Hey guys, I know this may be a semi-bad idea haha, but over the winter I'm looking to push my mostly stock 2008 LS3 Z51 6SPD manual Corvette to around 550whp on a SINGLE turbo setup. This obviously is very low power, especially for a turbo setup and most people tell me to just go the supercharger route for this power. I understand this may not be the best way to get to that power, but I'm interested in learning more about fabrication and working on LS motors in general. As of now it just has LTH which obviously will not be applicable on the setup, anyways I was wondering what turbo you guys would suggest for this and any tips you would give to someone getting ready to take on this "daunting" task

 

I'd go with the A&A Ti belt driven turbo unit.

 

I built a turbo kit for my last Corvette. There was a large amount of time into the fabrication process. Figuring out where the pipes will fit getting everything to line up was the big part. My suggestion would be to do a bunch of research into people that have done this to their cars before and borrow from their experiences. As for a turbo, given that you are running low boost on a decent sized engine displacement, you'll want the largest one you can fit and then select the correct AR for the exhaust housing to get the spool you desire. Again, finding single turbo build threads will help get you the best answer.

 

Not worth it for the power you are wanting. Better off with a bolt on centri kit.

 

If you have access to a real fab shop with a band-saw, 3-phase tig, grinding tools, quality tungsten w/ various lenses, acetone and grinder/brush specific for aluminum, lots of aluminum and stainless quality bends, car lift, hangers w rubber mounts, spring loaded compression support, backpurge setup, mig for tacking, See where I'm going with this...
Also you need experience welding and experience setting up for welding and positioning,
and experience with hot spaghetti , how hot those 1500*F pipes can be, close to what? nearby the valve cover? starter? coolant lines? Oil drain? Oil pan return splash guarding for windage? trap door? How to control the heat. How to keep heat of the manifolds away from the downpipe to keep exhaust gas cooling and volume decreasing as it flows to the downpipe. How to merge collector properly and prevent cracking with proper thickness and peening and stress relief cuts for expansion in the flanges....

One tiny mistake and its a scrap project or a engine bay fire or roasted engine with cooked oil inside. A leak in the compressor side or exhaust side or oil feed is disastrous consequences.

I've put together, fabbed and welded around 100 turbo setups since early 2000's on various vehicles. I don't recommend doing your first time on a car you want to be reliable or valuable. Maybe buy a pos corolla or something and get some experience first fabbing up a turbo setup for that kind of crap car before you try a corvette kind of car. The corvette has very tight space. It can be done, but its a long and one of the most difficult turbo fab there is.

Want to be done in a day? Use a supercharger. Otherwise, spend 10k extra and 6 extra months to diy a turbo setup properly if you are inexperienced. In the end for 500hp its the same to the tires. Turbo you really want 800rwhp for 200k miles of reliability, then fine, thats kind of my bottom number. 800-2000hp turbo, daily driver, okay now its worth the extra 10 to 20k fab work

 

Where are you pulling your numbers from? 10-20k extra sounds like someone’s getting scammed lol. There’s many single builds on this forum for a fraction of the cost, some cheaper than a centri.

 

The turbochargers I would use are $5000 by themselves to start with. You can do for less but if you want it done right there is 30k 50k 100k any price you will pay diy efforts for parts alone, I can drop 100k like nothing on a twin build for V8 V10 V12 engine

 

From 20 years of building turbo setups, at some point you stop working hard and start using the right tools and being comfortable in the job.
Doing it right,
The price of oval plumbing. Ceramic coating. Oil-less cartridges. 3-Phase tig and fab shop overhead. Removing the Drivetrain set aside to modify the chassis as needed. Modifying the engine components properly to insulate or reject heat where needed. Vibration resistant features implemented elegantly.

The turbo setup, IS the vehicle. We don't add turbos to the engine, we add them to the vehicle. The vehicle becomes the turbocharged entity. The engine is just a bystanders, an innocuous negligible essence. How much power can a 2L engine with a 500hp turbo make? How much power can a 6L engine with a 500hp turbo make? Its the same thing. The engine stops being important and the entire setup is directed and dedicated towards supporting the turbos in the chassis, and making the workflow easy, make the setup easy to work on, easy to diagnose, easy to inspect, easy to R&R the drivetrain despite all the additional hardware, well balanced & OEM quality.

I've done turbo in the backyard for $400 using junkyard scrap and wrap. I've done it properly on a lift in a fab shop for 50k of materials and labor.
Its like anything else, you want it done or you want it done right? I've seen what people do and the majority of it is done wrong. Just because it makes some number on a dyno doesn't mean it will last for 200k miles. I would accept nothing less than outright OEM quality in a build. Lack of proper insulation is typical. Lack of attention to detail when it comes to the separation of downpipe and manifold and engine areas. Lack of proper shielding. Wrong oil drain technique. Poorly implemented or neglected heat control. Lack of awareness of crankcase pressure details. Mounting the turbo is the easy part- getting the work flow, inspection flow, heat flow, insulation, reliability and longevity aspects is often overlooked, and that is what costs most of the $$$

 

Other than using your Vette as an experimental platform, I don't know what else you stand to gain with going the turbo route to get you to 550rwhp. My A&A S/C setup on my otherwise stock LS3 gets that and is CARB legal. And I have a 08 Z51/M6, as you say yours is also. Based on the advice given above by Kingtal0n, I doubt that you will get the same reliability of an already proven centri system for the amount of work and $ you'd sink into the turbo setup just to add 150rwhp. And believe me, that extra 150hp on the street is plenty for a reliable otherwise daily driver.

 

Save your money on fabwork.... just build a 416 stroker with 100% stock LS3 heads/intake with a healthy cam/headers will make 550rwhp on 91 octane. Otherwise it is a total waste of money going forced induction for 550rwhp.

Anyone that tells you a turbo is $5K run to the hills and never call them again. 30K- $50K turbo systems laughable. That's for idiots turbocharging R8/Gallardo V10's and getting bent over hard... also Viper turbo setups. Plenty of options using production manifolds if you want to turbocharge a C5/C6. As others have said get a bolt on centrifugal supercharge and run it on low boost.

 

Really? Can you please explain? I’m not here to argue but I’m actually looking for facts.

I’m doing a twin turbo ls3 build, I’m not a fan of centrifugal superchargers, so I decided to go twin turbo. I thought I’d be 8-9k but I’m almost double that and I’m not done yet. However I’m the kinda guy who says do it once, do it right.

Everything I bought was used in new condition or literally brand new never used. All prices below were shipped to my door.

UPP turbo kit (no turbos) $4500 (new 6k)
2x PSR turbos $1775 (might change to a better brand)
Fore twin pump assembly $1500 (new 2400 as configured)
ID1700 $1200 (new 2400)
clutch rxt1200 $1370 (1600 new)
btr cam kit & trunnions $980 (1100 as configured new)
DSXtuning 2010 ecu & flex fuel kit 600
Gapping piston rings 1000
Z06 BBK front and back 1600 (to some this isn’t as important, but it was to me.)

Just over $14,500 and I still need many small bits and pieces which I’m sure I’d hit 16k in no time and this is me doing all the labor myself except gapping the piston rings. Lol

oh, and still no wheels and tires.

 

Nah man you should do it with $40 of junkyard scrap stainless, a $280 chinese turbo, $80 used decapped ford injectors and that borrowed flux mig welder from your nextdoor neighbor that hasn't been used it in two decades.

I mean, nobody is adding electricity to their spreadsheets. There are hidden costs everywhere.

Its only supposed to cost $400 to turbo your car, what the hell man you wasting monee XD

 

fml...
Any idea what UPP and PSR return policy is?

I found the deal of a life time..

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/293526176597...Bk9SR_T-sc6WYQ

FS: Twin turbo kit

 

Yeah why put the turbo when all you really want is the noises it can make. Shiiiit

 

Electric Turbo Sound Electronic Car Fake Dump Valve Simulator Blow Off Valve BOV. . . $28.41

Great find ! . . . And unconditionally approved by 80% of all 15 year old kids that now are in possession of a newly issued .Driver's Learners Permit.

 

I have a buddy with the on3 single turbo kit, he's $4,500 in total right now and the car runs and drives making around 620whp on a conservative tune (stock internals) completely fine. You can build a cheap kit, and it will work, although problems will arise eventually, but that doesn't mean its not possible.

 

This reminds me of a buddy of mine who was so excited he bought a Ferrari for 7500 but it was a Fiero with a bodykit on it.

 

Sloppy mechanics went 8 seconds in the 1/4 mile for $8000

Making power isn't hard. Numbers to the tire is meaningless. It has nothing to do with cost or price tag.
you can use a $280 turbo to make 800 horsepower.
Theres a $100,000 car out there somewhere with 300 horsepower.

Anybody looking at numbers vs cost is doing it wrong. misleading.
Blind leading the blind.

 

Bad analogy lol? The turbo kit still makes power, just because he did it cheaper doesn’t mean it isn’t a real turbo. The car makes power, and there’s no way to deny that he got a good amount of bang for buck with his route.

 

ttix kit is around 12k with nice cast iron turbo manifolds
huron is cheaper with support for bigger turbos and better routing

I don't think you can fab something with comparable quality for much cheaper and the huron is good to 1400 or so which will split pieces like cord wood

making the power is indeed ez, making the car perform at that power level and have the drivetrain survive is often not factored into the build.