Curated Content Editor

Driving Chevy's Experimental Turbo C3 Corvette
By Brett Foote

Once upon a time, some engineers at Chevy took some boost and a few Corvettes for an ill-fated experiment.

69427

Can somebody help me find that second turbo that the Curated guy is talking about?

The13Bats

That car had a single turbo

3JsVette

From the article "That car used a modified L82 with an AIResearch T3 turbocharger producing 7 psi of boost." "Twin"?

69427

Um, yeah. I was being sarcastic.

The13Bats

Well duh

MCMLXIX

In the early 60's you could actually purchase a Chevy or an Olds with a turbo.
Brand new tech in the 80's , yea right.

BrianGandt

I bought this car a few yrs ago. It had a yenko turbo put on at the yenko factory. I have all the paperwork. Does anyone else know anything else about this car or set up?
[img]blob:https://www.corvetteforum.com/04a8b2af-7114-43ab-80e1-2314fe60d9e5[/img]

pdx-vette

This is all the car **** that I need today.

69427

Sharp looking car.

Any engine pics with the turbo?

BrianGandt

69427

I've got a couple setups somewhat like that (my forever under construction streetrod, and my '84 C4). My '84 is a similar draw through system, but with TBI and most of the induction plumbing is built into the manifold (Martin Turbosystem setup). Big block level power at 7psi, and works great on a road course.

Hopefully you're having some fun with that setup.

pdx-vette

Sweet! Is there something that mentions the amount of horsepower it added when originally installed?

Jason Staley

How does that setup work? Any pictures with the air cleaner off?

Buccaneer

That's cool. What size turbo is that?

69427

There were a couple companies in the late seventies that made kits like that. There is a two chamber (one above the other) spacer that fits under the carb that directs the carb airflow through the top chamber and then into the tubing you see behind the thermostat (that feeds the turbo compressor inlet), and then the compressor outlet pushes the air through the S shaped tube into the lower chamber of the spacer, that then feeds the pressurized mixture down into the intake manifold plenum.

Some kits (I don't recall if they all did) had a small poppet valve between the upper and lower chambers. It hung down by gravity (revealing a small hole/port between the chambers), so that at light-loads/low-throttle the A/F mixture from the carb could take the short route straight down from the carb through the poppet valve area, and into the manifold plenum, helping low RPM throttle response. At WOT, the compressor created enough pressure differential across the poppet valve to close it fully, making all the A/F mixture go through the turbo.

The turbo (Rajays were popular) is a special design, as it requires additional seals in the compressor due to it being a draw-through system (meaning the compressor is sometimes in vacuum, not just ambient or above ambient pressure as in blow through systems).

interpon

So they trashed the ac?
i would love to see how they cut off the lines.

Jebbysan

I thought this version was the best one.......blow through EFI......and none of the 80's flair

https://www.caranddriver.com/feature...hived-feature/

Jebby

Buccaneer

Interesting read, thanks Jebby.

cv67

Bg from Los Angeles? Looks like Rajay?