I'm having troubling deciding if I should buy a new turbo or a new intercooler... My current setup is a 1986 GN with ported heads, a CompCams 260H cam, Razors alky, cold air, 3" RJC down pipe, 42lb injectors turbo tweak 5.7 chip and an aftermarket transmission and torque convertor (I'll have to look up the stall, my memory is a little foggy because I just got off a 7 month deployment on a Submarine), any opinion on the matter is greatly appreciated!
New Turbo or new Intercooler?
- Thread starter andycrips
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My first ? would be:
What do you want to do w/ the car??
I see no upgraded turbo nor i/c, So, I assume they are still stock.
" my memory is a little foggy because I just got off a 7 month deployment on a Submarine".
A couple visits to the chamber should help get things back to normal".
What do you want to do w/ the car??
I see no upgraded turbo nor i/c, So, I assume they are still stock.
" my memory is a little foggy because I just got off a 7 month deployment on a Submarine".
A couple visits to the chamber should help get things back to normal".
The turbo will net more power with the alky. I can't see your sig on the iOS app but if converter is stock and staying stock for a while you want a stage 3 turbine with a Garrett .63 ex housing to minimize lag. Any of the following compressors will work: t04e60, 60-1, and just about any billet wheel in the 58-60mm range. My MFS(billet 59) with stage 3 spools extremely fast. Faster than the old cast t04e60 which is common to the te44 and ta49.
highboostgn
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andycrips said:
Turbo all the way
highboostgn
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highboostgn said:
And get one from bison!
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bison is a member/moderator here. He is extremely knowledgeable on these cars and what works with what combination. He sells excellent turbos too. I would go for one of the MFS (billet wheel) ones. It might cost a little bit more than the standard wheel versions but they work great. I have a MFS 62mm/Stage 5 in a stock appearing compressor housing and a garret .63 exhaust housing. It spools faster than my TE45a did and pulls just as hard at 23# on the street.
Guess I will buck the system here, the upgraded I/C is free HP with existing setup, the turbo you have now will not have to work as hard and should make more power with a cooler charge, and the way I have always built cars was to remove the corks first THEN pour more thru the setup.
Optimize flow, then add more. But what do I know, this is the internet.
Optimize flow, then add more. But what do I know, this is the internet.
I think this depends on how much you're pushing the current parts with the alchy system and how much are you wanting to push the overall combo.
What boost are you running now and how much do you plan on running with alchy?
ks
I'm already pushing the factory bottom end rather hard, but I'm alright with that. Right now it's doing 27lbs of boost no problem. (That's with alcohol) I have to agree with lrayzer too...
andycrips said:
If theres no detonation then you are about 350hp away from pushing the factory bottom end hard and I wouldn't worry about it all all as long it's had a detonation free life. I would spend my $ where I'm going to get the most gain vs $ spent. An intercooler is worth little to nothing with the rest of your combo. A turbo could be worth 75hp. Typically I saw 111-112mph trap speeds with stock turbo/intercooler in decent air running as much boost as it would make. Running a stage 3 turbine and t04e60 compressor (ta49/te44) would get me 116-117mph @26-28psi.I saw 118+ with the intercooler neck replaced. This was years ago tuning off the 02 circuit with a multi-meter. Running a large front mount even if it dropped charge air to almost ambient with the stock turbo won't see anywhere near the mph the turbo replacement nets. Every critical part has a mass flow limit. The stock turbo is around 38 lbs/min. So regardless of what else is there it won't matter unless you added oxygen to the charge air like n2O.
Where do you have your boost gauge T'd into? I can't see how a stock turbo can produce that much boost unless there is a restriction someplace. I've heard many people say that even with the wastegate completely block off it can't produce much more than 24psi with stock cam and open dump. I verified this myself by blocking my wastegate off completely and opened the dump and all it produced was 24psi (running alchy) and this is with a stock cam. You have a larger cam thus flowing more air so even less restriction thus less boost pressure to read.
IMO, this may be telling me that the stock IC is a restriction in your system so putting a larger turbo in front of it will not get you the gains that it could if the system is free flowing. With all that said I believe that a larger turbo will make a bit more power than just an IC but the IC will be a huge restriction at those boost levels with a larger turbo.
ks
I get those readings from a 3 BAR MAP sensor and from an Autometer boost gauge that is "t'ed" into the MAP sensor hose... I would imagine the factory IC is a big flow restriction, the 90 degree bend immediately after the Turbo couldn't help matters...
