ericwilloughby

I was looking at a thread titled "how cheap have you turboed something" that got closed because of the arguing. I month after that I built my DIY turbo project. The entire kit cost me $1600 and was built with all new parts that anyone can buy for the same price. No special welding skills required. Just general mechanic skills.

So if any of you guys who are wanting a turbo but are not willing to drop $5k go for it. It can be done for half that with a little work.

I posted my build here. http://www.ls1gto.com/forums/showthr...ghlight=%24700

This is a 1000+ post. Take your time and enjoy. I get bashed a little and dish it back out but in the end I'm having a good time with a turbo GTO. Cheap.
This is the first post of the thread.

2009 Jan edit. I've moved up to a Masterpower T-70 now set at 8 psi and am still at $1600. I'm running out of space trying to edit this original 1st post. I'll try to clean it up and make sure everything is accurate this week.

Some photos of my cheap *** turbo build in the first steps.

This is for fun, not the highest numbers I can get. If it doesn't work I can through it under the porch and not care for the $ I've got into it.

$100 lines, fittings and hoses for oil. AutoZone and NAPA
$100 Oil return pump. Tractor Supply or Northern Tools.
$100 used Holset HX40 turbo. River City truck parts
$200 Exhaust work done by a local shop. G.A.P. Exhaust Warehouse.
$120 Silicone hoses, t-bolts, air filter. SiliconeIntakes.com
$50 BOV + 3" adapter pipe. Ebay
$15 Oil catch can with breather. AutoZone
$15 Radiator catch can. AutoZone

NO intercooler. I run E-85.

EDIT: I'm up to $1600 with the change to a brand new turbo and injectors. Here is a copy of the new list from post 330 for current parts and prices. And oh yeah, it works all right

11.8@124 2.0 60 ft time.

If anyone cares. Parts:

$320 Holset WH2D turbo internal wastegate. Now a $500 MasterPower T-70 for double the boost.
$320 Custom hot and cold side pipe
$320 Injectors
$140 Silicone hose, t-bolts, air filter
$80 Return pump-to be changed. Maybe. Still using it.
$70 Hardware-brass,brake line hangers, screws
$50 BOV + 3" adapter pipe
$50 Header wrap
$40 Lower pressure wastegate actuator. 6 psi
$35 injector wiring adapters
$30 Oil flanges
$30 Exhaust inlet flange. I made my own. Don't do it.
$28 Brake line for oil supply
$20 Vortex boost gauge
$16 rad and oil overflow cans
$14 Hose for pcv, rad overflow, oil can, boost gauge
$10 2 boxes of vacuum tees for pcv and gauge
$9 breather for oil can
$7 relay for oil pump
$5 pcv check valve

$1600

You could shave a few hundred off of that, BOV and header wrap. But the header wrap made a HUGE differance. And you have to tune with something so your in at least $2,000 bare minimum.

EDIT: Where the parts came from:

The oil lines are brake lines from NAPA and Autozone, inverted flares and hardware there too. NAPA makes the hyd hoses for about $25 bucks.

Oil return pump from Tractor supply or Northerntool.com. If this diaphram pump doesn't hold up I'm getting a $152 grear pump from ACE hardware. http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/(ax...?SKU=998016627

BOV from ebay.
siliconeintakes.com for hoses, air filter, t-bolt clamps.

cbr600rx7

iTrader: (12)

It depends a lot on the vehicle. I did a budget turbo where i picked up most of the parts used for a Gready T3/T4 for a 420A. Not a bad kit and by the time i was all said and done i had about 2300 in it. I was happy but i know guys have done D series budget kits down in the 1500-2000 range before.

kbracing96

iTrader: (25)

First thing I ever turboed was my old '91, 2.8, TBI, V-6 S-10. Built my own front mount with headers and all out of emt electrical conduit. Turbo was off a Ford Probe I bought on ebay for $110. I had $750 in EVERYTHING and ran 6lbs of non intercooled boost. The truck had 180k miles on it and I put another 10k on it with the turbo before I sold it. It was fun! If I knew then what I know now, it would have ran even better,

El_Diablo

iTrader: (9)

I am always impressed at the ingenuity of so many people on this site. I can not wait until I have the time to do things like that. When I retire I'm going to turbo a lawn mower just because.

pwrtrip75

iTrader: (8)

I think theres like $3k (I think just under)into this BMW....and thats including everything....engine..converter...trans...turbo... intercooler..all piping/headers...EVERYTHING.

ericwilloughby

Very interesting the way the exhaust flange is turned up.

SaultysHuggerSS

iTrader: (17)

is that a blue sharpy for a vacume plug

REGALIS

You have to be joking. 3K for all that??

pwrtrip75

iTrader: (8)

No joke. I have every receipt for every item that has been purchased for it.

Yes...just to see if it would start and run. The blue ones work the best.

prochargedchevyi

iTrader: (9)

Marty, the budget rules really don't apply to you. You could build a skyscraper out of swish cheese. It's not even fair.

TNTramair

iTrader: (15)

back in the day i had a 84 rabbit. turbocharged it for about $450.00. bought a Saab turbo and intercooler for about $50. used exhaust piping for intercooler piping (hey it worked right..lol).. added a couple fuel injectors and a pump..bang, instant boost. little bugger ran well for a 4cyl. this was about 12 years ago. that was a initial home built system but than i stepped up to a g60 (corrado motor) and a t3/t4 turbo...ran even better after those upgrades..(13.0@104)....till this day its running around in MA. somewhere.
i only wish i could have done the T/A just as inexpensive..lol

Urban Legend

iTrader: (5)

If you have the mechanical skills along with time then you can build fairly inexpensive. However, when you start paying shops 125.00 an hour for labor then cost goes up in a hurry.

rcsfastmonte

iTrader: (1)

Ill sell a bolt on kit for any 05-06 gto like the one I have,mine has went 10.6 at 134mph with stock cam,stock intake and stock ls2 bottom end.

Fast_94_Z

iTrader: (12)

i guess it all really depends on how extreme you want to go with your turbo kit. my turbo alone costs right around 2000, intercooler is another 1800, fuel cell water tank combo was 775. i give props to anyone that does it cheap and its an efficient kit that makes power though. but im trying to make high hp levels so i mean im on the extreme side of the build.

Shearer

In '06 i think it was our group of buddies built a car for the Grassroots Challenge. It was my first and only attempt at doing something on the extreme cheap with a $2000 budget including the purchase of the car. A clean Dodge Colt was the donor car and we slapped a 4g63 in it with a bunch of parts we had laying around. The car ran 10.90's for quite a while and is still a strong low 11 second car to this day. I don't think anyone could have asked for a better bang for the buck.

jfg455

iTrader: (5)

I built the setup on forcedinductions truck and all of that came to about $2200. All ss piping and a new MPT70 turbo. This includes the mwgasquirt ecu to run it. All parts were new except the injectors. G

ninetres

iTrader: (35)

Your hot/cold side seems EXTREMELY inexpensive for most to be able to match. What manifolds are you using? Cool budget build none the less! Personally though, if I put all the money, sweat and blood into boosting an LS car I would hope it would run 10s. Pretty hard though for only 2 grand.

I still don't get how you feed a boosted E85 car with only $300 injectors. Seems even a standard pump gas car would take more money in fuel for that.

Beaflag VonRathburg

iTrader: (176)

I replied in the first thread quite a few times. I'm working on a setup now for my 93. It's going to be expensive, but for what it is I'll have spent probably 1/4 of what it should cost. So far I have $750 into my K1 forged 4 inch crank, forged 6.125 rods with ARP2000 rod bolts, Wiseco -32cc dish pistons, and iron block. I still owe money on the turbo which is my number one priority of paying off right now.

ericwilloughby

It's a rear mount. One piece of pipe to the turbo another back to the intake. About the same price a duel exhaust.

Manifolds, stock. Stock pipe back to the resonator and there it is combined into 1 and ran to the turbo.

It's faster than a Z06 or viper and they have 500 HP. high 11's is what I'd expect on a street car with no stall and street tires.

$320 gets you 62# Siemens at rpmoutlet. Harness is $40. $100 fuel pump. $500 for fuel. And E-85 cars don't need to run super rich to prevent det.

sevanseriesta

iTrader: (34)

Well My budget twin turbo project quickly turned to not so budget very fast. I started thinking about things and started changing things immediatly after I got her running. My goal for twins was 5000 well I was at 6500 and I started changing things... I think now I am getting close to 10,000 mark.... But I will never run out of fuel, I am hoping that I can support all the air the turbos can produce out of my tiny engine, and I have all of the monitoring stuff that you could think of....