Turbo for an 88 olds cutlass ciera...

[Tonglebeak]

Ok, get your laughs out before you finish reading this >_>

I have a 2.8L v6 88 olds cutlass ciera. As far as I know, the engine is rated for 130hp@170ft-lbs, but I have yet to get it dyno'd so I don't know what it's really putting out, and I have yet to find any reliabile source for these specs (wikipedia isn't consistent across its articles regarding this).

The tranny is a TH125C (3T40) w/lockup. It's a 3-spd that engages lockup at a minimal of 40mph (based on my experience). At WOT, it shifts to 2nd@47MPH and engages 3rd@79MPH from my experience.


I wouldn't mind having a decent sleeper. I don't have the money for an L67 swap, so let's forget about that.

Is there any turbokit I could install for this car? I'll ignore price for right now, I just want to know if any exist, and if I can get linked to them that'd be wonderful.

I wouldn't have to upgrade anything engine/tranny wise would I?

[beef_bourito]

don't like the rims

anyways i doubt there's a kit out there, i can practically garuntee there isn't, but you could do a custom setup. is it fuel injected or carbed? you might consider an engine swap, not sure what you'd go for though.

[Tonglebeak]

fuel injected, and I'm not up for an engine swap. I wanted to do an L67 but that's going to force me to reach in my ass and pull a huge money rope, which I don't think I can do

How about kits for maybe a cavalier, or any other A-body 2.8l cars out there that use the same engine? I would think those would be able to hook up without any difficulty.

[UncleBob]

if you think the engine swap would be more expensive or more labor intensive than a turbo system, I'd bet you'd be wrong

Unless you build the system from scratch, you won't find any cheap options. As for upgrades needed with the turbo, depends. Low boost can be safely had without any modifications, but thats it. As soon as you start aiming for some real power, things get a lot more spendy.

[Tonglebeak]

A turbo shouldn't cost more than a few grand, right?

An L67 swap into an a-body? Would be much more than that I would assume. That would require not only a new engine, but most likely a new tranny to handle the torque, not to mention a new ECM/PCM, possibly larger fuel lines...something I really don't want to get into if I don't have to.

Plus the L67 is supercharged, and I want a turbo . Other than the L36 is the only other option, but that's NA, so it wouldn't be able to handle a turbo most likely without upgrading it... >

[UncleBob]

crappy turbo kits start around $2K.

When there are no kits availible, you either drop your car off at a shop that builds a system for your car (probably at least $10K) or you make it yourself

For less than $1000 you can find a much much MUCH better candidate car for this project. One that not only has a turbo kit availible, but also has a decent motor that can make some real power

[Tonglebeak]

My goal is to make it a sleeper. I don't want another car. This car can already take down quite a number of people (street racing), it's already fun beating the retards who think they're big and bad with a v6 mustang, but this car can't compete with the big boys without some sort of upgrade.

How much do you think an l67 swap would run for (motor+tranny+ecm+wiring)?

[UncleBob]

you would have to call around to junk yards to find out on the price of the entire drive train. It will vary widely from place to place. But I would expect at least $6K

Trying to get the stock engine management system to work on your car would be a real challenge, because it will have all the other integral systems, such as the security system, TCS, that would require a lot of work to either make work or bypass.

This is why I would personally just find a different candidate if it was me. You can have a sleeper AND a better platform. One of my favorites is just about any stationwagon with a V8

[beef_bourito]

haha volvo with a 350sb in it, real sleeper. there's a video somewhere on this site with one of those.

anyways, it's going to cost you lots of money to make your car fast enough to play with the "big boys" whether you do an engine swap or a turbo system you're going to be throwing alot of money at it. a different car, something that you can stick a 350 into without much work, might be a much better idea, and could actually save you money.

[Schister66]

all i'm going to say is stay away from turbo "kits" because they are generally overpriced. And i highly doubt there is going to be any "kit" for your car....

[UncleBob]

overpriced compared to what? Doing it yourself? That is a given

[Schister66]

Originally Posted by UncleBob

overpriced compared to what? Doing it yourself? That is a given

and based on that, draw your own conclusion. Here's a hint....do it yourself

[UncleBob]

I build my own systems, and I know how cheaply you can do it yourself.

I also know the amount of tools, experience, knowledge and most importantly.....a lot of time....is required to make your own system.

I encourage anyone interested in making their own system to give it a shot, but I also realise the price of a kit doesn't seem so bad when you compare the amount of guess work and frustration it removes. Granted all kits need a bit of "tweaking", but having something to start with makes life much easier.

[Schister66]

i have built my own setups in the past. I pieced together my first setup with the help of others on the internet and a few local guys. Since then i have helped a few others here in Fargo build setups and countless people online. It isn't as tough as people would like to think, but it does take time and effort....personally i'm all about doing EVERYTHING myself on my car...i installed my entire setup (including the clutch) myself....one more thing, before that, i hadn't done any of that stuff on any car before so i was learning in the process.

[2.2 Straight six]

Originally Posted by beef_bourito

haha volvo with a 350sb in it, real sleeper.

there's a video somewhere of a Volvo with an LS7 in it.