Turbo+MPG
 

hey guys, the camaro is good fun and all, but lately SO many things are breaking on it, i think its time to park her and get to work, so im looking for a nice DD to take her place, but dont wana lose the speed, i know its a stupid thing to wish haha, for some reason i have had my eye on an early 90s cavalier z24, they arent exactly slow to begin with, and they get decent mpg, my friend has the 3.1L v6, the one im looking at has the 2.8L, i hear they arent bad engines, get good all around power/gas mileage. well my friend has a turbo he got out of an old blazer he will give me for 20 bucks lol, i was wondering how much a turbo would kill my gas mileage in the v6, of course if i get on it more then my mpg will suffer, but since its really only more air and not fuel into the engine, will it hurt it real bad? i still want a practical commuter car/summer beater lol thanks guys

you need more fuel to make more power, not just air

"practical commuter car/summer beater" and "turbo he got out of an old blazer he will give me for 20 bucks" are mutually exclusive statements. how about you just drive the daily driver and fix the other car?

lol well i dont mean Beater beater, but still, and he wanted to sell the turbo for 100 bucks, but it just sits in his living room and hes tired of looking at it lol, i was thinking about throwing it in the camaro, but idk if it would make enough boost for a 350, it isnt that big or impressive. and i most likly will end up just driving around the DD, the one im looking at is a z24 convertible, great for summer cruising, i dont want to make it too powerful so the body warps since convertibles arent very structurly sound haha.

If you have a beater DD, don't screw with it too much. Work on your project, not your DD otherwise you may have no car at all some days.

The early 90's z24's are slow!! If you want a nice DD that has some power then get a Cavy with the 2.4 Quad 4 motor. They are mid 15 second cars ( which is pretty quick for a Cavy) and get 30 mpg!!

I remember those Quad 4's, don't see too many of them. could also get a Lumina with a 3.4 200hp, drop that into a cavy, and call it a day.

get the cav, put nitrous on it. done

Yeah I couldn't imagine 20yr old 2.8L cavy being fast, which is why I was looking at the turbo road, the main reason I love it is bc its a convertible lol I always wanted one living by the beach, I might just get it and say screw speed, that's what I have a camaro for and just make the cavy a really nice dd

Just from reading the way you are talking about it, I dont think you realize what goes into boosting an NA engine(or much about turbos in general?). Even at low boost, you need something to control the fuel or it will run super lean, if its an MAF engine you might overdraw the maf to make any kind of power and have to work around that or if its a MAP based system you have to deal with the ECU seeing boost in the manifold and freaking out. You might have to run something like megasquirt or at the very least a piggy back maf controller. If the car wasnt designed for boost you have a lot of work to do and crap to figure out. And your highway mpg wont suffer much, boost raises the volumetric efficiency of an engine which can actually help you gain some mileage in some cases. Its a good idea but it sounds like you have a lottttt of research to do. and home brew na-turbo cars can be very reliable if you take your time and dont take short cuts.

you should check out v6z24.com or 60degreev6.com...both sites will have more than enough info to get it done...but be warned...turboing these cars arent a walk in the park...hell most people have to undo the mounts and tilt the motor forward just to get at the back bank spark plugs. if you were gonna do any swap you can find Turbo Grand Prix parts which is a direct swap into your car...the pcm and everything bolts right in, with only needing to find a new spot for the battery cause of where the crossover and turbo sits. either way...buy a car thats turbo stock or dont, buy a daily driver for just that...put the money where it belongs...in the fun car.



ps. quad 4's arent the most reliable motor in the world especially if you compare them to the track record of the 660's

pss. what year blazer came turbo???? :wink:

That would be a trick question, it wasent a blazer, it was a GMC Typhoon, badass trucks ( I want a Syclone more tho oh so badly)

Typhoon!!! That's the name! I was thinking cyclone or something, couldn't remember the name for the life of me, so I just said blazer lol, but anyway, I know the jist of turbos and what not, I'm trying to broaden my knowledge of cars in general, the camaro is my NA project which my dad is going to help me with, so I want to learn the other side of performance with turbos and superchargers and what not, I wouldn't wing it myself don't worry lol I have a friend who's an actual mechanic and has done this stuff before, I have heard that turbos are the best way to get more power and not hurt the mpg too much, the camaro I'm gunna get new heads cam lifters carb, and it'll be quick, but get terrible mileage lol

Syclone is the pickup truck version. Don't dick around with your DD if you have to get to work. Especially if it's old.

Ah ha! I knew I wasn't crazy! I'm gunna go look up one of those they sound pretty badass lol

why not just put nitrous on it?

you're a bad person. :lol::lol::lol:

why :lol: it wont effect his MPG, when he doesnt need to go fast it doesnt hurt the engine and when he does want to go fast a 50-75 shot setup right wont hurt it. i think that i just saved him a bunch of money ;)