What is a turbo?
For most of you import car raving fans, you know what a turbo is but for those of you newbies to import cars, a turbo is a device on a car that will basically recycle your exhaust power to provide more intake air for your car, thus boosting your intake air and more horsepower of course.
How do I add a turbo to my car?
There are many turbo kits for import cars that are already available. Even if you car does have a turbo already, there’s turbo kits that will upgrade your turbo and give you more horsepower.
You must check your local laws though and make sure the turbo kit is “street-legal”. You don’t want to install a turbo kit only to find out you must remove it every time you do a SMOG check.
Most decent import tuning shops will charge you anywhere between $1000 to $2000+ for installing the turbo. You can also install a turbo yourself but make sure you have the right tools and background experience as you can easily blow your engine.
Why a turbo?
Turbos are great way to increase your car’s horsepower, sometimes as much as 500% or more. Due to the nature of turbos, you can easily make your car go faster without an engine swap.
Superchargers are also similar to turbos but turbos in general are more efficient and better for the environment too since it “re-uses” the engine’s exhaust fumes.
Turbo is the right choice for import cars
Turbochargers have also been widely used in diesel trucks. If you notice a whirling notice while driving by a big-rig truck, that’s the sound of the turbo “spooling” and yes, most buses use turbos too.
Superchargers, on the other hand, have been favorably used in American hot rods. Most of the time, turbos are better fit for import cars as they will maximize the efficiency of import engines.
If you take a look at most import cars that have been tuned crazy, you will notice that most of them use a turbocharger to boost their horsepower.
What are the key ingredients to a Turbocharged car?
Intercooler
(Intercooler, this one is a front-intercooler that will go in front of your car)
Most turbos need to be coupled with a good intercooler. An intercooler is a metallic device with fins that will cool your air intake. Since turbos basically accelerate your intake air, you need to find some way to lessen the increasing heat and intercoolers can do this.
You can run a turbo car without intercooler but this isn’t recommended as your engine will heat up easily plus, you won’t be able to gain the same horsepower as if you were using one.
Boost Gauge
(Mechanical Boost Gauge)
For turbocharged cars, you will also want to have an in-dash boost gauge. Boost is measure in PSI or pounds per inch, the amount of intake air per volume.
A boost of 20 to 30 psi is probably normal for a nicely tuned car but you can even take it further with additional upgrades.
Plus, boost gauge will allow you to make sure your turbocharger is working properly. If you suddenly start losing a noticeable amount of boost while driving, that probably means some part has broken off and you should stop your car to inspect to avoid blowing your motor.
There’s two types of boost gauges, one mechanical and the other electrical. Mechanical gauges are cheaper but the electronic ones can provide higher tuning capabilities, thus more expensive but worth it if you are serious about tuning your car.
Blow-off Valve
Another critical part is a blow-off valve, which “blows” off any excess air in the intake when you let go of the gas pedal while accelerating hard. When you accelerate hard, you will cause high boost to your turbo. Now when you let go of your gas pedal and hit the brakes, all that high boost air has to go somewhere, and it will go back to your motor if you don’t have a blow-off value, causing havoc to your motor and more heat.
Later this year or next year, we will be featuring a hands-on mod of an import car with detailed instructions on how to add a turbo to your car so stay tuned folks!
