reliability..

[powerhungry966]

alright...so heres my question for these power adders.. i mean comon twin turbos.. how sweet can that be? but to be honest i put into question how reliable that is.. see this is my daily driver/ go anywhere car. ( im assuming most of us are) and i cant afford to not have this car running because of some failed part.. what would be the best all around "power adder" for safety, power, reiliability and more importantly which of these wont start blowin sh*t up..

[SpectorV]

if you build the car up right, and get a PROFESIONAL TUNE not a mail order drop in chip from the vortech or who ever the car will be very reliable.

If you strickly want to go for reliability i would go with a vortech or procharger since turbos are not mainstream yet and no kits are available. If you go with a turbo you will be on your own for warranty and trouble shooting.

If you bolt the blower up to a motor with out building it... then who knows. You should definatly keep the boost down and keep it in check, any time you mod a car you run a risk of stuff messing up... its the price you pay.

Taking time to research, upgrade other components, and the like are what helps lower that chance of you getting your car messed up. You can build the motor, have a very reliable motor, and have the same output as a blower for about the same if not less money. Thats a good start before a blower.

[DarkShadow]

Turbo's have good reliability if, like anything, you use them with common sense. TMAturbo.com has kits for and only for v6's. Nitrous I would say is the least safe.

[I_luv_HP&trq]

I don't think you would want tt's for a daily driver. it's not as easy as slapping on a second turbo. a lot more fab work. Whenever you're adding more power, the opportunity for something to get worn quicker is always there. but like they said the best part is the tune and the parts to compliment them. more stress on the engine allows things to weaken so i don't know what would be reliable without having a built motor.
IMO the best thing to do is start out small with all the simple bolt ons. that way you'll always have something to upgrade and look forward to in the future and not spoil yourself right away with forced induction.

[bigpomps]

get a supercharger and, get more than one pulley at a time. start with 5lbs of boost and tune it, then if you want put a smaller pulley on it to add more boost and tune it that way. you can put on a supercharger with 11 psi on a stock motor and have it run ok. you just need a fuel system and new maf so the car doesn't run lean and blow something up. once your boost gets above 13-15 psi then you are going to need new internals no matter how good the tune is. its just the fact that the rods for your pistons can only handle so much pressure and movement before they break. basically your rods become a slinky and become jello like and will smap under stress= very bad!!!

[4sd4d]

A single, properly, sized turbo will be better than a twin turbo setup for power and reliability.

A couple things about turbos and reliability;

1-Don't flog the sheisse out of the car and turn it off with the manifold glowing red, that will burn oil into the turbo and cause coking(oil burns leaving ash behind) which can seize it up.
-It is bad to shut down any hot engine anyways, but really bad for a turbo

2-Don't flog the crap out of it until the engine is up to an acceptable operating pressure.

A good guide for this is a manual oil pressure guage. I will not even let my turbo spool up until the oil pressure has dropped enough, which is from about 50psi cold idle down to about 28-30psi warm idle.

If the oil is not flowing well enough you will chew the crap out of your bearings.

3-High boost levels need a Blow Off Valve or a ByPass Valve. These keep the pressurized air from bouncing off the closed throttle plate and going back to the compressor blades, which can snap them off, or wear out the bearings in the turbo with time.

4-Tuning, duh, Pinging is bad.

5-Internals like forged pistons, etc, can take a little more abuse than cast or hypereuctic.

[powerhungry966]

damn u guys are awesome!. still debating on a 4.2 or one of these power adders.. thanks

[whipster24]

do a 4.2 first.. then a blower

[wiarumas]

Quote: Originally Posted by whipster24 do a 4.2 first.. then a blower

ditto

[DarkShadow]

Forged 4.2 stroker = It'll be expensive though...

[Monkey]

Quote: Originally Posted by DarkShadow Nitrous I would say is the least safe.

Depends on which you have more knowledge on

You can take a nitrous junki and give him a turbo and watch him blow his engine. The reverse is true.

4.2L with a blower would be nice. You will get some nice gain in hp and tq, as well as increase reliability. You will have your engine professionally built and balanced, decked and re-bored the cylinder walls. Will be like getting a whole new engine.

[whipster24]

or pick up a 5.0 really cheap somewhere

[tedness]

then again you could do the 7k 4.3L stroker.

[maaudio81]

well a twin turbo set as long as its not set past 4 psi should be ok because the stock fuel system can handle it

[Ponycarman]

Turbo's can be reliable. My 89 Plymouth Voyager (minivan) had a factory turbo'd 2.5L. It lasted well over 150k miles. But it was properly engineered. Aftermarket kits, no matter who makes them, do not have the engineering done to them that the factory setup does. That van came with a factory 5yr/50k mile warrranty, no aftermarket kit does that...so that tells you something don't it.

That all being said, a properly designed kit used with some sanity can be reliable. A water cooled turbo is a must and limit your boost. Unless you rebuild the engine with forged internals and run an intercooler high boost will be your enemy. Proper timing and fueling, something that really cannot be handled by just a "tune", pro or otherwise, is essential with higher boost levels.

There are ways to crutch it but that's a hack method that will let you down one day.