Ok, so i'll explain what i'm planning on doing first so that it makes more sense to people giving opinions/advice when i'm done. Basically a mate of mine has a Garrett T04 turbo just sitting in his garage (well it's actually attached to a 13B atm) but he said I could have it for $900 (which he says is a bargain cause they're around $1000-$3000 new?) He says it's in reasonable condition and I shouldn't need to spend too much money on it to fix it up.

Now what I want to know from all you fine AMC members in the know is, is this turbo going to suit my car? Is this a good price for a second hand (possibly need recon) Garrett T04 turbo? Will my injectors need replacing? Can I run it on stock internals? How much am I looking at for custom extractors + exhaust etc? What sort of chip would be best to use? My mate reckons a full Motech system, is this right? Too expensive? Is there a better option? And last but not least, a total price for the whole project based on a guess of labour costs etc. My mate said it'll cost me about $4-$5k all up (without injectors) including chip + tune.

I know that's a lot of questions, and actually starting this project is still a while away until I save the money. But i'm planning on buying the turbo in the next couple weeks, so I wanna make sure that it's going to be the right one for me before I go and buy the thing.

All help/knowledge/advice is appreciated. Good or bad, just keep it civil please. :badgrin:

Sorry to crush your plans so soon but 1 Garrett T04 isnt gonna be anywhere near enough to make a difference on a motor bigger then 2.0-2.5 liters.

And on top of that 900AUD is a hefty price for a USED turbo that 'might' (meaning it will) need reconditioning as a turbo rebuild kit is already around 500 bucks in itself.

If you're running a 6g74 your injectors should be fine for low boost. And the internals should hold up fine under low boost too.

If you're running a single turbo you could keep stock extractors and then just use custom piping instead of a stock downpipe, This is slightly cheaper cos you're not asking for huge 3 into 1 pipe making.

You wouldnt need 'a chip' at all, just a rising rate FPR and bigger fuel pump. If you've got a manual this is uber easy as you dont have to mess with ECU's talking with TCU's and the huge headache that comes along with that.

But you'll still need:

Custom oil lines
Intercooler piping
Intake piping
Intercooler
Waterhousing

Gah... the list is huge... And seeing as there is no stock turbo'd 6g74 a lot of it is custom and you'd end up looking at much much MUCH more then 5k all up in parts and labor.

Though with all that said the range in which T04's are made means some are way too small (like i've described) and others are monster huge that wont even begin to spool with anything less then a 3.0 so yeah... You're in need of A LOT more research before buying anything i'm afraid.

so if he doesnt need a new ecu how is he going to tune it? hed probably end up have less power than before the turbo :confused:

so if he doesnt need a new ecu how is he going to tune it? hed probably end up have less power than before the turbo :confused:

He wouldnt have to tune it... a rising rate FPR will increase the fuel pressure with the amount of boost. The stock fuel maps will work fine. And even an untuned turbo will increase power no matter what? Increase the amount of air being taken in, the FPR ups the amount of fuel coming in along with it... not much left to tune now is there.

Well, I went and saw my local turbo shop today and had a talk to one of the blokes there about putting a turbo on my car. He said it will be a mission to fit everything in, and just about everything will need to be custom made to fit. The T04 will create too much lag he said, and recommended a GT28. He ballparked $10k, but is doing some sums up for a more accurate figure.

I'm really glad I decided to go and see about this today because it's made me realise the enormity of the job at hand, and the amount of bloody money it'll cost. For me at the moment I just can't justify spending that much money on a turbo as i'm trying to save for a house this year too. I'll see what figure he gets back to me with before I make a final decision, but at the moment it's looking as tho the turbo will have to wait a few years...

They certainly are an undertaking, so far i've spent 1200USD on my project and just got more parts in today for it. Even with everything bought seeing the actual work involved is astronomical and i know my car is gonna be down for the better part of 2 or 3 months. And i have the added advantage of bolt on parts from the 3000gt vr4.

Sorry to crush your plans so soon but 1 Garrett T04 isnt gonna be anywhere near enough to make a difference on a motor bigger then 2.0-2.5 liters.

And on top of that 900AUD is a hefty price for a USED turbo that 'might' (meaning it will) need reconditioning as a turbo rebuild kit is already around 500 bucks in itself.
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Agreed - a second hand turbo is asking for trouble. If your mate gets it recon'ed it might be worth it - but not for your project as Dpack said.

Personally having spent $$money$$ on cars in my 20s and now just bought a house at 29, I can see there is heaps more value in saving for the house. Just think, you can spend 10k+ on this project and you will have a stand-out car that will turn a few heads for a while and add 3/5 of F-ALL value to the car in the long run. OR You can put the money towards the house and you will save over $700 in interest in the first year. In 25 years when you should have paid off your house, that 10k will have turned into $55k!!!! and saved you years off your loan. I'm not made of money so $55k is a lot of money to me but if you have the cash to do both - then go for it.

:D

Sorry to crush your plans so soon but 1 Garrett T04 isnt gonna be anywhere near enough to make a difference on a motor bigger then 2.0-2.5 liters.



I've seen T04's driving things well over 500hp(for interests sake, the renault busses run a T04 at around 400hp and a ****load of torque), and theres no way you'd catch me putting one on a motor as small as a 2l(not when a T28 can do the job). The thing with T04's is there's hundreds of variants, to answer your question properly Disciple people need more detail, pictures etc.

As far as second hand turbos go, IMO I wouldnt have one(unless it was overhauled), I've seen way way to many failures. Turbos are very symbiotic with the engine they run on and quite often just the change of state from one engine to another can upset them enough to bring on turbine/compressor end seal leaks. If you were to buy the T04 then I'd recomend an overhaul, which would assuming your friend is right and it's ok come in at less than $500 and would be better than a new turbo, factories are slack in quality control and good turbo shops operate with much smaller tolerances than factory. Also $900 seems a little steep for a second hand turbo, not because it shouldnt cost that much but because they simply don't, there is an abundance of second hand turbos and not enough market for them which means basically they're worth tuppence.

I see so many people go about turboing cars the wrong way, they see a cheap turbo and go hmm what an idea. The turbo is the driving force behind the engine and the most important part to making a car tractable and powerful. If you want to turbocharge a car cheaply the best way to go about it is find a 2nd hand ECU and intercooler and then buy the right turbo not the one that just happened to be there, too many times I've seen people struggle and struggle to get a car going properly, then throw away the "Cheap" turbo they have and buy the right one.

Matthius

If it is hanging of the side of a 13B you can be sure it will have a big turbine housing so it will be laggy but on a 3.5 im not so sure, might be ok and you would expect full boost in the area of 3000-3500rpm. Personlly i would be expecting to pay about $600 for the turbo and at mates rates even cheaper. And get the turbo reco,d.

Thanks for all the replies guys, but i'm not going to turbo it. It's just far too expensive. $10k for just a turbo conversion I cannot justify. I raced a twin turbo Soarer yesterday, once from 80km/h and once from the lights, and the Ralliart just pulls away each time. So it's no bloody slouch.

I'm now decided on pacemaker extractors, straight through 2.5' system with a 3' metalcat cat back to dualies at the rear with dual 3' tips. I'm going to get an EZBoy CAI, Unichip + tune and some 18' ROH Fury 235/40 on MAXXIS MAZ1 rubber. It's pretty much all sorted now, just gotta see the bank about the loan. So i'll get a dyno run done before I do anything to my car, then another one once i'm all done and the Unichip is in and tuned. Should be interesting to see if there's any power gain.

Wish me luck. :D