Well- I beleive I have a unique viewpoint , since I have owned the SAME car, both NA and turbo!
I personally would have MUCH wished that I could have gotten the same power out of my N/A that I did before the turbo.

It's slow responding. It IS WICKED fast, but it just doesn't have the same ""throwaround-ness' that the N/A's had.
I remeber the first time I took a turbo for a spin.. it was "Six Rotors"'s, a member here- and I remember the pure power, but I also remember how MUCH I liked my ported NA feel better.
Well, now I have that turbo, and I almost regret doing it.
DAMN it's fast- I'm running low 13's right now, but it just isn't as intuitive or fun.
EVILAVIATOR had it right when he said it was "mushy".
You just don't need that extra aspect of boost when you are racing your car!!!!

Love the power... hate the power.
Dan

 

Interesting...gives me a second thought whether I should sell my car to a potential buyer so I can buy a TII...

 

A TII usually sells for only $500-1,000 more than a non-turbo of the same year and condition. You are going to gain a headache, and lose a few hundered dollars in parts and resale value vs. simply selling the NA and buying a TII. I can only see 3 reasons for the swap:
1) You want a TII convertible and you live in the US where there aren't any.
2) You have a serious amount of time and/or money in your non-turbo car, and converting the car into a TII is less trouble than converting a TII into the highly-modified street/show car that you have now.
3) You just like to turn wrenches, and the extra time and effort is well worth the joy you get from swapping the components.

I have owned both an 88 SE and 88 TII, so I also have a good viewpoint on this issue. The SE now has GXL running gear and a 20B, so when the stock market recovers and I can cash in some bucks I will be able to finish the car and have an additional viewpoint on the 2Gen. My experience with the S5 cars is still pretty limited, though, because the only thing I like about them is the front end (which is also a component of the 20B beast now, hehehe).

I can see your point, but I still like the 2Gen better. The 1Gen is light and fun to drive, but it just isn't as refined as the 2Gen, and I really like the extra cargo area in the 2Gen because I'm single and I travel a lot. I must admit that just on looks, my favorite RX-7 is the 1Gen with a GTO body kit.

 

Reading this thread is intresting, because us MK3 Supra owners dont ever really dispute Turbo's vs Non-Turbo's. I had a 87 NA Supra too, but I cant think of any advantages to it besides reliabilty.

 

I have owned both as well, in fact 2 Convertibles too. After owning a Turbo, I would never really want to go back to a NA...I disagree with some on the handling, in stock form the 16" rims with high performance tires gives the T2 the edge there as well.
With my weight reduction program for T2's I get them down around 2600 pounds as well...A few well placed $$$ in mods and the car is near super car status...Easily the most underrated true sports car IMHO! My Turbo's have been quite reliable as well...
Ether way they are both great cars, but give me the BOOST baby! ha ha

 

I've been loosing interest in Turbo II's ever since I had to F*** with that stupid coolant hose on the back side of a Turbo II throttle body.

NA's are just so much easier to work on!

 

What about when you buy a car for 400bucks and It needs an engine... Thats my case now. I got an 89GXL, body and interior is near mint but it needs a rebuild on the n/a or a TII swap. How much sloppier will it be with the turbo in it or is it just sloppy due to the extra horses? My friends mustang got a lot sloppier once he went to twin turbos (more so than it already was though.) There was not too much weight change in the car just a lot more power which ment you seemed to go into turns faster and harder than before.

 

i had both and i am in love with my n/a
i have worked on it myself a lot more and really
bonded with it. my t2 was fast but my n/a gets great mileage is fast when I need it to be and really handles well. As a track day racer/ street driven car I can't think of a better car for me.


There is something very very right about a n/a rotary.

can I get an amen? =)

 

I have to agree that to me nothing equals the experience of driving an N/A engine. It's much more of an "attatched" experience to me that you just can't get from a turbo engine. I like the power or the turbo, but I'm not a power junky so I could careless how much power I have (heck...ever driven a Miata before...who needs power when the drive is so perfect the way it is ). I like to have enough power to match the chassis, but NOT exceed it. If I had to get forced induction I'd get a supercharger for the linear power (but this isn't that thread so enough on that ).

Turbo cars are great and all, yes they're faster than the N/A...but fast isn't everything if the slower car is more fun to drive. The only turbo 7 I want is the 3rd gen twins and that's only because...they never came N/A.

If I had the money I'd get rid of the twins anyhow and put in a 3 rotor w/high comp rotors and have N/A goodness forever .

 

In your case, you could swap a TII engine, but you will have the extra difficulty of rewiring and replumbing. A stock TII engine should work OK with your NA drivetrain and an NA flywheel if you are not a drag racer, but if you upgrade the power you will need to also upgrade to the heavier TII transmission, clutch & flywheel, driveshaft, differential, and halfshafts, which is going to be more work and more money. An 89-92 NA engine will bolt right in and hook right up. I guess it depends on how you value power vs. money and work, which is the typical hotrod dilemma.

As mentioned previously in the thread, the TII weight gain is due to several components such as the turbo and heavier driveline components. Note that "heavier" not only means "stronger", it also means "heavier", lol.

As for being sloppy, most of it is going to be the driver, while some of it will be from the increased torque causing the tires to break loose, and some of it could be from the increased weight. The amount of weight will change the car's handling characteristics, as well as WHERE the weight is increased or decreased. For example, you could move a lot of weight to the front of the car and still have the same total weight but your car will be nose heavy.

I would also like to go back and comment on this earlier sound issue. A turbine will soak up as much as 50% of the engine noise, so in most cases the NA would actually be louder. My TII had a custom catback with NO mufflers, and it was barely louder than my stock NA. Granted, it depends what you do to each car, but in most cases the NA is going to be louder, and a maxed-out NA is absoluetly louder than a maxed-out TII unless the wastegate vents directly to the atmosphere.

 

go turbo i just got a turbo 2 its so much faster better cooler and yeah so on . then u get can a cool bov haha