I've been playing with the idea of turbo charging my 70 350 skylark. Im not too savvy with turbos and I heard that Turbo charging creates too much stress on the engine to risk putting it on a classic car with an all original drive train. Im not really trying to build a show car at all, this car is my only car and daily driver. I dont want to replace the entire engine as it runs strong, but I'd like to have a little more go go. It just too cool to not drive it everyday. What are your thoughts?
You are recieving some bad information. There are stock Buick 350s and 455 running around reliably on the street with turbo kits installed. Here is some info: The Buick 350 in particular is a VERY strong engine and perfectly suited to turbocharging without any internal mods. If the engine is a 2 bb version then it is a 9:1 compression which is PERFECT for this application. If the engine is a 4bb then it is a good idea to lower the compression to about 9:1 from 10:1 unless you have E85 fuel in your area in which case it is a GREAT idea to use that with the high compression and turbochargers. Turbochargers make great power witht he stock cam, low compression, and even poorly flowing cylinder heads. When using low boost of about 7 PSI we can gain fuel mileage, add power and not have any reliablity issues as we make more power with lower RPM compared to a naturally aspirated setup of the same power. It is a different story to get into the 15-25 PSI range, we need modifications for that level. The trick is the tuning, a good carb, an air fuel meter, and a custom timing curve will make any engine last a long time with mild boost. There is a simple bolt on kit that you can use on your Buick 350: http://www.burtonmachine.com/ http://www.burtonmachine.com/automotive/ http://www.burtonmachine.com/documentationtechnical/ Here is the above kit installed on a worn out 71 STOCK Buick 350. The HP may seem low however keep in mind this was a low HP engine from factory. The torque comes on really low in the RPM range which is perfect for a street car! I built a 398 HP Buick 350 and plan to add about 25 PSI of boost to the engine. At that kind of power level I am using custom forged pistons and rods however the rest of the engine is nothing too special. The car took a lot of work to handle the planned roughly 800 HP in this street legal car. The stock internals are safe to about 500 HP which is plenty for a street car. This car gets about 20MPG. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui8jMXTJeOU Attached is an article regarding the Burton kit featured on the youtube video: I will try to post an article I wrote about turbocharging basics in my next post. Feel free to PM me and I hope to get my Book about SBB Performance on the market in the next 6 months so stay tuned.
Here is a stock worn out 350 Chevy that made a ton of runs at 9 seconds in the quarter mile, and still never blew. They even tortured it with a shot of nitrous and the turbochargers and it would not fail. This engine was more relialbe than the $10,000 bigblocks it would cost to go that fast without turbochargers. http://www.theturboforums.com/smf/the-builds-board-hall-of-fame-builds/how-long-till-it-grenades-(-it-never-did!-go-figure-)-grenade-part-2-to-come/
I would not suggest turbocharging your 350 if it is your daily driver. It will require alot of tuning and bugs to work out, something that just isn't worth it on a DD.
From what I gather, when it comes to power adders turbo's are the easiest on the engine. Nitrous tends to hammers pistons and rod bearings because the on/off nature, superchargers load up the front of the crankshaft (minimally when set right, but they do), but with turbo's it's all about heat management and with the right sized turbo you shouldn't cook exhaust valves or any parts and boost ramps in (even if it's quickly) and the engine behaves just like it does N/A only with more air and fuel crammed in. All power adders have issues with incorrect fuel and timing settings. But N/A engines do too, but tend to be a bit more forgiving before breaking parts.
On piston aircraft engines we have a TBO from the engine manufacturer. This is the recommended number of hours you can put on the engine between major overhauls. Generally speaking, the same engine will have a lower number TBO if it is running a turbo. And those that use a turbo are much less likely to reach manufacturers recommended TBO. So if you used say a 520 cid Continental, the normally aspirated version will be around 1700 hour for the TBO while a turbo 520 may be 1400 hours --or about 20% less. This is with air cooled engines but you get the point. The manufacturers know and admit that turbos place more of a strain on the engines and longevity is diminished.
All constant duty/commercial engines (marine, aircraft, tractors, etc) have TBO's change based on horsepower output. Like your example, take a 400HP* CAT Grader engine, rated at 2,000* hours for TBO, but CAT will sell you the same exact engine with the boost and fuel turned up to crank out 800HP* and spec a 1,000* hours for TBO. That's just standard. Increase HP, you'll increase wear. Same for a car engine, HOWEVER, a car engine rarely runs at a heavy load for more than a couple seconds, where as a constant duty/commercial engine will run with a heavy load for hours or days on end. Meaning a car might only use 50-100HP of a 500HP capable engine 99.9% of the time and only .1% of the time be at WOT making 500HP so the longevity is hardly impacted in a car (barring catastrophic failure). Commerical engines will sit at that 500HP for long stretches of time. It's kind of apples and oranges comparison. *I just made numbers up for this example, but the principle holds true if you look them up.
And how much personal experience are you basing this on? Always have something BS to throw out don't you?
Judging from your posts in the past, I am spot on, expect considerable time spent tuning and fixing bugs. I also don't see any DD turbo 350s running around on the board. I am sure there is a reason for that.
Just ignore Carson, he can not seem to get a any engine to run right so I see why he is intimidated byt turbochargers LOL:spank:
I don't see why y'all think I am talking trash. If I had tried to put turbos on my 350 when it was my only car I would have hoped someone would have knocked some sense into me. Likewise, custom made intakes, big cams, and shotty ported heads was probably just as bad. I just hate to see someone else having to stay up all night in the cold trying to fix their car just to go to work or school. Not worth it. Also, my name is Cason, and all of my engines run fine and they STAY on the road, not broken for years at a time.
If I had a small block I would turbo charge it with EFI in a heart beat. Turbo's on my big block would make me drive over my crankshaft from too much HP p
I have been reluctant to mention it thus far, but I am currently working on an EFI turbo 350 Buick that I want to be a street car. My goal is to model the build after a mild GN motor; just with two more cylinders. I've had several street GNs that made fairly reliable daily drivers while turning good track times (aside from the odd burned up 200-4R or five.. ).
I think we scared off the kid that started this. Don't even know his name. ecifro, we bicker like this all the time and only a few punches are thrown. Let us know who you are and what you think. People here will help you with any Buick project.
There aren't any kits, or EFI intakes, if that's what you're asking. I have two Poston intakes (I have a couple of 350s) and I'm going to put injector bungs in them and mill the center divider out of them to make a basic single plane intake. Throttle body will be a single ~90mm mounted on a 90 degree elbow that bolts to the 4 bbl flange. Various ECM possibilities, ranging from the Megasquirt that SilverBuick's using successfully on his 455, to stuff like FAST XFI, which is what I'm using. Single turbo mounted sorta where the GN turbo sits, GN accessory drive system with serpentine pulleys, front mount in the usual location. Car is an 83 T-type.
Exactly the info I was looking for. I had been wondering if there would be any issues, using a blow-through, with something like the 90mm you were talking about. I'm hoping i can work my way to the turbo, after making some type of EFI work while the motor is still N/A.
