The Ability to Turbocharge any Engine...

[STARION]

Now, being as how us DSMers are so lucky to have factory turbocharged cars.....we aren't really concerned with turbocharging other cars. However, there isn't really that much to it is there? I am looking to create a basic guideline of how to turbocharge any car.

first: decide on the type of setup, decide if single, or twin turbo is practical for the application and don't kid yourself on the practicality of the setup you choose. Get the "bigger is better" mentality out of your head. Keep in mind the displacement of the motor, drivability, etc.... in relation to the size of the turbo.

second: computer limitations: Here is where my questions begin. Now, our MAS is located before the compressor inlet, I would guess that any car with a mas, when turbocharged, should have the air metered before entering the compressor. Out of curiousity, what would happen if the MAS was repositioned and was actually relocated within the intake tract and was metering the compressed air? The volume of air is still the same, is it not? Or can the MAS not recognize the pressure and have you running lean on boost? However, cars with a map are lucky and have no worries when it comes to air metering under boost, is this correct?

third: You would design the manifold for the bolt pattern, port size, turbine housing bolt pattern, the amount of room you have available, and have one custom made, make one, or buy one (if it exists for your application). The material and its thickness is very important when it comes to choosing a turbo manifold.

fourth: Boost:Ensure that there will be enough fuel for the amount of boost you are running (upgrade pump, injectors, fine tuning devices, etc)
Also relating to boost, is the compression of the motor..... Decide if compression will be lowered to handle more boost.....buy or have forged pistons made to lower the compression, consider a metal head gasket, head studs, etc.. If you're going nuts and are rich, maybe you might as well build the whole motor since the head is already off .

fifth: Putting it all together: bolting on the turbo/wastegate/manifold. Then choosing the sources for the water and oil lines. I would think you want your water source as close to the water pump as possible, then find a water return line. I think a good place for this would be on the thermostat housing, maybe? Then oil lines: I think the easiest thing to do for an oil source is to find a filter sandwich adaptor with 2 ports, make sure you know which is return and recieve and run these to the corresponding ports on the turbo. Although, I may be wrong here and am not certain if the pressure of the oil entering the filter is necessarily high enough to feed the turbo?(an oil cooler is probably a good idea, along with an upgraded radiator)

sixth: Intercooler & piping to TB, BOV/ compressor bypass, necessary heat shielding, etc....
I have a question here....Carbuerators: what happens if you run a turbo sytem on a carb'd car. Can you run the intercooler piping over a carb just like a TB, or what (of course you would have to rig up something that would fit over the carb and seal up right)? Do carb'd cars just hate turbos or what?
oh yeah, and fab up an exhaust.


This is just a very basic outline and some of it is overkill, but I think everyone knows what I'm talking about here. This is mostly about the
custom turbo setup that you make with an old 14B or something, when you're bored and have some spare time. You know, you decide to make a turbo system for your old corolla (or whatever), and you do some fab work and spend 200 bux and have a simple system thats good for 5psi........Thats what this is really meant to be about.

after all, Boost is good

 

[insane147]

first, there are a few different MAS sensor types. ours read karmon, and most others read by having a resistor in the air stream, at a controlled temp. and measuring the voltage needed to keep that temp. to measure flow. since both types are reading only the flow of air by them, they must be in front of the compressor. and cars that dont have a MAS and use MAP only have it worse. they are speed density system and rely only on the MAP to sense airflow, and thus are limited to the computers ability to adjust for fuel, which speed density system are not good at. virtually any mod altering airflow upsets the base maps and they run poorly without aftermarket tuning.

carbed cars hate turbos because you have to seal the whole carb in a box to keep the float levels accurate, then haveing to disassemble it all to tune it is a nightmare. you also need a fuel pump to pump at a higher than boost psi so it doesnt get reversion.

another thing in how much boost you can run is head design and material. a 2 valve head will hit detonation before a 4 or 5 valve head, the same hold true for a cast iron head. aluminum is more resistant, but the aluminum head expands at a different rate than the cast iron blocks making for head gasket sealing problems as they slide across another.

you forgot a huge section. cam selection. you cannot use the same wild cams that a NA car would use. the best for turbo cars are generally cams with little to no overlap and lots of lift.

 

[STARION]

you forgot a huge section. cam selection. you cannot use the same wild cams that a NA car would use. the best for turbo cars are generally cams with little to no overlap and lots of lift.

oh yeah, I forgot about that stuff......talking about this type of thing though (turbocharging systems), you could really write a thick azz book on this topic. I think some people have.

 

[insane147]

a good book to read on it is "
Motorcycle Turbocharging, Supercharging & Nitrous Oxide" by Joe Haile. alot of great info there.

 

[turbolover2]

Corky Bell's Maximum Boost is probably the best book out on turbocharger systems and designs. It covers every aspect of designing a good system, and they even have a chapter about a custom setup on an NSX. It goes through every formula you need, and it's very easy to understand.

 

[RocketDSM]

Maximum Boost is by far the most recommended book for custom turbocharging or just learning turbos. My wife reads it when I confuse her talking about cars. I've loaned it to a few friends who had no clue and they are all avid turbocharging fiends now. Never found a better book. Bad part, it does about the same thing you are looking at writing. Sorry.

 

[Big Woo]

Yep three votes for "Maximum Boost" by Corkey Bell.

Other good books on engines are
1: The internal combustion engine in theroy and practice VOL1&2
almost everything you ever wanted to know about engines

2: Competion engine design
expensive but worth it

3: Fundimentals of the internal combustion engine.
A good place to start.

 

[LASERLX]

Well i know in the V8 world there are plenty of guys running Single/Twin turbos with carburetors.

Kn/ATI make a special Bonnet that fits over the carb that allows piping to be connected from the compressor outlet. A guy on the JYturbo mailing list has gone 9.8s@136 with a carbureted 302,twin T3s running 20 psi and water injection

most single turbo applications usually have the mass air meter mounted before the compressor inlet but in twin turbo V8 applications a blow-through mass air is utilized which measures the compressed air coming into the engine