What Turbo For This Combo?

[BADASS86GN]

I'm looking at going to a bigger turbo and don't really know what i should get. I've got an 9"Art Carr 3500 stall; 210/205 cam; Precision Front Mount; MSD 50#'s; stock heads(not ported) with LT1 valve springs just to name a few. I'm going to be driving this on the street but i want a turbo that is going to pull really hard on the top and mid range. I have a TE44 now and so far 11.5's @ 115 with 23psi. I want to hit 10's just once and then tune it down. Will i need to port my heads to get it to spool properly. What can i expect with the turbo that you suggest.

Craig

 

[Taffy]

The TE45a from Limit Engineering. If you are interested in Limit Engineering turbos, email me!

 

[turbonatr]

A turbo won't do you much good with those stock heads. Ported heads are what's missing in your combo. You will pick up more from a good set of ported irons and your 44 than with a bigger turbo and tiny heads. A bigger turbo and your bigger cam are going to be trying to push more air through your stock heads. Think of your heads as a bottleneck. You should go easy low, low 11s with a set of heads and tuning in addition to your current combo. My T went 11.57 at 116mph with the combo in my sig. through the mufflers and a street chip. No ported heads or cam. Imagine if you added ported heads to your combo.

Converter-wise, you have way too much stall for the 44. A tighter lock-up converter will do wonders for your trap speeds.

 

[BADASS86GN]

Thanks for the advice but i'm still split. People tell me that i don't need heads but then others come along and say that i'm not going to go any where with those heads. The times in my sig were with a bone stack D5 and it was locked up. I've recently run 7.32 @ 92.3 at 2 psi less. A TE45a seems like a little much right?

Craig

 

[turbonatr]

Heads will cut half a second from your e.t. That brings you to about 11-flat. You should always make the engine more efficient before you try to cram more air in it.

 

[postal]

I've recently run 7.32 @ 92.3 at 2 psi less

That would work out to be about 11.40 quarter. I think this one is a no brainer. Either heads or a better turbo should get you low 11's no problem. A different turbo with better turbine side will help the top end. Now the whole 10's part of what you want is where it gets tricky. Stock headed motors will do it but require more boost. This is really no big deal at all because boost is the pressure in the intake manifold and not in the cylinders. Intake manifold pressure doesnt blow head gaskets or bottom ends out. Its cylinder pressure and detonation that does that. This is why you can have a free flowing built motor spitting out head gaskets left and right at low 20 psi and a stock motor not blowing them at 28 psi. If your heads have never been off the motor and your true goal is low 11's then dont take them off. Go get some thing like a T63E, TE45, TE63-1, basically one of the smaller big shaft turbos (maybe equivalent but a GT series). Make some low 11 runs get it tunned out real nice and then if the weather is just right lean on it a bit and go for the 10.99. If you do pop a head gasket then put some ported ones on there. Your not out at all with this plan because the nice turbo will already be in place when the heads go on some time down the road. Thats when you'll get the full gain of both items.
The last time out the only thing that keep me out of the 10's was 4 psi launches. I don't think that was too bad considering this was my first crack at making 72# injectors and chip work on a stock long block.

HTH: Jason

 

[Taffy]

Here is about 25 more cents from me. There are guys out there running large turbos with NO head work into the 10s. The way I look at it, if you have not yet opened the engine up, LEAVE IT BE. The best sealing engine is a stock engine. Put on the larger turbo and them go with the heads. Either way, you will get in to the 10s.

Good luck!

 

[V8killR4U]

I have the same goals as you man and the more opinions I get the more confused i get about what i want to do. i wanted to go with the TE45A too, but people were saying both yeah and ney. All i can do is pray and hope i spend my money well and keep my te-60 in case the bigger turbo, no cam and heads idea works

Do a search on my my name and youll see what im talking about.