Supercharged 3.8

[UNGN]

100% untouched Stock block (with absolute crap heads), stock turbo, stock injector, stock intercooler full weight, '86-87 TR have gone "into the 11's". Hell, I went 12.20's@111 on radials driving 100 miles each way to the track and my 26" tires were "too short", I later found out in testing.

The fact that "some GTP's" have gone into the 11's with unknown mods doesn't mean much.

A stock turbo TR should leave the line with the turbo spooled making 10 psi at brake release (that is closer to 400lbft of torque than 250) and about 1/4 second later its making 500lbft of torque at 18-20 psi. With traction and a monster launch, back before youtube, Stock turbo guys have pulled a front tire.

Trust me, It's torque breaking things..

Jumpiness? That is a new one.

 

[87National]

And you can get a CSC for $1k. By the time you buy the $300 eBay turbo, buy a second one when it fails, and another motor to replace yours when the first turbo went....

Where do you get a CSC for $1k? Please post a link.

Chinese turbos now-a-days have the same failure rate as the more expensive brands like Precision. Documented failures are fairly rare relative to the large number of folks using Chinese turbos in their builds.

 

[Turbo Zach]

You can't just flip the exaust manifold on these. No one is making turbo headers for this yet. That is why I decided to wait on building one. Too much fab time and I don't have much time for car stuff right now.

 

[L67ss]

Stock rotating assembly on s2/3 3800 is proven reliable to 600 wheel HP. On the 11 second gtps they are on stock bottom ends. The main limitation the fwd cars with l67s have is the exhaust and intercooler. And weak trans. Same motor in a rwd setup will have the advantage of a bunch of stuff. Like on my car both headers have to flow through one single down pipe. In rwd setup you could use a much more effective a2a ic. The ability to use a trans that out of the box is stronger and cheaper to upgrade.

And scope eBay. I've found quite a few cscs in $1k range. There's been several guys with CSC w bodies that made 499+ whp no other mods

 

[L67ss]

You can't just flip the exaust manifold on these. No one is making turbo headers for this yet. That is why I decided to wait on building one. Too much fab time and I don't have much time for car stuff right now.

Check out zzp. They sell what they call powerlogs which are basically just turbo headers.

 

[81cutlass]

ZZP has a front power log, which works for the passenger side, nothing for the drivers side. Could hack another manifold up but still no easy options like a LS or other V8.

My blower l67 car is absolutely maxed out for a non intercooled car. 2.6 pulley, cam, headers, e85 ect. Runs mid 12's. Is it fun, yes! But a turbo car has a lot more there. I wanted something that I can put miles on, had all factory replaceable components, and could run year round from -25F to 110F. That meant AC. Can't run AC and stock K member in an F body.

The import turbo's are junk comment is a bit outdated. Just search precision turbo failure in google. The bar isn't very high. You can get a borg for less than twice the price of an import turbo anyways, just have to find room for it. An s366 will blow the bottom out of any SBE 3800.

 

[L67ss]

Zzp makes a rear plog too. And f bodies had ac stock......

 

[L67ss]

 

[87National]

You can't just flip the exaust manifold on these. No one is making turbo headers for this yet. That is why I decided to wait on building one. Too much fab time and I don't have much time for car stuff right now.

You can flip the exhaust manifolds, as long as you elongate the middle 2 exh manifold bolt holes. I would use 2 cast iron FWD exh manifolds (front manifolds) facing forward with vbands. Then build a merge to place the turbo front pass side.

Anyone with basic fabrication skills could build the entire hot side (manifolds, merge, and downpipe) in a day.

 

[UNGN]

It was probably all stock, too.

I think back in the day a guy with a low 12 stock turbo TR sprayed it with a 100 shot and it went 10's too.

Because one guy does something doesn't mean it was easy, cheap or worth doing.