To Turbo or Not to Turbo?

Wintermute · 10-10-2002, 07:51 PM

Guys,
Last night, I was talking to Malice and KD in the chatroom, and I told them of my plans to turbo my SL2. Now, I value their advice, since they've prolly owned their Saturns one hell of a lot longer than I have, but I'd still like to get a general consensus here, so to speak.

My Saturn has the original engine in it, with 143,000 miles on it. It's very well maintained, minus the fact I still need a new clutch. Now, with the high miles on it, would it be okay to turbo it? I would think yes because of the fact that I keep the engine maintained. Any advice? Joey, if you're reading this, I'd VERY much appreciate it if you added your .02 cents in.

Josh

Yobos4vr · 10-10-2002, 08:01 PM

umm no. i would not turbo that high mileage engine. rebuild then turbo that.

Wintermute · 10-10-2002, 10:59 PM

Yobo,
Okay, I have 3 ppl saying no turbo

Would it be safe then to run all the other available goodies, minus the turbo and a bottle? I ask because right now, my SL2 is really my only car I can use whenever, and I don't have the time unfortunately to do a complete engine rebuild

Josh

Yobos4vr · 10-10-2002, 11:49 PM

i don't know your money situation. but an option is to buy a high mileage engine (you can get those cheap)from a junkyard and rebuild it yourself. that way you won't be without your car and can go turbo. plus you can go as slow or as fast as money dictates. as foar as just sticking with your current engine ya adding all the other bolt ons will not affect it, just make sure it's in good condition to start. have a compression check done.

Wintermute · 10-11-2002, 02:30 AM

Yobo,
That might be the option to go with

Ballpark figure, about how much do you think a high-mileage DOHC would run? I've got no problem with rebuilding it (it'll be a good learning experience for me to do that), and I'd like to learn what makes my engine really tick

As far as the compression goes, I had it checked right after I bought the car, and it was pretty damn good, from what the Saturn techs told me. I'd have to find the paperwork to get the exact figure though.

Josh

Yobos4vr · 10-11-2002, 02:58 AM

i have no idea how much but i couldn't imagine more than a couple hundred.

Estairiker · 10-11-2002, 05:07 AM

I strongely agree with Yobo. Don't turbo it with that many miles on it. It just isn't worth it. And the engine still probably couldn't take the power.

Yobos4vr · 10-11-2002, 05:14 AM

ok here's 2 tips for ya.
1.) buy the FSM (factory service manuals) you need the specs and details it provides
2) prime the oil pump with petroleum jell per the FSM. seen a couple people who didn't and kiss the new engine bye-bye.

Joeybagodonuts · 10-11-2002, 01:54 PM

josh i dont recomend turbo-ing ANY stock set up espically a high mileage one, the flat top piston used in the twin cam is far from ideal for turbo applications.
ill be posting pictures of tkt 15 and 14 in the next few days, let me show you how a REAL engine is built and what parts are involved to do it right.
of course, these customers, bob and reece laid out big dough to do it right, theres no way around that, expensive pistons, rods, machine shop bills, hell the only cheap thing is the copper head gaskets, which now that we actually had a plug made ( i know, someone was mouthing off that a company had them, guess what? they only listed them, to have one actually made you had to send a factory gasket as a plug, thus doubling the cost, now that we have sent the-plug and had them made we can get them lower then i first predicted and what they are advertised for, i can sell them to the public for 100.00 and they are a must have) if you took the CHEAPEST route out id say go with a single cam block, a copper head gasket who's thickness helps lower compression then go with a mild boost like say 5-6 psi, that would be the cheapest route id say you could go and maintain some sense of reliabilty where you dont have to worry about it blowing.
yes, i do know that many cars such as pauls were turbo with factory engines, that doesnt mean i recomend doing it, a stock engine is in no way made to handle the stress of a turbo and anyone that turbos a stock engine if they hit 75k starting from o miles, with a turbo, on a stock engine id be amazed.

Yobos4vr · 10-11-2002, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yobos4vr

i don't know your money situation. but an option is to buy a high mileage engine (you can get those cheap)from a junkyard and rebuild it yourself. that way you won't be without your car and can go turbo. plus you can go as slow or as fast as money dictates. as foar as just sticking with your current engine ya adding all the other bolt ons will not affect it, just make sure it's in good condition to start. have a compression check done.

joey that's what i told him that way he can build it right. pistons can be custom made and everything else he can do. headwork a machine shop can do and with him just bringing them the head it should lower the cost.