are:
Are there any members here currently running a turbo on a C5 for DE/street use?

If so, what are the combinations. My concern for this is three fold... Heat, complexity, cost to upgrade the bottom end of the motor.


Dennis is of the opinion that he can just get an electronic boost controller and dial back the boost when he's not on the street. My concern there is that a quick search of the web shows a lot of those little box failures, at $300-600 per unit.

My contention is to just build a shortblock, throw in the proper heads and cam, and tune it, and go have fun.

What say those of you with experience in this scenario?

Mike

SouthernSon

He will probably have a bad engine temperature problem. Unfortunately, our C5's are bottom suckers for air flow. All the folks with whom I run have extra engine oil and tranny fluid coolers on normally aspirated engines. Head/cam here with coolers and my temps are still in high 280's. I wouldn't touch a turboed car for road course. Besides, it sounds like he wants to power away from the pack down the straights. He will be disappointed when he is passed by non-modified C6Z's. If we are only talking about DE's, then learn how to use the vette for what it is intended; good balance of power, handling and reliability. He needs to ride with some good drivers in 'regular' C5Z's or C6Z's before spending a lot of money down the road to disappointment for the effort.

CHJ In Virginia

I agree 100% with Southern Son. In the groups that I run with, I do not know of a single Corvette that has turbos. Heat soak on turbo and supercharged cars is a HUGE problem, especially in the summer. The best thing that your friend could do is to learn how to use his cars capabilities STOCK before he moves to power adders. Upgrading the nut behind the wheel is the most important mod he could do. Seat Time - Seat Time and more Seat Time + quality instruction will make him much faster.

AU N EGL

Mike

Get him to the track first. Then he can make a decision

TRACKMAN2

i dont thik he could drive the car as fast as it can go stock..mods=nightmares

Bill Dearborn

I agree with everybody else. Why ruin a car to just have a lot of problems. Time and money should be spent improving his driving; improving the reliability of the car by adding larger radiator, engine, Tranny, Diff, and larger PS coolers; improving safety; improving the brakes. He will have more fun and will find out a stock C5Z is no slouch on the street or track when it is driven properly.

Bill

TRACKMAN2

i changed my opinion to a simple no ,noway,no fn way

GeorgeZNJ

We have a friend that used to run a twin turbo-ed C5 Z on a road course. He had nothing but temp and oil problems on a roadcourse. On a dragstrip he did ok. IMHO turbo's are not optimal for a vette on a roadcourse, unless you only want to run 4-5 laps per session.

Don Keefhardt

The big question is "Why ?"

Learn to freakin drive, first. Forget the turbocharger. There will be less to explain when you get your hat handed to you by Miatas.

They ain't giving away trophies at HPDE.

Mikelly

Guys, he's a member here and has done 2.5 days, on road courses...Half a day (2 sessions) on VIR NORTH and two days on Summit Point Shenandoah. Reason I posted is so you guys could educate him. I don't have a C5 anymore and think turbo-ing it would be a HUGE mistake... Just wanted you all to weigh in, since I'm no longer in a Vette, and you guys are!

Thanks!

z06801

Hey Mikelly, greetings from 6speed.com and rennlist. Its crazy that our 996 TT can run a 25-30 minute session and the temps stay down, so it would be possible to do if it was designed right, but I agree with everyone one else. My c5 z06 is getting a 433ci ls2 with a ARE dry sump. I also turned it into a front breather with this front spoiler and splitter that I designed now my temps in the z stay down. All that said if he is only going to track a couple of times a year put the turbos on it would be fun on the freeways and streets, and I just hope I'm not his instructor

brkntrxn

Until he can run a 2:08 on VIR Full or a 1:39 on VIR North in a full weight C5Z06 with nothing but brake pads and 275 A6s, he doesn't need to worry about any power at all. And even then, simply stripping the interior will drop the times by another couple of seconds.

Learn to drive it on the edge with it bone stock first. And until you are running the times I listed above BONE STOCK, you are not putting it on the edge.


-Kevin

trackboss

Aside from all the good points above consider the engine bay is already crowded. Add more parts and it will be a pain to work on. If it were a race car lots of things could be removed and some re-located, but with all the factory stuff there I'd hate to be the one servicing the car.

SouthernSon

Hear! Hear! Actually, one can break 2:10 at VIR with heavy Motorsport wheels and nitto01's.

AU N EGL

His money, His Car, No matter what we TELL him, he wont listen anyway. ( kind of reminds us of whom ?? ie each one one us )

So just get him TOO an event. He will find out on his own what he needs and does not need.

Painrace

Good advise!

Jim

TS Motorsport

A TTC5Z06 will overheat, melt, catch fire, or all of the above by the end of the first session with a good driver behind the wheel.

Hat_Trick_Hokie

$4000 turbo kit = approx. 10 track weekends

Seems like a no-brainer to me...

John Shiels

optimist?

gmccreary

And you certainly know something about this