Turbo questions.

[Guest hgray14]

I have a 240z that I am going to swap an '82 280zxt engine into. I am going to add an intercooler. I have another car to drive so I have the opportunity to pull the engine and give it a complete rebuild. I will be upgrading the fuel and electronics system as funds become available but might put the stock engine in at first and then build from there.

 

1) My car has a T3 right? What will I gain by adding a t3/t4?

 

2) How does a ported T3 compare to a T4?

 

3) What is the difference between the T04b and t04e?

 

4) What does "Stage II" and "Stage III" exhaust wheels mean?

 

5) If given the choice would you ever run without a divided tang?

 

6) Is it true that smaller turbos are better for low end power and bigger turbos are better for high end power?

 

7) How hard is it to run two turbos in line?

 

8) Has anyone on here added nitrous to their turbo? How does it work? Is it worth it?

 

9) Can you turbo a stroker engine? I understand the stroker can be expensive to put together but if I already have one what will I gain by adding a turbo?

 

10) Heat coatings? Has anyone used ceramic heat coatings on piston heads, etc and has it made a difference. I have read that it can really help with an aluminum head.

 

11) What intake manifold will be best for my turbo?

 

12) Is it worth the money to get my engine internals hardened? I am looking to run a lot of boost

 

13) silly question but it keeps going through my head. Correct me if I am wrong. A turbo will help me get up to speed faster (depending on when it kicks in et al) but it will not give me any higher of a top speed. If I am wrong please explain to me how parts/engine that produce a an rpm yyy and top speed of xxx can be made to produce any higher of a top speed.

 

I just started this site and love it. You guys seem to really know your stuff and so I appreciate any advice you can give me. In the mean time I will try to peice together info by checking the archives.

 

Houston Gray

hgray14@aol.com

[Guest hgray14]

OK, one more question.

 

14) When I see that something has a twin turbo does that mean that it is two turbos in line (staged..I guess) or does that mean the one turbo does one half the cylinders and the other does the other half?

 

thanks again

 

Houston Gray

hgray14@aol.com

[Guest Anonymous]

Originally posted by houston:

 

1) My car has a T3 right? What will I gain by adding a t3/t4?

 

2) How does a ported T3 compare to a T4?

 

3) What is the difference between the T04b and t04e?

 

4) What does "Stage II" and "Stage III" exhaust wheels mean?

 

5) If given the choice would you ever run without a divided tang?

 

6) Is it true that smaller turbos are better for low end power and bigger turbos are better for high end power?

 

7) How hard is it to run two turbos in line?

 

8) Has anyone on here added nitrous to their turbo? How does it work? Is it worth it?

 

9) Can you turbo a stroker engine? I understand the stroker can be expensive to put together but if I already have one what will I gain by adding a turbo?

 

10) Heat coatings? Has anyone used ceramic heat coatings on piston heads, etc and has it made a difference. I have read that it can really help with an aluminum head.

 

11) What intake manifold will be best for my turbo?

 

12) Is it worth the money to get my engine internals hardened? I am looking to run a lot of boost

 

13) silly question but it keeps going through my head. Correct me if I am wrong. A turbo will help me get up to speed faster (depending on when it kicks in et al) but it will not give me any higher of a top speed. If I am wrong please explain to me how parts/engine that produce a an rpm yyy and top speed of xxx can be made to produce any higher of a top speed.

 

Houston Gray

hgray14@aol.com

I'll try and field some of these if I can, I'll give short answers, theres probably long technical answers in our archives for some of this stuff.

 

1) Yes it has a T3, going to a T/3-T4 hybrid gets you a bigger compressor side of the turbo for more power. Spoolup time will be about the same since the T3 exhaust housing is the same.

 

2) It flows more, but the T4 is physically larger so has that sort of flow stock compared to a ported T3.

 

3) The E is bigger and flows more air.

 

4) I'm assuming this is a set of mods by a particular vendor that means trimmed exhaust housing blades or something that improves the performance of the turbo, without knowing where you heard that term I can't tell you really.

 

5) Not sure on this one.

 

6) Its true that smaller turbos flow characteristics will max out at some point, put on a small engine it COULD still make top end power, on a bigger engine it would be a exhaust restriction and performance would suffer. Generally, small turbo, small motor or use two smaller ones on a bigger motor, large turbo use on bigger motor, or a smaller motor with LOTS of boost, or two on a super hi perf. V8. Not this is a general answer and matching the turbo to the motor should be done by a reputable vendor to get it right.

 

7) More plumbing and more difficulty matching the two units to work right, perhaps a staged unit off a RX7 would work, I donno what it flows vs what a L28 needs.

 

8) There are a few Z guys running nitrous on a turbo'd car. Generally they do it because they're running a humonous turbo that takes a while to spool up, the NOS shortens that time to pretty much nothing. Is it worth it? How fast do you want to go and how deep are your pockets? I think the added fuel complications could be dangerous if it goes lean you'll be buying new pistons in a heartbeat. Nitrous and Turbo's both require more fuel when its flowing, as long as its right, great, if not. Boom.

 

9) More power, more displacement + boost = more power. And yes provided you have the lowered compression to handle it, you can use a stroker just fine.

 

10)I havn't heard to much mention on how well the heat coatings help in this forum anyway, anyone used coatings on your pistons here?

 

11) Need more information on what your doing with the car, but most guys here run the stock turbo manifold and clean them up a bit on the outside and inside. If you have the skills and or money, individual runner manifold or TWM type individual throttlebodies on a weber sidedraft manifold is a awesome ($) setup.

 

12) Hardened? How so? You will want to run like Forged pistons minimally but the more you have to spend on the reciprocating assembly the more boost and power you'll put out. I've seen reports of having things cryogenically frozen and the structure becoming more stable but I'm not aware of anyone on here doing that yet, the jury is still out, but reports I've seen makes it look like a good process thats worth it in some cases.

 

13) Depends on how the turbo is sized for the application. Cars run out of top speed because of two major things. 1. Horsepower, not enough to pull the gearing and 2. aerodynamics of the car. Add more power and you brutishly force the car through the air. Add better aerodynamics and you make the car go faster with the same HP. A turbo sized to make top end power will indeed increase your top end speed because its putting out more horsepower.

 

14) It can mean either, but more twin applications use two smaller turbo's for more power and quicker spool up and it feeds like you say half the cylinders per each turbo. Staged turbo's are a bit more exotic and only used in a few cars but its real big with like the tractor puller crowd where three and four turbo's can be used staged and build unreal boost, most of those engines though are diesel or running acohol.

 

Hope that helps, some others will probably chime in and correct anything I've errored on.

 

Regards,

 

Lone

[Guest hgray14]

Thanks a ton Lone, you have helped me a lot.

 

Houston Gray

hgray14@aol.com

[Lockjaw]

Originally posted by houston:

 

2) How does a ported T3 compare to a T4?

 

> A T4 will always outflow a T3.

 

3) What is the difference between the T04b and t04e?

 

>The E is physically bigger than the B housing, and is more efficent at higher boost levels. Depending on where you get your turbo, an E housing may require and adapter to fit without interference with the stock exhaust manifold.

 

 

 

4) What does "Stage II" and "Stage III" exhaust wheels mean?

 

> They are a name Turbonetics uses to describe their turbine wheels. The larger the stage number, the larger the turbine wheel, which means it flows more and spools up slower. I have a stage III in mine right now.

 

5) If given the choice would you ever run without a divided tang?

 

> I don't think you need a divided housing. Mainly a benefit for 4 cylinder engines.

 

6) Is it true that smaller turbos are better for low end power and bigger turbos are better for high end power?

 

>Yes

 

7) How hard is it to run two turbos in line?

 

> We have a guy who has done that here on the board. He has 2 Mitsu 16g's. He is an engineer, so he fabbed up all his stuff.

 

8) Has anyone on here added nitrous to their turbo? How does it work? Is it worth it?

 

>Helps spool a really big turbo. Not worth IMO.

 

9) Can you turbo a stroker engine? I understand the stroker can be expensive to put together but if I already have one what will I gain by adding a turbo?

 

>Yes

 

10) Heat coatings? Has anyone used ceramic heat coatings on piston heads, etc and has it made a difference. I have read that it can really help with an aluminum head.

 

> The stock 300ZXTT pistons come coated on the skirts from the factory, and it is pretty much gone by 100k miles. I am sure the coatings on top of the piston help, but it gets expensive from there. I would be more inclined to jet hot coat the exhaust manifold and turbine housing.

 

11) What intake manifold will be best for my turbo?

 

>I use the turbo one, although some people like the non egr eqipped early 280z manifold.

 

12) Is it worth the money to get my engine internals hardened? I am looking to run a lot of boost

 

> I would run forged pistons if you plan on running lots of boost, and use ARP rod bolts. Other than that, the bottom end is sufficiently strong to handle anything else. You can polish rods and shot peen if you like. You will also have to have oil holes drilled in the small end of the rod if you go to forged pistons. I did all that.