Cartech NA turbo kits
 

I just recently found out about this kit, and it looks like it was pretty awesome. It's a shame that it has since been discontinued. I was curious if anyone had any kind of insight to other reasons why it was discontinued, or if it was solely because of the turbo II being manufactured.

Has anyone heard anything about a company willing to pick up production of a similar kit?

I've heard the same song and dance of "you should have just bought a turbo ii." Or "just swap a turbo ii into it." While I appreciate your insight on the matter, some people enjoy their Verts, while maintaining some of the ability to return it to stock should they want to.

"just swap a turbo ii into it." best answer for your case, whether you like that answer or not.


and you still have the ability to go back to stock, probably moreso than installing an aftermarket forced induction kit.

any company that makes a turbo/supercharger kit complete, is going to wind up costing over $5k, due to the low amount of sales they will wind up expecting.

I figured that was the route I would end up going. It's not easy it seems to find a turbo II that's wrecked in just the right way you can get moist of the parts for it.

I find it's all of the little stuff that nickels and dimes you to death.

Or, just buy a Turbo II. You will probably end up spending more money for a swap than if you just bought the car outright. I'm in the middle of my swap and it's just been nickel and diming me to death over little things.

you can pick up a japenese import engine for a wrecker, even if its blown, it will have everything you need. but its luck of the draw, sometimes you wind up with just a complete boat anchor, but that doesn't mean one should accept that, and you can win in small claims court in such a case.

that is my normal response, however he did mention wanting to keep it a convertible.

The reason I was thinking about doing mine is it is pretty original. 38k on the clock so she is unmolested which means I'm spending less for everything else. I did go look at a 10th anniversary, but it had 150k on the clock and was going to need a ton of body and interior parts. Plus there was no proof of rebuild.

I was even considering selling mine to buy a turbo ii, but I haven't really had any interest.

It's a great looking kit.

Drawbacks to popularity were:
The turbo happened.
It's a pretty labor intensive kit to install because it required an additional cooler for the water to air intercooler,
Fuel management was pretty basic consisting of a fuel pressure regulator. The catalog mentions an ecu, but I don't recall if it was standard.
Marketing for a niche product like this was tough in 1990. They did have a Road and Track article, which is about as big as you can go.
Limited power due to high compression rotors, fuel quality and ecu capabilities at the time.

The expensive part is casting that manifold. It is just much easier and cheaper to adapt the turbo setup.

Awesome information, I appreciate it. Maybe I'll start looking for a turbo II motor to take apart

I have considered this again and again and again. Ran the numbers, planned out the design.

Problem is, who is going to buy them?

I could start producing a 100% bolt on NA turbo kit tomorrow that bolts on in a weekend and puts down 300 RWHP.

It would cost $5000 US.

Totally understandable from an economic stand point. It seems I may attempt to start sourcing turbo ii parts.

For what it's worth and forgive if I mentioned this to you. I do have a nearly complete Cartech kit available short of a few things such as the pump for the intercooler. It's in the signature and I'm not here to mess up your thread.

But I have accumulated both TII stuff and did a swap, and also purchased a nearly complete Cartech 6-port turbo. I also did an LS1 swap even. It really depends on what you want to do and what you want to work with.

The non-turbo motors came with higher compression rotors so boost levels were limited. Back when the Cartech kit was available, fuel management was a just by the fuel pressure regulator so people were blowing apex seals on regular basis. I built a 6 port turbo engine using lower compression rotors from the automatic engine which worked pretty well. But agree that there's was no market for turbo kits when the Turbo II became available.