I have a blown engine right now in my 88 GXL FC. I wanted to do an engine swap but can't decide what I want to do. What are the benefits of going turbo and staying n/a? I plan on daily driving the car but also have a little fun on my days off. What is the average time span that turbo rx7's go out? I don't drive very far from school and work (about 5-10 miles back and forth everyday). I really do want a turbo but I also want a reliable engine. Any opinions, suggestions, and questions are welcome. Thanks.

 

i have an 88 gxl n/a and i bought it for a nice ride as a daily driver and i want to go turbo. my main reason is when your driving "nice" everyday you wont generaly spool the turbo much, and on the weekends to have some fun you still have the turbo to play with my opninion is you get the best of both worlds

 

The turbos gonna spool.

If you can work on your own car and not have to rely on a shop to do things go for it. Plus N/A's are slow, I've had a few of 'em.

 

From the way you sound, you want something reliable, therefore go n/a...

Turbo motors last 100xxx ish, but obviously varies on how the motor was treated, etc. They can be more finicky too.

My advice would be either to pick up a used n/a motor with good compression and run that until you are in a better position to turbo swap.

Or.... you could rebuild your n/a and later down the line do a turbo n/a setup.

 

Run a turbo block as n/a. Then when your ready for the turbo you can just slap it on.

 

I recommend sticking with the NA since you are still in school. A turbo engine is reliable as long as it is not abused, but you will end up spending more money than you think. You can upgrade to a much faster car once you finish school and get a better job.

That is a really bad idea because it will cost more money and yield less power than his current setup.