Would it be safe to go with a slight upgrade to the factory turbo on a NA car? If so what Garrett would be best for our application?

John

 

ROFLMFAO!!! I'm not trying to publicly humiliate anyone. I am simply responding to a post in the same manner that it responded to another one in. If I sounded offensive then the one I responded to probably was also. Remember the old saying 'do unto others...'?I did get lucky that I could get 400+ hp for a low price. You're right in that yes I do have the ability and friends to do anything custom for very cheap. Since I will help out my fellow RX-7 people, that automatically gives them the same ability to do some custom stuff for cheap...through me if desired! I can most certainly turbo an n/a car for under $1000 and have a noticeable gain even if I paid someone else to do it. It just wouldn't have 400 hp. Maybe up to about 225hp or so.

Jon: The thing you have to remember is that you need to stay within a relatively safe state of tune to avoid detonation. The problem isn't so much the size of the turbo but rather how much you are trying to get out of it and with what degree of other mods. The factory n/a ecu wasn't designed to work PROPERLY with forced induction. This doesn't mean you can't ghetto rig it to work ok or at least satisfactorilly. It won't be tuned very well but can be made to function. You could put a T-78 on a stock n/a but you will never see its full potential without a new ecu and possibly a built motor. No point in spending the money on a new turbo if it isn't going to be done properly (new ecu). There is a element of risk in making a turbo work on the stock ecu. The more power you try to get the higher the risk becomes. Just remember the first ping the motor makes may also be the last or maybe not.

If someone gave you the option of spending $1000 on a new intake, catback, header, and pullies to take a normally 146-160 fwhp car to about 190-200 (maybe?) or the option of buying a used turbo, intercooler, rising rate fpr, downpipe, and all the necessary plumbing to take the same 146-160 fwhp car to 210-225 (and maybe a little more) for the same price which would you do? 99.9% of the people take the first option. Why? Do you really think the companies are going to offer a warranty if your car blows up? No! If something happens they will probably claim it wasn't installed properly which led to its failure or they'll say 'only if installed by an authorized dealer'. Go ahead and pay a few hundred dollars more. Any implied warranty is really just a sales tactic and mind game which everyone falls for. I was in retail for many years. Words sell a product, even meaningless ones. Not saying all warranties a bad though. If you take a top quality product and don't market it and then take crap and promote it really hard with a warranty which one is going to sell? The crap!!! Look at Bose as an example. It's obvious that a custom setup that you rig together doesn't have a warranty either. So lets recap: no warranty and more power or less power for the same price? Not much of a decision. Is it the proper way to do it? Nope but it CAN be done. For the same price you can also do a nitrous system and get wonderful results. It still has an element of danger to the engine but many still do it. It wasn't designed to work on the car either. Anything you do to a car that the manufacturer didn't recommend is altering the way the car functions and may be hazardous to your engine. If you try it just be careful and understand that just because it does work doesn't mean it works correctly. Ever heard of Viagra?!