compression questions

hey everyone. my cousin wants me to look into something for him and i only have a limited amount of resources so i figured i'd ask the pros

he has a 94 325is and wanted me to customize a turbo kit for him but he doesnt want to spend alot of money on building the motor (dumb). i know stock their compression is already pretty high like 10 or 10.5 i think. i told him he should get a set of lower compression pistons and i'd be happy to put them in but he didnt wanna spend the $6-700. now he's telling me about a head gasket option with vacmotorsports. they run for about 230+s/h. up to .140" in thickness

my questions are 1) should a 325is be turbocharged or would it be easier/safer to just get cams and a tuned ecu? etc etc 2) what is the stock head gasket thickness for this vehicle if we decide to go that route? 3) are the internals in this engine even made to withstand boost, more importantly the rods and piston strong out of the box?

i would tell him no but i have the room in my garage for a nice project, he is family (one showing interest in cars for that matter) and even more important than that, he said he'd pay me : ) $$$

let me know what the deal is here. at least a few options - thanks again
EXL

How much is he paying you? The compression is pretty high for boost, so I would say if you don't want to mess around with lowering the compression or building the internals, keep the boost low. Way low. The Active Autowerke stage 1 turbo kit for the E36 325 doesn't come with a gasket or parts to rebuild the motor, but it only runs at 7psi. The stage 2 kit comes with a head gasket spacer and runs at 11psi.

If I were doing it, I would pretty much say build up the engine AND get the gasket for safety reasons. Else wise, you won't be running anything to high in boost. However, if he doesn't want to get some strengthend internals or a head gasket, if he keeps the boost low and takes care of it, it should be fine.

And there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to turbo it or go with FI. As with all cars going from NA->FI, if you do it right, you won't have any major problems. Hell, DA Motosports as a M3 that is running 30+psi of boost, and is pushing over 1000 ponies out.

hes dead set on not building it, so my advice to him was to forget about it, obviously he doesnt want to spend the money on the build hes not gonna give me what my time is worth. i have an mx6 i could tinker with. i decided if he wanted to i would hook him up with a good exhaust system and even install cams if he wanted me too but if he's gonna take a nice car like his and blow it up i want no part of it - thanks for your help though-

Yeah...unless he only wants to run 7-8psi, he better at least do a gasket, minimum. Tell him to look into some of the supercharger kits for his car, they come with everything you need, and at that low of boost, will run about the same in power/tq. Since he doesn't want it...wanna hook me up with cams and an exhaust?

haha, only for family bro