L28e turbo swap...?

[Hashi]

Hey... I was told that I could convert my L28e to a L28et by using some parts off an L28et by John Taylor (Jtaylor? I met him (you) at Bruno's? It's Ross...). Is it possible? I mean not that I'm doubting you at all John, but I was told that my pistons were too flat. However, John told me that they are indeed dished to a degree, and that the slightly higher compression could be a good thing. The way I figure, it is basically the same engine, but with slightly higher compression, so it could be done, and John said it has many times...but will it be as reliable as an L28et? Will it last as long before blowing up? What are the benefits/downsides? I need the help because if it can be done successfully and reliably, I can do it with less work and money...Please, if you know about this, gimme da 411!!!

Thanks.

[Z Driver]

The higher compression ratio means you won't be able to run much boost until you intercool it. You need to factor in other costs like a new fuel pump, the electronics, etc. I paid $1700 for a heavily modified turbo engine with upgrades turbo, intercooler with piping, FPR, and transmission. I still need to put another $1200-1500 into it because I'm going SDS or megasquirt for fuel, MSD 6BTM for ignition, I need a better fuel pump, different steering system, and other various parts. I'm expecting high 12's to low 13's out of my setup at ~16 PSI. This is an expensive little project, but I'm doing it right the first time.

[schwiplarkin]

dont do it,, save youself alot time and frustration and hunt down a turbo motor,, check out zcar.com or ebay,,

[Guest bastaad525]

why would it be a lot of time and frustration? well it's certainly a bit harder than just swapping in a complete turbo motor, but still not too hard.

 

It depends how far you want to go with it, both right off the bat and also what you plan to do later. The higher compression will benefit in that the car will be much more resposive off boost, and has potential to make more power on boost provided you can run the right amounts of fuel and ignition timing to keep it safe. The guys here who have run higher compression turbo motors all love them, one guy did go REALLY high compression and has had some problems with blowing head gaskets, I think he's at 9.7:1, quite a bit higher than your motor.

 

Recommended parts you'd want to probably hunt down to do this conversion, at a very basic level, would be the turbo exhaust manifold and turbo itself, also including the downpipe, turbo fuel pump (or better just upgrade the pump right away, you can get a good MSD pump for about $100, or the Walbro for a bit more), stock turbo EFI system including the wiring harness, injectors, AFM, ECU, distrubtor and maybe a few other little things I"m not thinking of right now, a blow off valve... with all that you should be able to run 8-9 psi safely I'd imagine and probably put just over 200hp to the wheels. I don't think it'd be that much more work than doing a whole motor swap... the hard part would probably be hunting down the parts you need.

[PUSHER]

Where would you get oil for the turbo?

[akeizm]

buy a T piece to put between the oil pressure sensor and the block. That what I've done with mine. And I hope to be starting my converted l28e turbo this weekend.

[Guest bastaad525]

yeah oil feed to the turbo is not a big deal at all, but I did forget one of the more important issues which is the the oil that drains FROM the turbo... You'll either have to pull the pan and drill a hole and then weld a nipple on there (you can tap the hole and just screw an NPT fitting in there but it will leak almost guaranteed) or just get the turbo oil pan. Either way, not that big of a deal.