Alright, I can't stand this turbo stuff any longer. I ran nitrous on my 6 almost 20 years ago, and now this turbo stuff is seeming contagious! I can get a turbo from a Ford SuperDuty, but I don't know anything about these things. What will I need to look for, off which car, or turbo numbers, I need some turbo educating. I'm not looking for big numbers, only 60-75 hp (that's what my nitrous kit is) Would the truck turbo work? I don't really need another race car, just something a little more interesting. Looking at some of the set-ups here, it seems possible for me to do.
Turbo help...
- Thread starter Duane
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There is a great turbo book out there...can't remember the name of it, but if you look in the automotive section at Barnes and Nobles, you'll see it. It is great. Has a lot of information. In many ways, picking a turbo is easier then picking a supercharger. Turbo just requires more piping.
Slade
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There's also a newer book, Maximum Boost, by Corky Bell. I just picked it up. After a quick scan it looks pretty good. Covers some areas McInnes glossed over. Little carb info--too "old school".
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You could also check out www.homemadeturbo.com/forum. Now a warning. These guys are mostly import freaks, but the site owner, Jeff Frank userid Abaz, is very very knowledgable about any kind of turboing. He has given me great advice for the buildup of my daily driven CRX for a turbo setup. I am also looking into doing a custom turbo on my 66 Mustang I6 to get the best out of the motor. These guys are a great resource for custom turbo info. There are guys on that forum that can tell you the flow rates and spool rates for most of the turbos out there.
Jon
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Welcome to the dark side, Duane! 
Once you drive a turbo car you will never want to go back. If you ever drove an early 80's VW Rabbit non-turbo diesel or an 80's Chevy non-turbo diesel, and then later drove a Ford Powerstroke, Dodge Cummins or Chevy Duramax, you will know what I mean.
THERE IS NO GOING BACK...!
Now, a word about your Ford truck turbo -- sell it on eBay! It has no business on your Mustang. It is WAAAAAYYY too big to give you any useful low end torque. I think that the ideal turbos for these engines are the Buick V-6 turbos from the late 70's and early 80's. These still sell on eBay for under $100, and all set up for a drawthru carby, and produce a very reliable, easy to tune 175-ish horsepower.
Here's a photo of one on a Ford inline-6. Notice the simple J-pipe from the stock exhaust manifold to the turbo, and then the equally simple 90-degree pipe from the turbo outlet to the stock log-head inlet. Very simple. Very reliable. Cheap and easy to do.
This next chart illustrates the difference adding a turbo to a normally aspirated engine makes. The two lower (blue lines) are for the base engine (a 2.2L Honda non-VTEC, IIRC). The slightly darker flat blue line is the torque - notice that it is very flat at about 120-135 foot-pounds from 2500 RPMs all the way to redline.
Now look at the two upper lines. The darker red line is the torque line for the same engine mildly turbocharged (8 psi, IIRC). Not only does it make way more horsepower from early on in the RPM range (50% hp more from 3000 RPm to nearly 6500 RPM), but the torque difference is similarly dramatic. In the most usable RPM range (3000-6000 RPM) there is a huge amount of additional torque available...and torque, my friend, is what the ol' seat-of-the-pants dyno feels...!
Have fun!
Once you drive a turbo car you will never want to go back. If you ever drove an early 80's VW Rabbit non-turbo diesel or an 80's Chevy non-turbo diesel, and then later drove a Ford Powerstroke, Dodge Cummins or Chevy Duramax, you will know what I mean.
THERE IS NO GOING BACK...!
Now, a word about your Ford truck turbo -- sell it on eBay! It has no business on your Mustang. It is WAAAAAYYY too big to give you any useful low end torque. I think that the ideal turbos for these engines are the Buick V-6 turbos from the late 70's and early 80's. These still sell on eBay for under $100, and all set up for a drawthru carby, and produce a very reliable, easy to tune 175-ish horsepower.
Here's a photo of one on a Ford inline-6. Notice the simple J-pipe from the stock exhaust manifold to the turbo, and then the equally simple 90-degree pipe from the turbo outlet to the stock log-head inlet. Very simple. Very reliable. Cheap and easy to do.
This next chart illustrates the difference adding a turbo to a normally aspirated engine makes. The two lower (blue lines) are for the base engine (a 2.2L Honda non-VTEC, IIRC). The slightly darker flat blue line is the torque - notice that it is very flat at about 120-135 foot-pounds from 2500 RPMs all the way to redline.
Now look at the two upper lines. The darker red line is the torque line for the same engine mildly turbocharged (8 psi, IIRC). Not only does it make way more horsepower from early on in the RPM range (50% hp more from 3000 RPm to nearly 6500 RPM), but the torque difference is similarly dramatic. In the most usable RPM range (3000-6000 RPM) there is a huge amount of additional torque available...and torque, my friend, is what the ol' seat-of-the-pants dyno feels...!
Have fun!
Thanks for the tips! I have driven a few turbos, many years ago I worked on one of those XR4TI (?) Scorpio things, and my Dad had a turbo LeBaron, and of course, since I work at a Ford dealership, I drive S.Duty trucks (where ya think the turbo is from?) turbo Probes, but I really like the Lightnings, Harleys, Cobras with blowers. It also keeps me from wanting to own any "exotic" Fords, like SHO's and the rest of SVO stuff. Now, the Buick uses a draw through style, (right?) is that easier to tune? Hey 54, how'd ya know I had a Mustang? This is really for the Maverick...I guess I will dig a head out of the shed so I can get the intake milled for a carb plate next.
Until these last few posts, I never would have considered a turbo for the 'stang.
Now that I think about it though, my daily driver is a Passat with a turbo 4 and my fiance has the exact same engine in her Jetta without the turbo. The difference is like night and day!
Anyway, is it as simple as it is sounding? Just have a J pipe running from your stock manifold to the turbo and then out to the exhaust? What about mounting the turbo to the carb, etc? What kind of cam should you run? Is my 272 too radical?
Man, when someone has one of these finished, I'm sure a lot of us would love a detailed post of what was needed (or a article like in the tech section of FordSix.com would be great too!). Of course, it is easy to ask for when I don't have to write it...
Now that I think about it though, my daily driver is a Passat with a turbo 4 and my fiance has the exact same engine in her Jetta without the turbo. The difference is like night and day!
Anyway, is it as simple as it is sounding? Just have a J pipe running from your stock manifold to the turbo and then out to the exhaust? What about mounting the turbo to the carb, etc? What kind of cam should you run? Is my 272 too radical?
Man, when someone has one of these finished, I'm sure a lot of us would love a detailed post of what was needed (or a article like in the tech section of FordSix.com would be great too!). Of course, it is easy to ask for when I don't have to write it...
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Sorry about not getting back to you guys sooner, but I just spent 20 hours staring out the front of FRED... 
And since I'm 13 hours away from home at 500 MPH, I don't even really care that it's 2 o'clock in the morning on Christmas Day...
Duane, I really didn't know you if had a Mustang. I don't recall if I just presumed you did or whether I looked at your avatar and my brain filled in "69 Fastback"...whatever!
Anyway, Mustang or Maverick, the idea's the same.
And no, cfmustang, nothing is ever that easy or that cheap.
In fact, a close examination of the photo will disclose several oddities. First, that's a Ford 223 engine - I reversed the photo to illustrate how a simple turbo setup would look on a 200 or 250. Second, that's a Weber or Holley 5200 carb, not a Rochester. And lastly, that's not a Buick turbo (I think it's a Rayjay). This is a scanned photo from an old Ak Miller setup from about 1971.
However, this is very similar to what an actual Buick setup would look like. I know because I have two of them. And yes, the Buick is a draw-thru. It uses the Quadrajet off a 455 Buick...I think someone told me it's an 850 CFM carb. In any event, because it's a draw-thru nothing special has to be done to it. One would want to fab up an extra support mount (not shown in this photo, but a real good idea, and easy to do). Also, look closely and you can see that there is an oil line snaking over with the other lines to feed oil to the turbo bearings, and there is a drain line back to the oil pan. I'm sure there'd be some fiddling to do with vacuum lines, etc. Eventually you'd want to recurve the dizzy, or add a boost retard, but that's about it.
Of course, you would want even more power, so eventually you'd start digging back into it, but that's another story...
Gotta hit the sack. My Grandson says Santa Claus is coming later...
And since I'm 13 hours away from home at 500 MPH, I don't even really care that it's 2 o'clock in the morning on Christmas Day...
Duane, I really didn't know you if had a Mustang. I don't recall if I just presumed you did or whether I looked at your avatar and my brain filled in "69 Fastback"...whatever!
Anyway, Mustang or Maverick, the idea's the same.
And no, cfmustang, nothing is ever that easy or that cheap.
In fact, a close examination of the photo will disclose several oddities. First, that's a Ford 223 engine - I reversed the photo to illustrate how a simple turbo setup would look on a 200 or 250. Second, that's a Weber or Holley 5200 carb, not a Rochester. And lastly, that's not a Buick turbo (I think it's a Rayjay). This is a scanned photo from an old Ak Miller setup from about 1971.
However, this is very similar to what an actual Buick setup would look like. I know because I have two of them. And yes, the Buick is a draw-thru. It uses the Quadrajet off a 455 Buick...I think someone told me it's an 850 CFM carb. In any event, because it's a draw-thru nothing special has to be done to it. One would want to fab up an extra support mount (not shown in this photo, but a real good idea, and easy to do). Also, look closely and you can see that there is an oil line snaking over with the other lines to feed oil to the turbo bearings, and there is a drain line back to the oil pan. I'm sure there'd be some fiddling to do with vacuum lines, etc. Eventually you'd want to recurve the dizzy, or add a boost retard, but that's about it.
Of course, you would want even more power, so eventually you'd start digging back into it, but that's another story...
Gotta hit the sack. My Grandson says Santa Claus is coming later...
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Wow, those look fun to put on, even more fun to drive....lol..Are there any prior installations I need to put on before I put on a turbo...I got a turbo for X-mas..and I'm dang excited to put her on..Thanks a million..Its the best present I've got in 19 years!
..lol..Are there any prior installations I need to put on before I put on a turbo...I got a turbo for X-mas..and I'm dang excited to put her on..Thanks a million..Its the best present I've got in 19 years!
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What kind did you get?NPSDF05":ltr1fz7e said:
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Hey 54, I really had the Maverick avatar when you first responded, I realize most people here have Mustangs....I wish I could afford a 6 that would run like it does, it has a 460 in it. I really like the way Import Killer's set-up looks, that is what I want to kind of copy. I just need to learn a little more about these things. Has anyone built a low buck set-up yet?
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Duane":2cpwl7mx said:
I will have some better pics of it up soon. It is all in the car, running and just about done. If you want "low buck" that is my setup! I have not really figured it all up but I would say I only have aroud $350-$400 in my turbo stuff. Just a lot of time figuring it all out.
Dan
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