so watching episodes of roadkill with my kids and they turbocharged a 4.3 from an s10 and stuffed it in a 71 datsun. I've owned a multitude of n/a and supercharged cars but not a turbo. currently i have a 1980 malibu roller. i just started pulling apart a 350 010 block.
i am a good fabricator and think since i have a good amount of room under the hood this could be fun. id like to go the same turbo from a 7.3 ford like roadkill did. since the malibu and grand national are the same body i was thinking of getting a gn intercooler. would that be to small?
also i am reading what i can but the whole waste gate/bypass and blowoff still elude me a bit.
I'm looking into 64cc aluminum heads. cam suggestions would be good. probably a victor jr intake manifold and I'm kind of itching to try the new holly stealth efi system. basically a carb thats set to efi and all electronics are inside it and tunes with a tablet. ill make my own exhaust manifolds and exhaust system.
but please feel free to throw any info you have my way. the car is also going to be manual i just haven't picked a factoryish 4speed or go with a 6 speed yet, and the rear will be swapped out with a 9inch setup. basically something fun as hell to cruise in and maybe race on occasion. I'm thinking 6-10psi of boost is safe but if I'm wrong please let me know.

 

Do some sniffing around on here.

FiTech is working great for the guys running it. Look into that over the Holley.

I wouldnt use a stock GN intercooler, its barely adequate for a 3.8 on boost and they have a dedicated fan to help keep the core cool.

 

Also the 7.3 turbo will be way small on something with a decent head, and cam. Turbo selection is directly related to n/a hp, and 4.3's are anemic in stock form.

 

OK so go look up The Grenade on here. Look around thatI am building a 77 Monza with a 283/double hump combo and using an LT1 efi intake and my plans are to use twin Ebay GT2871R turbos. From the research while some day these are too small they are not in pairs. Martys GTA Firebird was my muse. And the GT series turbos are oil/water cooled and there are GT2876R, and even bigger. Heck my plans for the GT2871R I even found out that for specific achievements I could also use these on my 454. Dont get me wrong, not idea but the sizes can support up to around 800hp before the turbos are maxed out and there are several larger units.
For a 350 two of the GT2871R with larger AR rating or the GT2876R should give you more than enough head room.
My 283 plans are to push from 500 hp on low boost too 600+ at 15psi. My 454 idea could push out an estimated 770hp on 15psi.
And I intended to use either some ebay forward pointed T4 turbo headers or source some Schedule 10/40 stainless and build my headers.

 

Ideally I want a single turbo that will start spoiling around 2500. Maybe less. My idea is to keep it down for cruises a d when the foot is feeling heavy it's there for backup lol. I've been cruising the forum and a few others trying to soak up as much info as I can. The fabricating is the easy part

 

I'm going to disagree with this... on a stock 283 possibly, but a 350 with a decent head, and cam, I think these are a horrible choice. The 28 just doesn't have enough turbine especially to drive the 76 compressor in this case. IMO the 28 doesn't match the rest of the engine build.

OP... look at the ebay gt45's that are so popular, you can get them for ~$200 shipped, and are tough to kill. Even the gt45 is a little compressor limited for your setup, but will easily get your boost at 2500, and should do ok at 5-6000 rpm. Also choose a very mild cam with this setup (210-220* @.050" on a 112-114 lsa)

 

Cool, thanks for the info. It's funny I didn't think anything of turbos until the fast and furious came out in theaters. Next thing you know imports all over and they were starting to hang with us v8 guys. I know the blow off valve passes boost when the butterflys shut, that would mount on the intake (to throttlebody) tube, the Watergate passes exhaust.
Roadkill had what looked like 2 external wastegates one on either side of the turbo. Is that typical? I'll have to sketch my plan and post it

 

You can have more than one gate, but one that is sized, and located correctly is enough (single turbo). The gate would be plumbed pre-turbo, and can just dump to atmosphere, or can be recirculated back into the down pipe (post-turbo exh). There's no reason to have one elsewhere on a turbo car.

 

That's what I thought. Then again it's roadkill. $500 car with a $300 turbo and 2 $300 wastegates lol

 

A turbo from a 7.3 powerstroke will make an 200cc headed 377" sbc fall flat on it's face at 4500. Ask me how I know. A cheap GT 45 would be fine as stated above. I have used 2 wastegates and a single on different occasions. Either will work.

 

I'll have to be honest.... I'm a little disappointed. You had me at roadkill and then I come in here you're talking about swapping to a 9'', aluminum heads, and holley, etc. Boooo!!! That doesn't sound like the Rotson to me. lol

 

Sourcing out used parts like turbos and intercoolers from junkyard cars and trying to make them work is pretty much a thing of the past. You can buy everything you need on ebay cheaper and it will work better than the typical JY part sourced builds.


The roadkill guys are a joke. I still watch the show and like it, but they don’t have a clue when it comes to turbo builds. The turbo related stuff they do on the dynos and the cars they build perform poorly with WAY to many expensive parts. There’s no reason for that. Freiburger’s “F-BOMB” 1500hp Nelson build twin turbo Camaro ran slower than my JY RX-7. Easily has 10x the money in that car than I do. They need a little help!


For someone just getting started I’d go the VSracing site and buy the “denmah kit”. It has the GT45, intercooler, WG, BOV piping/flanges etc. Or at least use that parts list to buy your own on EBay.


http://www.vsracing.net/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=1320

 

I'm pretty sure there's not to many people out there that would consider those guys geniuses. lol

 

Not that being a genius is required… But they both make a living doing performance car related things. You’d think they’d at least cruise some forums and pick up some tribal knowledge. They act like they are stuck in the early 90’s!


I always wish I could help them out when I watch those shows. Shop on racing junk, pick up a non $hitbox roller and have someone with a clue list out the parts they need. They blow through retardo budgets to make total crap! Would be more fun if they made semi crappy stuff that made stupid power cheap IMO. Still a fun show, obviously they are doing something right!

 

I never said they were geniuses I just liked the idea. And the show is funny

 

Before you start a build. YOu should define your power goals and build appropriately. Otherwise your componects will be out of wack. IE you seem like your are going for a high HP build with the heads you mentioned but you have a stock block........

 

At this time it's mostly research. I would be lying if I didn't say 800hp. But realistically if I could do 4 or 500 that would be great. I still have to pull the frame and do a bunch of welding. All the wiring has to be gutted and replaced. I've started with a stock 350. I've been pulling it apart slowly with my 12yr old daughter. Once it's all apart I'll see how good the block is. If it needs full machining and a totally new rotating assembly I may just buy a short block.

 

I like the show too. It would be a blast to just slam some shit together and run it into the ground like they do. Lol

 

Back in the late 90s you used to be able to buy 2nd gen fbodys for next to nothing. I grew up buns race track so lots of projects people didn't finish. It was cheap and fun. Anything that wasn't work fixing to run we stripped and sold at the swap meet to build a better car. Can't do that anymore

 

The stock block will take you well past 500, so I wouldn't worry much about that. Did you ever post which heads you were looking at? All I read was 64cc, and aluminum.