I've been getting a lot of questions about if boosting decreases reliability. So I decided to type this up. Some of us may find this common knowledge, but hopefully the newbs will read this.

Reliability, can be decreased to an extent. It is not necessarily the turbo that is putting wear on the motor, rather it is the amount of power that you are gaining from that turbo. Power is generated by the extra heat and pressure built up in each cylinder. With more power, you of course get more heat and more pressure. So yes, to an extent, you are decreasing the reliability of the motor, but the same goes if you made more power with a naturally aspirated setup. The key answer to decreased reliability is generating more power than what the stock motor was intended for. Turbo is not the reason why you hear or see people blowing up their motors as soon as they turbocharge their motors. The reason they blow up their motors is because they either:

1. Get greedy and turn up the boost too high.

2. They don't keep up with the maintenance the way that any typical turbocharged car should be kept, whether it be turbocharged from the factory or not. (ie. religious oil changes, using Synthetic motor oil, keeping tabs on coolant levels and oil levels, putting in new spark plugs along with every 2nd or 3rd oil change, etc.)

3. Most importantly, they don't run a good engine management setup. Most guys are in such a hurry to turbocharge their car, they overlook the most important thing about keeping a turbocharged engine running correctly and reliably. (Consider this very crude analogy:

<u>Consider a turbokit without engine management, kinda like having just met a beautiful girl to have sex with, but not having a condom</u> Dangerous isn't it?)

That is pretty much the basics to it all. My bottom line is, whether you are naturally aspirated or turbocharged, reliability ultimately depends on the amount of power you are making, maintenancing, engine management, and the owner of the car. But with proper care, a high power car can last a very long time, maybe even longer than what you intend to keep the car or engine.


,
Khoi




Modified by Sohc Driver at 12:09 PM 8/8/2005

 

good wriet up. Should help answer a lot of questions for new turbo guys.

 

I would add the closer you are to stock, the better you reliability. That is not to say you shouldn't modify your car to create massive amounts of power like we all love to do, but the more "unnecessary" mods you do, the more your chances of something going wrong.

K.I.S.S. - Keep it simple, Stupid!

 

Good info, but I'm still skeptical

 

Bullshit turbo honda dont blow up

 

turbo cars &lt;3 proper tuning.

 

good writeup...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pats16vgti &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">turbo cars &lt;3 proper tuning. </TD></TR></TABLE>

you're damn right.

 

glad some of you guys found this helpful!

 

As mentioned above, proper tuning is the main key. The first step is getting the proper engine management system, but the second step is finding someone who actually knows what they are doing with the system and knows EFI. Anyone can learn a computer software program like Neptune, Hondata, AEM, etc and know how to punch numbers to make things look good on a dyno sheet, but having someone that actually knows what is going on with the motor, and what the correct limitations are for the car is where the reliability comes into play. Before having your car tuned do some research about the tuners in your area and find out who to take it to too make sure that your car/motor lasts.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Bulldogg83 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">As mentioned above, proper tuning is the main key. The first step is getting the proper engine management system, but the second step is finding someone who actually knows what they are doing with the system and knows EFI. Anyone can learn a computer software program like Neptune, Hondata, AEM, etc and know how to punch numbers to make things look good on a dyno sheet, but having someone that actually knows what is going on with the motor, and what the correct limitations are for the car is where the reliability comes into play. Before having your car tuned do some research about the tuners in your area and find out who to take it to too make sure that your car/motor lasts. </TD></TR></TABLE>

 

good info

 

Heat Management, that's who your daddy is.

 

Good write up.

I'd add that it also depends on how you drive it. If you beat on it all day every day, don't expect it to last without any problems. Yes, some people get lucky, and some don't.