2nd gen F body turbo ideas.
 

My ‘74 TA is coming along and I’m at a decision point on the engine. I have a ‘73 low compression 400 now, and the car is a factory 455. Money wise its cheaper to build the 400 and adding a turbo would make more power and be a better daily driver than a high performance 455, so who has added a turbo on their cars? Manifolds and a turbo location are my biggest questions and $1200 stainless manifolds are not an option. Let me here your ideas!

I hate to say this to you, But if you cannot afford a 900 dollar turbo manifold then you do not need to convert to a turbo setup. It is not CHEAP to convert your NA to a turbo setup. I did mine and it sure is not cheap and I fabricated everything else after they made my turbo headers. Good luck .

I agree with your statement, its not a matter of can I afford it, but more which direction do I want the money to go. The goal of the car is to be a true daily driver that I can take across country on a moments notice, and have enough power to play with. Finding a rebuildable 455 around me, North Alabama, runs 1200-2000 so that pays for the turbo sticking with what I have in the 400. Either engine choice will get an aftermarket EFI system. I am working on my pro's-con's list now for which setup will meet my end goal.

An aftermarket 4.25” crank with 3” mains is readily available to make your 400 into essentially a 455. So there’s an affordable alternative if a naturally aspirated 455 appeals to you for the sake of simplicity.

You’d be spending a few hundred at the very least just to have a good used factory 455 crank brought up to snuff if you did already own a 455. For just a few hundred on top of that you’re in forged aftermarket stroker crank territory to allow the use of the ‘73 400 block already in your possession.

Travis Quillen and Rodney Butler ran a twin turbo 63 Lemans drag car.
4.25 bore and 4.25 stroke, if I remember correctly 482 CID.

He always told me, I should have gone with the 4.00" stroke with the turbo motor.
Scat made for years a 4" stroke, 3" main crank for a 400 cid 3.0" main block.

The Quillen/Butler engines was run wit Moldex Billet Cranks.

Tom V.

Nice NASCAR U tube video on the web about the 1963 Tempest NASCAR race car.

Tom V.

My stainless manifolds were $850 shipped to my door. You won’t find anything cheaper or easier. As others have said, building a turbo Pontiac is not cheap. This is why a lot of people take the easy way out and go LS swap.

Thats true, a full LS swap would be cheaper and more reliable but a a Chevy in a Pontiac just isn’t right!

Aftermarket efi setup will run you at minimum 2,000.00 pump to injectors by the time it's running regardless of LS or Pontiac power. You need to consider that in your pro-con list

I built this about 14 years ago, Im still using the same china wastegate, bov and stock log manifolds. The car is a blast on the street and cost about 2k in parts. I did do most of the labor. You dont need to spend a fortune but you do have to do some work!

http://www.pontiaczone.com/forum/sho...ght=s400+build

TOM V : Could you post a picture of H-O's Turbo kit. might answer a lot of Q's AND it's for a 2nd gen fire bird.

Only saved picture I have, Ken C is of the Modded Timing cover.

I saved the links to the Car Craft Articles but Car Craft is gone and so are the pictures.

Tom V.

Here you go Mr. Crocie

Follow the link:
http://garage.grumpysperformance.com...-racing.10635/

http://lstwo.com/images/50057904721136164360.jpeg

I had a better copy of same article and ads saved:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4c910cba_b.jpgTurboForce Trans Am article1 by Ben, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fc595966_b.jpgTurboForce Trans Am article2 by Ben, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...6726c715_b.jpgTurboForce Catalogue 1979 Page1 by Ben, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b19aef7b_b.jpgTurboForce Catalogue 1979 Page2 by Ben, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5afa6db5_b.jpgTurboForce Catalogue 1979 Page3 by Ben, on Flickr
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...621093ec_b.jpgTurboForce Catalogue 1979 Page4 by Ben, on Flickr

THANK YOU TREVOR78

Tom V

Thanks for the pictures!

$
 

so lets say you bought this as a kit for price inquiry purposes.

what would the total price running and drivin be?

turbo kit only, this assumes you already have the engine ready to go.

Thank you r-70.
thank you trevor 78.

Just to be clear, that kit has not been produed since about '81- '82.
I supplied the pix( OK R70 and Trevor ) for an idea for turbo mounting and plumbingfor EOD.
Can someone send an article called "Ludicrous Pontia Power" to this page ?
I called Kevin (Crocie Jr.) to ask what a FI system actually costs. will get back to the forum asap.

Its similar to the Banks 6.2 diesel kit so in today’s dollars it would run around $4000. Add $2500 if you are swapping in an efi system. The exhaust crossovers will be the biggest fab challenge, and then finding the right expert to recommed the turbo.

yes, I actually remember seeing it in the mag years ago. aware its not available I shoulda been clear on that.

just inquiring the cost of a streetable under the hood firebird turbo set up. for a PONTIAC motor.

If you have a proper spreadsheet (like the one Borg Warner has on their website for turbo selection) you can get in the ball park fairly easily.

https://www.borgwarner.com/aftermark...rgers/matchbot

The Experts are the Borg Warner Engineers who do the Turbo Design on the parts.

Not suggesting Garrett turbos as they have had company issues over the years.

Garrett Air Research has filed bankruptcy a few times and changed their company name a few times. Not sure what they offer in turbos these days as they might get an order from you and file for bankruptcy before you get your part(s), but maybe you would get the parts. Flip of the coin deal.

Tom V.

EOD: Are you going to fab your own exhaust plumbing? Your local high performance exhaust can fabriicate it quickly and hopefully inexspesively. That's wherre we went to have our porototype plumbed.

There really aren’t any performance shops around me, Butler Pontiac is about an hour north of here but even most muffler shops charging over $100 an hour labor it will be cheaper for me to mock it up in the garage and then maybe have someone professional do it when I take them the prototype