List of Cars that Take Well to Forced Induction

I was wondering if there are any lists of inexpensive N/A cars that would make good project cars to add a turbo or SC to that would have a lot of potential for being fast, or if you guys would help make one.
The cars im thinking of would not require any engine swaps, wouldnt need aftermarket rods/pistons, and would be under $10,000.

The cars i came up with through searching were
1st-gen Dodge Neon
integra LS or GSR
LT1 z28 camaro
and the 5.0 Mustang

GSR would be my pick, but that's because i have one! I think that if you're going to boost...you should go DSM or Honda.

doesnt the GSR have a 10.6/1 compression ratio? I wouldnt see that as one of the top choices for taking well to turbocharging. If i was gonna add to the list i would say a 240sx with a KA24DE because of the large amount of people turboing these cars and having them do well on the track and streetability. Plus the amount of aftermarket support is greatly increasing.

I think that if you're going to boost...you should go DSM or Honda.

Hondas arent the best cars to turbocharge because of there high compression ratio. If you want a car that will respond good to turbo, go with Nissan or something.

When looking for cars that will take well to it look at stock AF ratio's and compression ratio's...if they are ran rich stock the extra airwill help lean them out, making them take even better to FI. also the compression ratio should be looked at if you plan on running any more than 6-8psi...which is all you would want to run on a stock honda motor...
also look at transmission problems in consumer reports, tranny's going bad with no performance nodifications sure wont hold up to the 50% or more increase in power and torque.
Also cars that have boosted counterparts and use the same block and heads will usually take well to turbocharging, especailly if the ECU is programmed after boost is added.
for the factor of ease and cost V6's and V8's should be avoided when talking turbo unless you WANT to do a twin set up.

The LT1 will do well, but they have a stock compression ratio of 10.56:1. A wider LSA cam with a bit more duration might bleed of some cylinder pressure allowing you to run some more boost, but in stock form, 3-6 is about all you can do with pump gas. To be done right I might consider extra thick head gaskets. You could also polish the chambers to add a few cc's and remove hot spots, and/or do a heavy valve job to get a couple cc's. Then you could get in the 6-8 range pretty easily.

But, saying which ones take to turbos is kinda like asking which cars look best with body kits? I suppose the answer is any of them if done right. If you're going to go to the trouble of fabricating exhaust, intake tubing, intercoolers, and designing the whole system, a head swap or cam swap is the easy part.

I think many of the mid 80's RWD cars are perfect candidates. Find yourself an 87 Cutlass with a 307. They had anemic 7.8:1 compression, but are built with the same strong V8 guts as their muscle car predecessors. Those same rods used to support 350+ hp. With some main studs, rod studs, and head studs (swap to 5A heads), you'll be capable of supporting at least 400 horses. Although blow-through carbs are not ideal, they can be tuned to run just fine. You can avoid the (minor) headache of tuning or adding EFI.

Boost an LS1. 500+ RWHP with a couple bolt-ons and a supercharger.

Only takes about 7 PSI to get that as well. :evillol:

My GSR...as with all USDM GSR's only have a 10.2:1 cr. The JDM GSR's have the 10.6:1 cr.

I think a Nissan would be a good car to turbo... i would really like a 240sx or a 300ZX, but there are also a lot of parts available for Hondas and Acuras.

Plus the higher cr helps with the loss of low end power in turbo applications. It just takes a little better tuning to keep them together in the long run.

Alot of people turbo BMW e30's.

Nissan Maxima. 95-99. That motor is awesome! My friend turboed his as well as on the bottle. Made 538 whp, 603 wtq. This was on a completely stock bottom end. Only things he upgraded was the clutch, intake manifold, and fuel injectors. Axles, differential, heads, etc were all left untouched. Axles and differential both held up to slicks as well.

this depends on whether you're talking about with minimal work. any engine can be tuned, it takes time money etc.. like curtis said. you can take a 10.6:1 ratio engine an by changin' lots of things totally transform it. e.g. low compression pistons, lightened an balanced crank, new con rods (possibly long stroke) you can either bore the engine out, or fit re-enforced cylinder liners for boost, port+polish, valves, cams, somehow change from carb. to injection (im sure it is possible) and other work too.

a good example is the brabham bmw powered F1 cars of the eighties: they use 2litre engine blocks from road E30 M3s, with at least 100,000miles/kilometres (not sure which) they used re-enforced cylinder liners for the boost, had a turbo off a truck, with lots of internal work and an intercooler the size of a house-hold radiator (like 80x140cm i think) they managed over 1,400bhp. it was more, but BMWs dyno only read up to 1,400bhp. an the figures were recorded with massive amounts of tye slip.

yeah, the carb to fuel injection is a popular thing to do, ive seen many older hotrod v8's swapped over to FI.

yeah, the carb to fuel injection is a popular thing to do, ive seen many older hotrod v8's swapped over to FI.

oooh...thanks, i was sure its possible but had little or no recolection of seeing it done. thanks for that though.

My GSR...as with all USDM GSR's only have a 10.2:1 cr. The JDM GSR's have the 10.6:1 cr.

I think a Nissan would be a good car to turbo... i would really like a 240sx or a 300ZX, but there are also a lot of parts available for Hondas and Acuras.

Plus the higher cr helps with the loss of low end power in turbo applications. It just takes a little better tuning to keep them together in the long run.

10.2:1 and 10.6:1 aren't a whole hell of a lot different. However, both are too high to turbo-charge on pump gas IMO. If you want to keep that CR that high on the street you're asking for trouble. You can't run a lot of boost and I don't care how good your tuning is it won't save you from a bad batch of fuel or detonation at full boost. You'll be the owner of some new ashtrays. Hell, you could even throw a rod through your block.

Unless you plan on runing very low amounts of boost you're going to have to get lower compression pistons, some stronger rods, and you will have to sleeve that block. Not what I call a good engine to turbo-charge.

Besides most of the engines metioned any car with the Chrysler common block is easy and inexpensive to turbo-charge. Plus, the blocks and internals are rock solid.

when turbo charging, would you use a long or short stroke kit ? because i think the long stroke kit would give you better torque, yet the short stroke kit would allow higher capacity, is this right or have i missed something ?

Well, us TD guys have found that the 2.5 common block has better torque than the 2.2 because it has a longer stroke but it suffers in the higher end. I guess if you have a 3,300 pound car or more you might need the extra torque, but I for one have a 2,900 pound car and I like having a good amount of speed in the upper RPM range.

I guess it just depends on what you want.

10.2:1 and 10.6:1 aren't a whole hell of a lot different. However, both are too high to turbo-charge on pump gas IMO. If you want to keep that CR that high on the street you're asking for trouble. You can't run a lot of boost and I don't care how good your tuning is it won't save you from a bad batch of fuel or detonation at full boost. You'll be the owner of some new ashtrays. Hell, you could even throw a rod through your block.



I agree its not my favorite choice of compression for a boosted engine, but stock bottom end 2000 SVT Contours with 10.25:1 compression are boosting up to 12 psi on a GT28 which is the max psi that turbo can push on the 2.5L engine before it drops out of its efficiency. One of which is non intercooled and only has water injection. None have failed due to detonation. IMHO, it is all in the tuner. If you get some bad gas, thats what a knock sensor is for.

Yeah, but a knock sensor won't save you at max boost. It will save you while just driving around but at max boost it will happen too fast and too violently for the kock sensor to compensate and thus you have ash trays.

I still firmly believe that 8:1 - 9.5:1 is where I would run on a street car. If you have a race only car then go to town since you will be running race fuel anyhow.

Just my humble opinion.

I'd go with the LT1 Camaro and SC it.

Knock sensor on KA's is disregarded after 4krpm. So some knock sensors are pretty much useless anyways.

Water injection is a good way to run higher boost on high CR too with lower octane fuel. Once again, another thing you would have to monitor.

my dream for a tuner would be to have everything electrical with switches and such on my dash. so if you have a high compression ratio or a turbo capable of high boost, have an electronic boost controler that you can switch from one boost setting to another by flicking a switch, you could have the high boost setting with tuned water or alcohol injection so you don't detonate. you could have alcohol or water injection on a switch if you want to run lower octane to save money. you can turbocharge any vehicle it's just the work that goes into it. for vehicles that take well to being turbocharged, go for a car that has a decently low CR so that you don't need to worry about lowering the compression ratio too much, you need a strong enough block (I hear Honda's H22's have thin cylender walls and you can't run more than like 5-8 PSI without extensive engine work before the cylenders crack), a car that has some well sized exhaust ports. you want a strong car that breaths well, is reliable, a knock sensor is always a plus, and if it has good power stock, another plus.
Now for cars that go well with FI: You've got the integra, the B18 (not sure what letter, probably all) has a lowish CR and you can run some decent boost without much work, the b16 (again not sure about letters) has a higher CR but apparently is very responsive to boost, it's available in civics and crx's, LS1 is good (camaros, firebirds), corollas, some of the engines have 10.3:1 CR so those aren't as good but the ones with 9.4:1, lower the compression with some thicker gaskets and you can run some good boost, these cars are light so you don't need as much power to get them moving fast, 240sx, there's more but i think this is good.

Mazdaspeed protege comes stock with a Garret t25 ceramic ballbearing turbo, ran a manual boost controller and with that tiny turbo my protege could handle 12 lbs of boost :evillol: then I foolishly ran maximum boost on stock inernals not knowing that t25 would run 15 lbs with a 16.6 pound spike! I through a rod through the BOTTOM end! :banghead: :2cents: :loser: :disappoin