This will be my first turbo car, just wanted to ask a couple of you 5.0 guys a couple questions. This is a street/show car that i am wanting a little more power out of, and i have always loved the seat of the pants feel of a turbo car. The motor is a freshly rebuilt 306. For now, i am leaving the shortblock alone until i can afford to drop the money on a good block and internals. I would like to make somewhere around the 450hp range at the tires. Will this be possible through stock cobra heads and intake? It has a custom ground ed curtis (fti) cam, 70mm edelbrock throttle body, and 76mm c&l maf. Has shorty headers, catless x-pipe, and dynomax mufflers. I will most likely be going with a MP 70mm single turbo. What are you guys opinions? And if that power isnt possible, what heads etc should i lean towards? If i buy heads/intake, i would like them to be good enough to support 600-700 hp for later on down the road. Thanks guys!

 

Your heads, throttle body & even your C&L MAF will be plenty sufficient for your needs & the 70mm your planning on goin with will be enough to support a little north of 750hp with a .96 or so turbine housing if you can get one for it. Im not sure what the exact turbine housing a/r's are with the Master Power turbo line up but i'd shoot for a .96 housing as it will help out greatly with any future power goals and will work nicely up to 6,500rpm. An .81 or .68 housing might hurt a little higher rpm performance @ around 500hp with your set-up. Your stock shorblock shouck be able to handle more than 450hp if its fresh and you have a good tune on the car. More times than any if the tune is way off on a car even if its 400hp with a 5.0 will be worse than making 600hp with a spot on tuned stock shortblock turbo 5.0

 

Thanks for the reply. I would like to keep my rpm's below 6,000 for now, while i'm on the stock shortblock. My cam falls on its face at 5,500 or so anyways. What a/r should i go with for my power goal and rpm level? I want something that will spool fairly quickly since i dont want to spin the motor to 6,500-7,000 rpm. Thanks for any input!

 

I agree with Wadel with the turbo pick, but at 450rwhp on stock 5.0 block your really starting to play with fire. So be careful, because 500ish is generally where they get the grand canyon fault lines in them, lol The internals will hold up to it, as long as you have forged pistons to help it out. But the weak link is that block. As far as your cam choice? Any cam will make power but not sure if its optimal, was it custom grind for turbo cars? Or NA, Nitrous, Blower? It may hurt you more than help you. If your looking for 600-700hp later, I'd look into a decent set of aftermarkets with thicker deck because Irons generally lift around 15psi. Some people have this problem, some don't, but knowing the info might want to avoid the gremlins? lol Now the block may hold 500rwhp or more but the question is how long will it live? Some have had success and some no where near it, its just if you want to risk it or not. But before you do that, I'd check into your motor and see if you have hypers for pistons or the forged because I think someone mentioned it to me before 94-95 5.0's had those instead of the Forged in them. Just something to look into, now you can still use them but they are no where near as forgiving obviously as a forged, sooooo that being said, the tune will have to be pretty close when trying to put a decent number down. Good luck man.

 

It's a N/A custom grind cam. I am going to see how it performs after the turbo install, and if it hurts me i'll throw in a turbo cam. What is a good one to go with? The motor is freshly rebuilt with forged pistons, so i think with a good tune, 450ish whp should be ok. I hardly drive the car anyways,once a week maybe and 5k miles a year if that, lol.

 

Well if your looking just to hit 600-700hp honestly man, a stock 351w block with some forged slugs hold that power all day long. If your gonna sink the money into a decent block and internals its kind of pointless not to go big or go home. lol I just don't agree with wasted potential, IMO lol As far as the cam, look on your card see if it has a 112-114LSA is good. Stock style cams do awesome in turbo cars. But me personally I like lift and growl, which may not be the best for turbo's, but it suits my needs. lol Now what I suggested for LSA are neither of those, but if you like the lopey sound and make decent power F-303 cam seems to be a popular choice, as well as Some trickflows. Everyone will tell you there are better cams than the ABC 123's but I guess just search it out, but when I see others making 4 diget dyno pulls using those, kind of makes you a believer, lol So I can't argue and say there is better or those aren't fine because they are. One of our Mods runs F-303 cam in a SBF making almost 1200rwhp. So I mean proof is in the puddin....
But I agree 450rwhp will be fine.... especially if its not drove too much. Honestly you will be fine running that I just don't suggest trying to hit a number thats close to split power as your first pulls is how I should have worded it. lol Just make sure you get a Wideband to tune with so you know your not lean spiking if you don't already have one. But I've seen plenty of 302's live above 500hp marker. Its just risky is all, not saying don't try it or its not worth it or it won't work.

 

pretty much what everyone has mentioned, you should have no problem meeting your goals with those gt40 heads,and the cobra intake..i would take the time to grind the t/b opening on the intake to match that 70mm t/b,factory fuel lines are fine at that level,but i would def upgrade to a good intank pump,and at least 42lb inj's,and a adj fuel reg,also are you going to run a factory computer with a chip burned for your combo? or ?

like mentioned,start off with a SAFE tune, stay cautious with your timing,and you should be fine..

 

A lot of good info here. I had the same question as blakef925. Except I am going to be running stock E7 heads, and stock cam. For now...

 

What supporting mods do you have done to your motor so far and maybe we can help you out picking out a turbo?

 

Well I bought a Hx-50 a 66mm. But I think Im going to sell it and try to find a used masterpower or something that didnt come off of a Volvo semi.