Does anyone know anything about putting a turbo on a big block? Mainly all I want to know is how much boost they will hold. Also, how much horsepower they can usually hold. other than that I know what parts to buy. Thanks for any helpful info...

You have to be a little more specific about the block. What type of cam, heads, intake/exhaust valve sizes, what intake are you running/wanting, what type of pistons/rods, comp, etc.

I say no. A built up wild BBC will already make around 600-800hp if you put a turbo on it you will probably blow up the block. Turbos are for the small engines that cant make power. Why do you want to turbo such a large engine?

It really depends on the setup. I just started reading Maximum Boost by Corky Bell and I am suprised about how many mthys it dispells. Provided you have the right compression and setup, I dont see why you couldn't run a turbo. Its more the inertial load (caused by the rods/pistons being pushed/pulled up and down) that tears the engine apart rather than the compressive loads caused by cylinder pressure. Provided you aren't spinning the engine any higher with the turbo, you really aren't increasing wear THAT much.

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1997 BMW M3 - 3.2litre Inline 6 cylinder

Ahh....another informed one on the turbo topic. Forget that theory....you will never get the point accross here. I have tryed.

Turbos on a low HP big block are a perfect way to make power. The good news is that for a stock engine there are not many things required to add turbos. Typically the cam and CR are about right and the stock bottom end will hand a good amout of boost and hang together as long as it is properly tuned.

You need to post more information about your combination and what you are wanting to achieve. If your goal is a 500HP big block I would even think of wasting my time on turbos. Stock parts will make that with the right setup. If it is a 1000HP big block, I would make sure you have really good parts. If it is a 600-700 HP 454 with basically stock componenets, then I think you might be in business.

We need more info....

Chris

Call the undisputed King of Turbos: Gale Banks. This guy has been involved in turbos for the last 30 years. Even has turn key engines or complete kits for every engine out there especially diesels.

Yeah, if you want to spend $10,000 for a system that makes decent power, give him a shout. Banks stuff is nothing special except for the fact that it looks really pretty. Alot of guys are building their own stuff that makes just as much or more power for about 1/4 the cost.

I am just not a big fan of the bolt on turbo kits. They are very overpriced for what you get IMO. Maybe I should get in the business of making them and shut up......

Chris

Chris,

let me know if you need a partner. I suggest Banks cuz if anybody can tell him how to turbo that big block, they can. I would imagine if he plays it cool when he talks to their tech people they will tell him how much boost he can run, what size turbos, yada, yada, yada.

Yeah, they can tell you all that stuff, but just about any turbo guy can. Boost is realtive to alot of things. On decent parts with pump gas you can run anywhere from 8-22psi. It depends on CR, cam profile, intercooling, water injection and the adiabatic effciency of the compressor.

I can give you a real good idea if we get some information about the engine. Of course everyone will come here to argue with me so I dont know if I will bother. Believe it or not turbo sizing is not a real hard deal once you actually understand how turbo systems really work and get around all the bad information. While it is nice to use off the shelf parts with known compressor maps, there are alot of us junk yard guys making it work with unknown turbos and just thumbing the sizing. Matter of fact alot of us are making as good or better power than the "properly sized" combinations.

Chris

Chris,send me your turbos and Ill polish them for the guys that want the "Show,no Go" look.We'll make a fortune!!


Thars gold in dem dar hills and Ima gonna git it !!

Hey, I posted this a couple days ago, http://www.hotrodders.com/t66582.html, same idear though. I just wanted to know how to ID turbos and thumb out their performance. I'm looking to make 700-800 lbs-ft give or take.

Detonation problems at 8:1?? I never knew about that, nor would I have figured the OE compression to be around 7.5:1. Can you not run near 10:1 on pump gas w/iron heads in big blocks too? I'm using 11.5:1 on my aluminum headed Small block.

The low CR on old OE engines is what makes them prime for boost. You can run 12-15psi easily with 8:1 on pump gas. There is a guy on this board running 22-24 psi with water injection and intercooler on pump gas. I have ridden in the truck and it is the real deal.

Chris

Ok, I'm new here but I've been following these turbo threads. Get rid of that idea that turbo charging a big block is a bad thing. If the block itself is built properly you can see ungodly amounts of power and torque. The deal with turbo charging is that a lot of it is dependant on the displacement of the motor and the size of the turbo. The more exhaust gas your motor puts out the more power you'll get. Turbo lag exists on 4 bangers cause they have small displacement and sometimes people buy too large of a turbo for their application. Go to Nelson Racing Engines website. They sell a BBC 704 twin turbo that puts out 3000 HP! That's an extreme engine but you can see it is possible. Most people don't do turbos on big blocks cause of cost to build the motor and then cost to turbo it. You can do it yourself and save tons of money but it's still by no means cheap. Another reason is that you'll actually create too much power off the line. Nick Scavo (a few years back) was driving a 69 Camaro with a turbo small block and Craig Liberty 5 speed and he said that switching over from nitrous to that set up was causing his tires to break lose cause it made too much power down low. A lot of old timers when they hear turbo they think to the bad examples. Old Corvairs, 1981 Trans Ams etc...... It's taken a while for fuel injection to catch on with big blocks and soon you'll start hearing about more and more people doing turbo big blocks.