szercer

my plans for making the L48 faster keep changing, I have dynomax cerama coat headers and weiand action plus intake not installed yet, I was waiting to get MAD exhaust and throw it all in at once, then go with something like the GM base 330/350 HO in jegs for 2200 later and a 5 spd richmond tranny. I still like that plan but if I put a turbo onto that, I'm not sure how it will affect my exhaust/headers/carb/intake needs. What should I install now and what will I need in the future being that I'm not too familiar with how a turbo setup works. Also if one can be picked up for $500 on ebay, what will the estimated cost be for install and other parts needed and can I keep the stock hood with one turbo? :chevy

Monty

If a turbo is seriosuly in your future, you're wasting your time and money by installing the headers and exhaust. You'll inevitably have to redo all of that during a turbo system fabrication/install.

Whether or not you can use the stock hood is up to you, or whoever designs and builds the turbo system. There are no readily available kits for C3 Corvettes, unless you happen to get lucky and come across an old Duntov system or some other aftermarket kit that was available back in the 1970's. Turbo technology has advanced significantly since then and if you wanted to do it right, you'd probably find yourself reworking almost everything about those old kits. In other words, your best bet is probably a custom system which can vary wildly in cost depending on the materials you use and who designs and builds it. If you're handy and have the necessary equipment and skills, such as a welder, metal cutting bandsaw/chop saw, etc you could probably do it for less than $3000 complete. If you have someone build it all for you, you can figure on at least twice that much. It can easily take 100+ hours to design and fabricate a complete system. If a fab shop is charging $50+ an hour, which is not uncommon, the labor charges add up quickly.


[Modified by Monty, 2:23 PM 3/9/2003]

szercer

thanks for the info, I definitely do not have the skills to do the job myself, but I do have time before I plan on putting it in to find more about it and get a cheaper set up. Supercharging it is the other option, and with that vortech supercharger out there that might fit under the hood, I'm going to have to do some more research.

Monty

While turbos doe outperform superchargers, superchargers are still an excelent way to make big power and they are definitely easier and cheaper to install. While there is no centrifugal kit available for our cars, it would not be difficult to set one up for a C3. All you'd need is some .250" 6061, a metal cutting band saw and a drill press. You could probably build a custom centrifugal supercharger system in a weekend if you started with a F-body kit.

I recently saw a new kit in Fastest Street Car that uses a chain rather than a belt to drive the compresser, so belt slippage would not longer be a problem on 10psi+ systems. I don't remember if it was ATI or Vortec, but it was one of the two.

mastiff

It you do go with a turbo, or even a supercharger, you need to be running low compression ratio, say 8.5:1. I think L48s were 8.5:1 during some years, but they are using cast pistons, and a turbo engine will probably need to be upgraded to hypereutectic, or even better, forged pistons.

MikeC

Can you imagine the carnage the chain would cause!?!?!? ouch thats gonna leave a mark.

flood

ummmmm......turbo.....ummmm :cool: