Newb to boost, found turbo REAL cheap, need advice.

So my friend has a T3 AirResearch off a Saab, it's oil cooled, not the water cooled one. He also has the Stock Saab mini intercooler with it, oil feed and return lines (probably need replaced anyway) He says it's in good shape, no shaftplay blah, blah, blah...

My question is, would this make a good first boost project? Second, I am in Germany, and finding custom piping maybe a problem as well as a manifold/downpipe (anyone know if the flanges are the same as say, a Garret?), anyone have a line on somewhere that can make them? I don't want to try my hand just yet at fabbing my own.

Fuel management (deer in headlights), I have a VAFC, would this be sufficient for this small turbo running low boost (not trying to blow up my motor yet), Injectors/fuel pumps that I can find out on my own, but this are what come to mind when thinking about installing it.

Any advice would be helpful, thanks

Oh, the car was crushed with the manifold in it, so no I can't just cut that flange off and weld it to a another mani. This will be on a stock B16A in a 92 HB.

 

in the long run, for all the trouble you will be going through to find the parts or get something custom fabricated.. you would be better off saving money up for a used turbo kit you can find usually for around $2000, t3t4

 

I thought of this (realize this is just an idea right now), but the turbo he has, he only wants $50 for it and the intercooler (smaller than a fluidyne radiator), so I have been thinking it up, and for a side project it might be fun, and a good way to learn more, but I don't want it to fail haha.

 

bump for cheap turbo.

 

i wouldn't even put that turbo on a sohc engine.. leave the b16 alone

 

that turbo will be to small for your engine, trust me. I ran that turbo on my car for a short time, top-end was non-existent

 

Here's some pics of the turbo in question, I haven't bought it yet, but I am thinking I may. He talked to a place that can make a manifold for it, so, if anyone sees some reason not to buy it, let me know. Oh yea, and the shaft is SOLID, 0 play...








It is from a 1.8 Saab turbo, I don't see why it is "too small" , I'm not looking to put out 500hp or anything, just a nice little boost around town. If I can squeeze 50-70hp out of it, for the cost alone it would be a great dollor to hp deal.

 

there is alot more to a turbo car than just the turbo...that's what I thought when I first started. to get a solid reliable turbo car, other stuff comes into play like injectors, engine management, in your case, a manifold for the turbo. shop around and you might be able to get a nice used drag or greddy kit.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JDEM1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i wouldn't even put that turbo on a sohc engine.. leave the b16 alone </TD></TR></TABLE><TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by b16ahybrid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">that turbo will be to small for your engine, trust me. I ran that turbo on my car for a short time, top-end was non-existent
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It will be fine on your b16. It will make decent power, too. You can maxx it out at around 300hp. I'm running a similar one on my sohc, a bit laggy, but nothing bad. On your B, it should be near lagless. A good match. you'll be very ahppy.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Johnyquest &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It will be fine on your b16. It will make decent power, too. You can maxx it out at around 300hp. I'm running a similar one on my sohc, a bit laggy, but nothing bad. On your B, it should be near lagless. A good match. you'll be very ahppy.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not to be an *** but have you ever ran this turbo on a b16a?
I ran that turbo on my d15, and yes it kicked ***. Then i swapped to a b16a (yes the same engine he's using). It's ok if you like low end power with NO topend power. By 5krpm the turbo was out of steam and boost would drop off rapidly. It would go from 7psi down to 2psi (great power there). I thought that maybe it was my wg......uh nope, i tried 5 different wg's and they all did the same thing. Now maybe your thinking maybe it was my turbo, well yeah i thought the same thing until by buddy tried 4 of these (same spec) turbo's on his b16 and the same thing happend. He finally gave up and got a t3t4. BTW my turbo was rebuilt by texas rebuild so i know it was worn out.
So i came on here, posted up my problem (hoping someone could help) and i got about 3 other people that had the same problem. They are all using the same saab turbo that i was using.
So i'm telling your speaking from EXPERIENCE, that is not a good turbo for a b16a.
I never dyno'd my engine with that turbo but i could almost gurantee that power would peak about 5k rpm, then drop as fast as it climbed.
The turbo i have now is by no means a big turbo (t3t4oe) and it spools about 300rpm later then the saab turbo.

Oh and yeah you may hit 300whp with about 30psi on this turbo. thats if you can get it to go that high ....I honestly dont see this turbo making 300hp on a b16a, esp when the saab was rated at something like 130hp w/6psi.

 

oh I finally ruled out the wastegate as the problem, by using a tial. I installed my tial wg before installing the new turbo (external gated)..still dropped off. This turbo simply cannot flow enough cfm for this engine, unless you want to run 2psi...
Just to play devils advocate, it actually worked to my benifit (boost drop-off) because it would prevent my from having to retard my timing or to buy a btm to prevent pinging in the upper rpm. it's hard to ping with stock timing and 2psi of boost