Hello. I'm thinking of putting a turbo on my 1993 Dakota with a 5.2. I'm looking for maybe 400 rwhp @5000rpm. What do you guys recommend for parts? I was thinking megasquirt2, 42lb injectors, GT45 turbo. This is a daily driver with maybe a track day thrown in every once in a while. Thanks.

 

Yeah the gt45 turbo would work fine . I'd go larger on the injectors though like 60s. Gives you a little extra room to grow. A fuel pump like a Walbro 450 too.
Keep the exhaust crossover small like 2"- 2.25". If you can use the 1.25x rule for sizing your downpipe.

 

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking 2" crossover, off the back of the drivers side shorty header, under the bellhousing, and into a merge. Is there much loss by running everything off the back of the engine with u turns towards the front of the motor? Basically, using the stock exhaust exit locations and routing them toward the turbo vs running everything off of flipped headers/manifolds? Does an extra couple of feet of pipe loose much velocity? I like my power steering...

 

A gt45 seems a bit excessive for 400hp.

 

I've read the GT45 works OK on small blocks. A mild response under the curve with a fun top end. It also gives me room to grow in the future. Would a T70 or something else be a better choice? I'm not looking for all out performance, just something to play with and is pleasant to drive. Being easy to tune would be nice. My only experience with a turbo was on my first car, a 1976 Capri with a draw through 2.3L 4 cylinder. It ran a 2v 5200 Motorcraft carb and fixed ignition. The waste gate was controlled by an airplane throttle cable inside of the car. Low gears would hardly build boost and the top gears would build too much. It was a balancing act. I have no idea what turbo other than it came off a ford mustang. I ran about 9lbs of boost top gears, but played with the timing one bored afternoon and was able to peg the boost gauge at 18lbs. The timing was so far retarded, it wouldn't idle. Lucky I didn't blow it up. That was almost 25 yrs ago. I would have loved to have efi and Megasquirt back then.

 

You wouldn't have much loss there. If you keep the piping small you'd be fine . I run a T70 on my Ford 5.0 and I'm at full boost around 2600-2700 rpm. The gt45 really close in size.

 

The 45 will work, but has a large turbine, and you'll be giving up some hp under the curve at the 5000 rpm goal. If you're primary use was in the upper rpm I'd use it, but if it's truly more street you'd probably enjoy it more responsive down low. A t70 (true t70, beware of eBay t70's) would work well or something in the s300 line of Borg Warner. A s366 would be where I'd look.

 

A single s366 would be my recommendation if you are truely only looking for 400-500 HP. I have a 93 Dakota with twin S366 turbos on a 408. I rund a MS3X. I like the ability to run boost control, launch control, traction control, flex fuel, sequential injection, and coil on plug to name a few. I would look at the 3x or the pro.