I picked up a turbo setup off of a 301 Trans Am not long ago. (For the price it was worth the risk). My plan was to use it on a 305 sbc in my 1950 Chevy pickup. I was hoping to have good power and decent gas mileage. After reading about these turbo's it sounds like they were a dud from the factory. From what I've read not only is the draw through design less than desireable (fuel boiling in the turbo after you shut off the engine and lots of turbo lag) the turbo was designed for a V6 rather than a V8. I've also read that I'll need a special Q-jet carb that had provisions for the turbo, a regular Q-Jet or Holley just won't perform well. Has anyone gotten this type of setup to work well? Would I be better off just finding a 350 with an aluminum intake and mild performance cam?
I put a Nissan 300ZX turbo on my Ford 300 straight six. It takes alot of tuning, and fabrication to make it work. I used a Quadrajet on my setup, which was draw through, I just had to drill a hole in the base of the carb, so you could run a 1/8" tube below the turbo, for the vacuum signal to the main jets, otherwise, the turbo vacuum would never let the jets open. The torque on this setup was excellent, but I lost fuel economy.
Hardest part is routing exhaust gas to the turbo. use a different turbo and make a blow through system with those manifolds. there is a blow through carb box made by a supercharger company, pressurizes the whole carb so there are no leaks. or just build a 350 and don't worry about it.
Better off with the 350. The turbo is a TB03 with a really bad oulet into the manifold. They made a real small turbo in an efford to reduce lag. You can use a normal Q-jet, but you will have to tune it. The turbo Q-jet was special because of emmissions. If you want to make a turbo setup, I would make a blow through setup so you have the ability to use an intercooler if you wish. It requires some carburator mods to work properly but they are easy if you run a carb like a holley with mechanical secondaries. To prep a carb for blow through you just cut off the choke horn and epoxy shut the choke linkage hole, and add solid floats. Then you just boost reference the fuel pump and you tune it like any carb. For draw through, you can just tune it like a normal carb.
Check this discussion out:http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/showthread.php?t=172939&page=1&pp=15 I'm E350turbo, and I did this about 3 years ago. One thing you will find with turbo advice, is everybody has a different opinion on how it should be done. Good luck. Get a book on the subject, and read it thoroughly.
Why would fuel boil in the turbo after shutting it down? I have set up turbos as draw thru systems on a four cylinder chevy and am working on one for a /6. The little four cylinder does not get good mileage, but that is not the turbos fault, it is from having a lead foot. It performs very well and has given several Mustangs a run for their money. It is in a t-bucket and probably puts out 300-350hp with 8 lbs of boost. The bucket only weighs 1100 pounds. I used the very same set up you are talking about on this one and have another I am setting up on the slant. Both of these are running Edelbrock carbs on them and I have not had any trouble with them. We have made the secondaries progressive instead of va***m operated.
I put together a turbo setup on a 4cly Ford almost a year ago. Was a lot to do at first but was well worth the effort. Had to fabricate a lot of the parts as there was not too much available. But once the car was running and dialed in the power output was awesome. Talk to Turbonetics about your turbo needs and explain to them what you are doing. They can help suggest the right turbo for what you are doing. Good advice also to get a book and read up on it. Everyone will have a different opinion. But it is very different and does take a little more work than the basic 350 chevy would. Have friends that have turbocharged Buicks, Chevys, Fords, and VW's and will agree that the blow through setup is superior. But you will read that in the books.
The only reason I can see that happening is if you were running extremely rich. The little four banger we did is a draw thru and I have never seen or heard any fuel in the turbo after shutting it down. We have beat on this motor and turbo setup and it has given us no trouble at all. We are running a 700cfm Carter carb on it and I believe if you were going to boil fuel in the turbo, it would be on this one.
Because a turbo gets very hot, and on a draw through, fuel is going through the turbo. On a blow through, the fuel never goes through the turbo. If you have that much fuel sitting in a turbo after shut down, your car has fuel delivery problems that need to be addressed.
I have built several of these systems, and used several more. I have a really nice SBC turbo setup and the motor its on (bult for turbocharging) for sale in the cl***ifieds right now. Get the book Turbocharging and the Kenne Bell turbocharging book. They are the two best. The reason fuel boils in these is that the carb is situated almost right on top of the turbo on these stock. The turbo heat gets to it. These are a pretty ghetto setup stock - especially when there were much better setups availbel in the aftermarket at the time.
I did see that in the cl***ifieds, its a sweet looking setup. Distance and lack of funding keeps me from pursueing that one. Where do you suggest I look for a replacement turbo? (Ie manufactorer, supplier, etc...)
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