Hello everyone,

This is my first post, so I thought it appropriate to stick myself in the newbie forum until I got some experience under my belt. I read the forum rules, the FAQ's, the turbo bible, and performed a search; I also read the MPT70 thread that's arvchived, and I've read through Corky Bell's Maximum Boost. I tried to exhaust all of my resources before posting. If I missed something on the site, I apologize.

I have a 1993 Lightning I'm going to turbocharge. I already have all the hotside pipes, and a Tial 50mm blow off valve. I also have a very good friend who is going to make the cold side stuff for me. I've read and read and read about turbocharger selection, but I'm still sort of stumped on how a lot of this translates to big heavy pickups. I know I'm going to want a quick spooling turbo for fun on the street and that awesome part throttle feel since the big lug is 4500#. I just keep getting conflicting reports on what turbo to select.

Info on the truck:
357 Windsor (forged SpeedPro flattops, 9.0-9.3:1 CR)
Edelbrock Performer 6025 heads out of the box
Lunati 51014 cam (thinking about changing this out for a custom grind)
GT40 Upper/Lower
Ford Motorsport Mass Air Conversion
2800 stall converter from PI built for a turbocharged application.
7.3 Powerstroke intercooler
Tial 50mm blow off valve
38mm Tial Wastegate
1 5/8 shorty headers
3.5 inch downpipe

As for the turbo, I was considering running the Master Power T70 with the .68 A/R housing P trim. Here's where my questions start in. I'm in college working 20-25 hours a week, so I don't have the biggest budget in the world. A guy on the Lightning board with the same kit I'm going to run and that MP T70 turbo made 326 RWHP @ 9psi and 379 RWHP @ 13psi on a Mustang dyno. He also made 400.2 rwhp @ 5,250 RPM, and 460.9 @ 3,750 RPM torque at 15 PSI on the same mustang dyno. Frankly, that's enough to keep me busy for a long time, and it fits my budget. He did these numbers with relatively modest fuel requirements; (a hobbs switch to run both fuel pumps, a walbro 255 inline, 42# injectors). He and the gentleman who installed it report that it has really quick spool ups and amazing torque. Here is a link to the thread if anyone is interested:

http://www.nloc.net/vbforum/gen-1-lightnings/105829-pickrel-performance-turbo-kit-results.html

I have a ton of questions, but essentially I'm looking for education opinions on how this combo would work out. It's been done before so I know it should put the numbers down, but since my motor flows more air than the stock engine, would that cause the turbo spool up time to change? How about the torque converter? Camshaft?

Basically, any information anyone would be gracious enough to impart upon me I'm willing to listen to on any part of the build. I hope I included enough information in my first post here. I'm really sorry about the long thread, also. Thanks for reading.

 

I think his hp numbers are a little low (even correcting for the dyno) for being a gt 40 351. I'm guessing his turbine housing might be limiting top end hp. Just a guess but you should still be getting excellent spool time with a bigger housing. That and you'll be moving a good bit more air with a bigger cam and bigger heads. I wouldn't reccomend following exactly as he did with the t housing. that and the goddamn lightning redline at 5250 rpm. With your set up you could turn it up to 6k run plenty of boost. That motor should be pretty stout. So figure more rpm, bigger heads, bigger cam, and 12-15 psi of boost you'll want quite a bit bigger housing than the other guy. You could easily put 500+ to the wheels with minimal effort. Just get a tweecer or something and don't fuck with that fmu bull shit. My cousin's vortech'd 94 gen 1 had one on it and the boost swith to the inline pump gave out and he was lucky he didn't blow the fucking thing up at 12psi with 15 to 1 afr's. He now tunes with an eec and 42# injectors. stays right at 11.8 to 1 afr's and he cuts some nice easy 12.5's at 12psi in fairly warm weather. stock mortor with rockers and exhaust. not to bad for a 4500# truck.

 

Thanks for the advice Jared. Do you have any turbo recommendations right off since the one I posted looks a little small? Maybe the same turbo with a .96 A/R?

 

At the very least the same turbo with a .96 A/R turbine, you may look into the S400 as well. It's a larger turbo and probably more than you're looking for, but that's a pretty built engine.

 

I had a T-70 with a .96 on my 94 Lightning with heads and cam. I made 460 rwhp and 531 torque at 9psi. I saw boost at around 2000-2200rpm. No need to go to a .68, my truck was a blast on the street. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

I'm running a .96 p trim on a 302 with heads and intake man and I make full boost at like 3500rpm

 

Wow, impressive. That sounds exactly like what I want. And if you have the .96 on your truck and seeing boost that early, I think that puts the .68 to rest.

What heads and cam are you running? It was a Master Power T70, right? Did you end up seling the truck?

 

No it was a Precision T-70. I still have the truck but I am putting a 408/Pt-88 combo in now. Ported Trick Flow heads and a Cam motion custom turbo cam on the 351.

 

Sounds like it will be a blast. I'll probably go a similar route as you did. I hope if I do get one of the MP's that it will have a similar boost threshold and make similar numbers.