How much does a single turbo affect the reliability of the motor
 

My car is down in columbus being installed with an upgraded t-78 (jason's old turbo). I've been wondering how much is that turbo going to affect reliability of my motor. At thing moment the motor has 68,000 miles on it, should i expect it to have a much shorter life now that it has a t-78 on the car??

step on the pedal, and watch her blow!

Most likely, yes.
Because with a big turbo, your going to boost higher than stock, and thats going to stress your engine.
It probabily wont make a good new motor blow in 10k miles, but it wont last 80-90k getting beat on and 18+ psi alot.

But- you wont have vacuum problems much anymore, as a single does away with most of that garbage, so you dont have to worry about a hose getting lose or anything like that.
-Ben

is it the original motor in the car?

Yes it is the original motor, car was stock intil 64,000 when i bought her, runs great and pulls hard, but on the other hand it did go through oil stravtion (damn bastards fuckin up an oil change) but hey its a free turbo.

oh nevermind... i just read it again. stock motor..... yes start saving you money. sorry to say it but i have seen this situation before. a buddy of mine went single on a stock motor with about the same miles, and 2 days later he blew a coolant seal.

not saying that that will happen to you. but as many stories as i have heard, it would be a good idea to save your money.....

oh by the way you have good hp#'s on the stock twins and motor.

the oil starvation is your worst problem and limiting factor. That will definatly put you on the count down to rebuild.

I know, but when they checked the motor it checked out fine and everything, so the people that messed up car now don't have to buy me a motor. I know though what the car went through cause of them fucked up my engine and is going to cause something to go that wasn't gonna go before if you know what i mean. If the motor goes in a week or two after i get it back i'm calling the insurance company for the place that messed up my car and telling them i want a new motor paid for by them cause they caused it to happen.

as long as it's tuned correctly, it should increase your car's reliability..

single turbo or not, when you crank the boost on these cars to any more than about 15 psi you dramatically increase the likelihood of engine failure....there are plenty of case histories here to back up this assertion

race gas and good tuning certainly helps, but most people are too cheap...

Part of the issue with a single turbo as well is most singles really need to produce some boost to get into their efficiency range. I've had turbos on my old FC that were ASLEEP at 8-10psi, but 12-14psi the car was insane. So, you'll end up needing to run more boost, since 10psi on a single just isn't that quick :). Of course, the turbo itself comes into play - some turbos may be more alive at lower boost levels, but the ones I went through definitely weren't :).

You could, of course, just put a good used set of twins on and call it a day.

Dale

Run 14lbs of boost, have it tuned and you should be fine. The key to a reliable single is the fuel system and tuning.

Jason