forward facing turbo question? Why no buicks?

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You must not have owned many turbo cars...There is a difference in having your turbo inlet in cooler air vs hot engine bay air..You ever drive you car on a hot summer day and it feels normal but then when night comes and the air is cool and dense all of a sudden you car seems to have more seat of the pants kick than usual? You never heard the phrase "this is turbo weather"? your intercooler didnt all of a sudden become that much more efficient its the combination of cooler inlet air and cooler air passing thru the intercooler that causes this mysterious phonomenon

Sorry, I gotta point out that while you're right, drawing colder air is going to show gains, I also have to point out that the colder weather does make your intercooler more efficient. You have colder air flowing through for your heat exchange. Just some food for thought.
 
None of the forward facing "Open Turbo" guys worry about a stone flying in & doing big damage to the turbo??
 
So i was wondering on other pages and go to thinking on something in the same realm as this. I see some guys on other race boards picking up decent mph when they take their air filters off and run open. I wonder if one were to do a pass with a full air filter out of the engine bay kit on and then do another right after with nothing on the turbo to see if it gains. Hmm
 
We've built a couple of sets of headers with forward facing turbos. Most people dont want to do them that way but Ive manager to talk a couple of people into it. We did a set earlier this year for a board member with a forward facing turbo and 5 inch downpipe.
 
So i was wondering on other pages and go to thinking on something in the same realm as this. I see some guys on other race boards picking up decent mph when they take their air filters off and run open. I wonder if one were to do a pass with a full air filter out of the engine bay kit on and then do another right after with nothing on the turbo to see if it gains. Hmm

You need some sort of inlet bell on the end of the pipe or turbo. Just an open ended pipe or MAF will flow less air than it will with a filter on it.
 
Yeah - I'm ready to do something different and want to stay with the Buick V6 just to be different. I really wish they would drop the stock inner frame rail rule and stock turbo orientation on the TSO rules. The tire size rule would take care of the inner frame rail issue and enable a guy to tuck the tires UNDER the car and the turbo orientation would open up some creativeness in the engine bay.

Most of the Buick race classes are too cookie cutter IMO and limit innovation. However, as you stated above, cookie cutter is OK with 90% of the population. A lot of sanctioning bodies are finally starting to give decent weight breaks for the V6 after all these years. It just doesn't make sense to build a car that is limited to only one class and/or sanctioning body.:confused:

The stock turbo orientation rule for the point series was a compromise to get the BG race on the sx. Prior to that it didnt matter where you put the turbo, unless it was fwd the core support then you got hit with a 50# wt penalty.

The stock inner frame rail rule is a mute point since you'll hit the LCA before the inner rail and moving the location of the LCA is a no no in many many different organizations.

The TSO rules are pretty liberal. Most if not all the restrictive rules are GSCA dictated. As far as the point series is concerned if you build a car that meets the turbo, weight, suspension and tire rule you will LIKELY be allowed to run. The GSCA race is obviously going to the be the most difficult race and you will probably have the best chance of being DQ'ed for stupid BS but we typically have 5 races on the schedule. Pretty ironic since we've added BG to the TSO schedule we've had two rain outs and still havent' had a TSO point series race at BG:eek:
 
The stock turbo orientation rule for the point series was a compromise to get the BG race on the sx. Prior to that it didnt matter where you put the turbo, unless it was fwd the core support then you got hit with a 50# wt penalty.

The stock inner frame rail rule is a mute point since you'll hit the LCA before the inner rail and moving the location of the LCA is a no no in many many different organizations.

The TSO rules are pretty liberal. Most if not all the restrictive rules are GSCA dictated. As far as the point series is concerned if you build a car that meets the turbo, weight, suspension and tire rule you will LIKELY be allowed to run. The GSCA race is obviously going to the be the most difficult race and you will probably have the best chance of being DQ'ed for stupid BS but we typically have 5 races on the schedule. Pretty ironic since we've added BG to the TSO schedule we've had two rain outs and still havent' had a TSO point series race at BG:eek:

Thanks for the info. Everyone wants to run BG but if it's holding some up, your answer will clear this up.
 
My friend that is on here & well known did ONE pass with filter & pipe off & it cost him a Turbo! Not worth the risk or cool factor IMO.
Now, IF your John Force Racing then you have 50 turbo's & who cares??

John Force has 50 turbos? NITROTURBO :biggrin:
 
We've built a couple of sets of headers with forward facing turbos. Most people dont want to do them that way but Ive manager to talk a couple of people into it. We did a set earlier this year for a board member with a forward facing turbo and 5 inch downpipe.

Jay - since you've done this - do you have a feel for how much of a gain you'd get just by reorienting the turbo to face forward? Very curious here!

John
 
I know this is an old thread, but I'm glad i found it. I have been thinking about doing this down the road.
Saving some room around the up pipe, running the down pipe and the inlet pipe as strait as possible all while changing things up a bit would be very cool yo see. And i cant help but think the turbo will like this, running more efficiently from less back pressure. Ext.....
Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
 
This was completed 3 years ago just after this thread was started:

Nick's new engine 2.jpg
Nick's new engine 3.jpg
 
Very cool, i like the attitude it puts on the turbo. Kinda grabs your attention.
Super custom under that hood too. Very clean.
How ever i was thinking a lot lower, trying to straiten out the down pipe as much as possible and gaining room for spark plug changes and such.
 
We've built a couple of sets of headers with forward facing turbos. Most people dont want to do them that way but Ive manager to talk a couple of people into it. We did a set earlier this year for a board member with a forward facing turbo and 5 inch downpipe.

I would have no problem doing this but one factor has not been mentioned. What is the universality of the exhaust housing on the turbo for this set up? Would you make the flange for the downpipe same as currently for stock oriented turbo? What about downpipe (external or internal wg)?


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