This is for my own curiousity, I am tearing apart my 91' now and have some time on my hands (all winter).

Could some inventors out there share some of your turbo system builds with me? I did a search but it didn't seem to give me any ideas.

Thanks

 

The search currently seems to only be going back a few months.

I tried finding direct links here of all the different way to go about it

Try this on for starters. lol
http://www.soma07.com/gallery2/main....serialNumber=1

there are more here with much cleaner set ups. Just cant find the posts with the cars.

 

To my knowledge there are very, very few turbo LT1's out there. Member "rhanselman" has been working with STS on a rear mount kit, you should check them out. I think their C4 kit is getting ready to come out.

Though I think they will start to proliferate since the cost is getting really low on the LTX cars.

Here are just a few I have bookmarked:

http://www.forcedairtech.com/custom_vette.html

http://heggeracing.dyndns.org/vette/Home/Home.htm


So for the thead. I want to do some type of twin turbo setup next year hopefully.

 

Thanks

I am actually and L98 car but the car is coming apart now so i haven't even decided what is going back in.

 

That's what i am talking about

 

Do a search on forum member "Bruce". "Baldturbofreak" built one for him, and there is alot on the forum about it. I ended up purchasing it from Bruce, but have not got it on the road yet. Rick, "Baldturbofreak" does excellent work!! He used a 85mm rear mount turbo, a water cooled intercooler, cooled by the cars AC system. Alot of really trick and custom parts. Not sure where you live, but he is a great source for help on such a project.

 

I was actually thinking about the little 4cyl turbos on ebay. They are compact and 2 of them should feed a mild small block I expect.
As I said though I am just curious to see what the inventive folks around here have come up with so keep em' coming guys. All good replies so far.
Thanks

 

What do you want know?
How extensive are you going to get?

 

Ok, so here's the break down. You can't get any kits for the L98 as of right now. So your only option is to build one, or to have someone build it for you.

If you know how to weld, or can atleast tack the pipes togther yourself then you should be able to find a way to make it fit. But expect to spend alot of time and money on doing it. And believe me, you will have to give up, move, or destroy some stuff to get it to fit. How much and which pieces depend on how good your engineering skills are.

Its typically easier to find places for a large single as it takes up less room than two smaller turbos. But it really depends on where you would like to place them. With the availability of the oil sump pump like the one used on the STS kit you can now mount the turbos low like callaway did, but he ended up making some pretty big modifications to get them to fit.


So if you can't weld, then you need to spend a bunch of cash to get someone else to get it all together for you.

Now with that being said, you'll need to move on to how you want to control the fuel for the thing. If your car has a MAF sensor then I believe you should be able to use the stock computer to get it to work somehow, but don't quote me on that. Going with an aftermarket ECU seems to be the easy way out for most of us.



You said that you were ripping apart the '91, does this mean that there is no engine in the car? You'll need the engine in the car before you can even start to think about where to put it.

Just remember, cutting the frame is typically a bad idea, and accessories are hard to move(but doable), everything else it pretty much fair game to cut, move, or take out all together.

Selecting your turbos and piping will be a big step. This process will not be cheap if you want to do it correctly. If you really are serious about doing this then the first thing to do is to decide a few things:

How much do you want to spend
End horsepower goal
spool time
engine setup(ci, cam, heads, compression ratio, ...)
use of the vehicle(street or track, transmission, gearing)

With these in mind you can start to pick your turbo(s) and then perhaps get one or a cheap one one like it and see where it will fit on the car.

You know, maybe we should get a sticky out there for people wanting to do their own turbo setup on how to do the process and how things have worked for other people. Just a thought.

 

I am just toying with the idea really. I am not looking for crazy power but figured if I do a mild engine (300-350HP) I could wake it up to 450HP or so. I figured that if I could see some other setups I could steal some ideas.

 

Good points....You've been asked this before

It is a street car that will be a weekend stoplight warrior. I felt like building a hot rod and this car was all there and running. I started thinking about a turbo when I was surfing around because I saw the 4cyl turbos on ebay for low $$$ and thought that it would be an economical way to 450-500HP on a mild engine build. If I leave off the AIR pump and the A/C compressor I can free up some space. I can get a chip burned for fuel management based upon the whole package when done.

I am not looking for a 1000HP beast so I figured that even if the system is not the perfect example of home based engineering it would provide enough of a kick for me.

 

In looking at my callaway, I don't see any big modifications to the frame or accessories compared to the '89 Z51 I just sold. Back when chevy was messing with twin turbos, they actually built 2 designs. 1 with turbos mounted high straddling the plenum & runners, and the design that callaway used.

The high-mount system would be ideal as it's a lot simpler since you can let gravity drain the oil from the turbos. The problem back then was that they had to have Mitsubishi, I believe, specially make a batch of mirror-image turbos. I don't know if there are any left/right small turbos being made today that you could buy off the shelf.

The second design is what callaway brought to production - it uses 2 IHI RHB52W turbos. I haven't looked carefully yet, but I believe the two turbos are the same with different fabbed fittings for the oil/water lines left/right. The added challenge with the low-mount option is scavenging the oil. Callaway used sump cans to collect the oil and piggybacked a pump on the serpentine idler to scavenge the oil back to the pan.

Packaging, while tough, isn't impossible since you at least have the callaway example to go by. Managing heat in the tight engine compartment could get interesting. Good luck, and let me know if you'd like me to snap any pictures of the callaway setup.

 

Thanks....Any pics would help

Looking at it today it looks like the best spot would be just above the headers on each side. That is why I was thinking that it would be easier to fit 2 small 4cyl turbos instead of one large enough to feed a small block.

 

It's a lot of work, I would suspect 100+ hours at least.

I've done couple DIY turbo builds on other V8 cars, Mustangs and third gens mostly, but never on a vette. I have it all mapped out in my head if I were to try it on my 91, but making it work in my head and making it work in real life are completely different.

Here's they way I would do it:

There are electric options for both the AC and power steering pumps. Put one of each in the bucket below the headlights. Run an electric water pump, then relocate the alternator (the only remaining belt driven accesory) to the bottom side of the engine.

That should give you enough room to mount 2 turbos off some short, home made, manifolds. T3 .60/.63 turbos would work, and you should be able to find them for pretty cheap on E-bay. They are also internally gated, so that makes them a bit easier to package.

Relocate the AC condenser to spare tire area and have some longer lines made at a specialty hose shop.

Mount the intercooler up front with an inlet in each side. Outlet in the top, in the center, and flatten then pipe to clear the radiator shroud. With some creative metal work I don't think getting the outlet to the throttle body would be a problem.

I would use some super small down pipes, probably 2 inch or so, to get the exhaust out the back of the car. Then, up front I would use exhaust cut outs to vent the exhaust out under boost. I would use electric cut out doors that were controlled with a boost sensitive switch. That way, when the boost came on, the cut outs would open and let the turbos breathe. With no boost, it should pretty quiet because you could use the stock exhaust system.

Tuning could be done with a 2-3 bar MAP sensor from GM and a custom chip.

There's a lot more to it, but that is the gist of what is in my mind.

 

If you are only looking for 450hp, then maybe a blower setup would be an easier project. Now if going past 650hp is your thing, then definitely a turbo system to avoid things like belt slip. Just another idea. Sounds like you are doing your research so you will probably do what is best for you.

 

If 450hp is the goal, definately go with a blower setup. It doesn't have as much BLING, but it will be easier, its proven, and won't be any more expensive.

You might want to check out this thread for a suggestion on how to do a cheap blower setup.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1798624

 

Thanks for the thread link
it was a good read

 

Good advice