Hi people. I have a question; why does a turbo or supercharger ruin engine life? I know it has something to do with boost, I just don't know what.

Cylinder pressure, cylinder temperature, probably some other things too.

It has nothing to do with boost.(Kind of)


The real reason is half assed tuning. Most Turbo cars can be quite reliable. However tuning is quite costly and of course this is where most people skimp out.

Also turbo/supercharged motors are usually modified to make much more power than stock. sometimes over 200HP/L. If you compare a high strung n/a motor to a turbo/supercharged motor you likely wont see a big difference in reliablilty. Comparing a stock turbo car to a stock n/a car I can imagine the reliablility being very similar.


edit: Damn you Forbin!

A properly fitted turbo charger or super charger will not do any damage or reduce the life of the engine. running low boost pressures will be fine on some stock engines, because they are just an N/A version of the same engine that would have a turbo.

Most "tuners" run rediculous boost levels and havn't got a clue about building an engine that will handel a turbo properly. These kinds of people put a turbo on without actualy taking it to someone who can do it properly.

A professionally built engine with forced induction will last just as long as it's N/A counterpart, but will ususaly have slightly, or even vastly different internal components.

Wow! No way! Never knew that. Hey thanks for the information guys. When I do get a car (hopefully a 240SX), I think I will turbocharge it. You guys know your stuff! Thanks again!

Why?

Is it because all the cool kids are doing it?

Ping is power.

Quote from Forbin :

Why?

Is it because all the cool kids are doing it?

... no. Cause I want to. It would be my decision. A lot of kids in America today are going emo skaters with a car they don't care about. I want to do this, and I don't want to be like them.

If you want to turbocharge a KA24E (the engine in the North American 240SX) you will want to rebuild the engine first, and think about some forged internals if you want to go to higher boost levels.

Most likely you will find one that was heavily used, and the compression levels will be low, meaning you will have alot of blow by in the pistons, turbocharging it at that point would be a bad idea.

If you do turbocharge it, make sure you buy a new crank, rods, pistons, block, head, cams, fasteners, gaskets, water pumps, oil pumps, radiators (oil and water) and so on to make sure the change is reliable and working properly.

A decent one-off conversion (even from a 'kit') should only cost around $25,000 (plus the cost of the kit). Anything less and you've probably done it badly. And it'll probably be unreliable.

Or, take a turbocharged engine from another car, and swap the whole engine over with turbos, radiators, ECUs etc.

Do not just bolt on the biggest turbo you can find - matching turbos to engines is a science and an art. It is not just choosing any old turbo and fitting it, but spending weeks doing maths to find out the required parameters of the turbo.

But then some people just want to rice their car. And they are too stupid to do maths.

just find a decent CA18DET and pop that in... or just buy one with a ... oh wait there were no KA24DET
CA18DET will probably cost you 2000-3000$

meh, I has had turbo charged cars before (factory fitted) and big normally aspirated engines and out of choice i'd rather have a bigger normally aspirated engine than a turbo charged one. Turbo lag is a pain in the exhaust pipe, it's one thing when racing but when on the roads it's just nice to put your foot down and find that the power is just there instead of thinking about it for a while before it arrives.

Give me a 3-5 litre petrol engine with lots of those valve thingies and a balanced number of cylinders in a nice V configuration that doesnt have a hugely weighted cam shaft thingamy to balance it (Tristan will explain that better, 4 cylinder engines are 'meh') over a little 2 litre turbo charged car anyday.

I've had 3 or 4 turbocharged cars, and they where all a bit 'meh'.

U can get lot's out of a 4cylinder engine I think (HP wise, not sure about the torque on the little toys). Well i've testdriven my 200SX yesterday (1.8L Turbo, 16V, 4-cylinder) and imo it wasn't "meh" :P but that could be just my lack of experiance as it is my first car I ever driven

There are few videos on youtube where u can clearly see what turbo does. Youtube is your friend

Anyways, not sure but turbo just makes the airflow better or something like that. Dont know actually, its just the way i saw it on the video.

Quote from hazaky :

Anyways, not sure but turbo just makes the airflow better or something like that. Dont know actually, its just the way i saw it on the video.

Internet is full of information. Basic intorduction to turbocharging http://auto.howstuffworks.com/turbo.htm

GrIp DrIvEr, Find a specialist forum where is information about turbocharging specific engines, there is probably alot more information than here.

FIY: N/A engines suck, Turbo/Supercharged engines blow.

Quote from DragonCommando :

If you want to turbocharge a KA24E (the engine in the North American 240SX) you will want to rebuild the engine first, and think about some forged internals if you want to go to higher boost levels.

Most likely you will find one that was heavily used, and the compression levels will be low, meaning you will have alot of blow by in the pistons, turbocharging it at that point would be a bad idea.

Ok. So like redo the heads and maybe get them machined?

Quote from GrIp DrIvEr :

Ok. So like redo the heads and maybe get them machined?

You could do that to improve the air/fuel ratio, but like people have said before, you would want to get a complete rebuild. Tristan explained what you needed pretty well.

If your on a tight budget, then it would be best just to get the turbo engine out of the other model, along with the loom and everything else you need. Providing the engine is healthy, then it would just be a simple conversion, and you would be happy with the power for a while (210hp or something? Scrabby come tell! ).

Well the seller said around 180bhp

Standard the engine has 169HP
It has the following mods

Blow Off Valve
Big Intercooler
Open Airfilter
Decatted exhaust (and damper removed)
Boostgauge (not really engine mod lol)
Dunno about the ECU, i got another computer with ecu with it and havn't opened the original yet

Quote from Scrabby :

Well the seller said around 180bhp

Standard the engine has 169HP
It has the following mods

Blow Off Valve
Big Intercooler
Open Airfilter
Decatted exhaust (and damper removed)
Boostgauge (not really engine mod lol)
Dunno about the ECU, i got another computer with ecu with it and havn't opened the original yet

Unless there have been changes in the ECU (increased boost pressure for example), those mods will hardly add 11HP.... IMO!

The intercooler, depending its a decent size and actually works, could easily add more than 11hp. But everything else wont add much. A remap would benefit the car though.

If he had the car chipped and the fuel injection sorted for those mods he could be expecting 15-20bhp..

Quote from Nathan_French_14 :

The intercooler, depending its a decent size and actually works, could easily add more than 11hp. But everything else wont add much. A remap would benefit the car though.

It works lol and its big yes. The seller even reinstalled it because it was so poorly done..

I'm also gonna buy a bigger fuelpump (walbro 255)

I am amazed at how people really know their stuff on here. You guys are really helpful. Thanks! So this is what I got so far:

engine rebuild or conversion
intercooler
chip

I would most likely go for the top, but I would also add a better intake on the car. My bro did that to his T/A and he got an extra 25hp. Also, I am looking at this 240SX http://cosprings.craigslist.org/cto/1104324881.html , and this 240SX http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/1139075381.html .

Quote from Nathan_French_14 :

The intercooler, depending its a decent size and actually works, could easily add more than 11hp. But everything else wont add much. A remap would benefit the car though.

Depends on the engine and the stock intercooler. It could add something, it could add nothing... but on a 170HP engine, it won't add 11HP (again, that's what i think), ever!

The tuning world is full of people who will tell you how much HP you will gain with all kind of mods, while in reality, you won't gain much at all. Unless you invest some serious money. It's all lies (mostly).

If you increase boost, then it will add more HP, definately. The other question is if your engine will handle it... and the answer to that one is: If you're lucky and got an engine that's been built strong enough from the factory, then yes. If that's not the case (which chances are high), then it won't.

Call me an idiot, but i've seen too much bullshit from the tuning industry to still believe in most of those fairytales.

Quote from jibber :

Depends on the engine and the stock intercooler. It could add something, it could add nothing... but on a 170HP engine, it won't add 11HP (again, that's what i think), ever!

The tuning world is full of people who will tell you how much HP you will gain with all kind of mods, while in reality, you won't gain much at all. Unless you invest some serious money. It's all lies (mostly).

If you increase boost, then it will add more HP, definately. The other question is if your engine will handle it... and the answer to that one is: If you're lucky and got an engine that's been built strong enough from the factory, then yes. If that's not the case (which chances are high), then it won't.

Call me an idiot, but i've seen too much bullshit from the tuning industry to still believe in most of those fairytales.

so, do an engine swap like on this 240SX? http://denver.craigslist.org/cto/1141874962.html That way so you can get a strong built engine or what?