Alright i would search but for some reason search isnt working right now.


So, my question, Turbo on a 351w. I do quite a bit of pulling with my truck, 95 250 4x4 5 speed. Looking to turbocharge this engine, It will soon have a new cam put in it, and and exhaust amongst other things. So any information or tips on Turbocharging my truck would be greatly apreciated, and also what kind of money am i getting into here?

Thanks in advance,
Don

 

For towing turbo is mostly useless unless you are on the highway and going up a
moderate hill where you can keep the turbo spun up and making boost. You should
concentrate on low end torque the cam is a good start as well as the exhaust and
getting the heads opened up a bit and basically the whole thing breathing better
naturally will give you the power where you need it. Now a supercharger that might
be worth the demands of high octane fuel it requires if you are in the city or where
you have alot of starts and stops while hauling some weight since they make power
almost from the git go!! Whatever you do do it all at the same time so everything
will be matched and you will feel the power increase all at once and make it feel
like it was worth it!! Adding a part here and there takes too long and you only gain
a few hp at a time doing it and adding a 100hp say will make you smile BIG!!

 

A supercharger can/will build boost quick, but ONLY at or near WOT conditions. For towing/hauling, a turbo is ideal because it is load based; you can actually have full boost, under a heavy load and part throttle, and a properly sized turbo will build boost QUICK!

A supercharger is mainly RPM based so it is not the best option for towing/hauling; a turbo will shine under these conditions. If you're looking for a power adder for towing and hauling, a turbo is the way to go.

There will be some fabrication needed to build a turbo system though because there are no bolt-on kits available (that I know of). A simple cam/exhaust is a good upgrade but it wont net the power/torque gains, on the same motor, compared to 8-10psi of boost, when both applications are tuned properly....it really depends on how much you have to spend, how much work you're willing to put into it and the power level you're after.

 

with either the turbocharger or the supercharger youre going to want to have forged piston heads and racing rings installed at the least unless youre planning on rebuilding the engine a few thousand miles down the road. the added pressure in the cylinders over time will warp your pistons causing blow-by and compression loss and if you hammer it hard enough your stock pistons could crumble... just something to think about. sticking with a mild cam kit around .5" of lift, decent headers, and an equal diameter exhaust from your collectors to the end of the tailpipe with minimal curvature and a nice flowmaster delta 40 or 44 is a great way to get the torque youll need to tow. be sure you get a cam kit that creates a torque range from idle up to around 5000(comp cams has good 4x4/towing kits already available[no need to mix and match]). this will give you the torque you need to accelerate away from a stop sign, but also available midrange torque to pass grandma on the highway

 

Does anyone know where we can get turbo kits for these trucks?

 

I believe you're looking at a custom fabrication for something like this.

 

To help you out here i dont know a ton about these motors or trucks but there is a reason why diesel's/Semi trucks use turbos and not superchargers. As far as price range i did alittle research for you and if you do everything yourself you could do it for $2500-$3000 yourself mybe even cheaper depending on the turbo you go with. If you have a shop do it... it will be alot more because it involves alot of custom work. Another thing you may worry about is depending on your trans. and how much power your going for you will have to build your trans. up to handle that much power. Your best bet like stated above do full exhaust/heads/cam and a new set of gears in the rearend and you'll have one hell of a pulling truck.

Edit: another thing i forgot to add is if your set on turboing it plan on getting new stronger internals... but here is a video of a twin turboed f150 302 engine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5PmqNqmGcc

 

Adding a little boost to your 5.8L via properly sized turbo would increase towing power but I think you would struggle to make it live in towing conditions if your not carefull.

I built a twin turbo setup for the 5.8L in my 91 F250 back in 2001. The motor was bone stock with like 140k on the clock but in good running condition. I used two T3 turbos (60 trim 0.48 A/R versions) from mid 80's T-birds. These turbos mounted on flipped manifolds gave me full boost (7-9 psi depending on how brave I was) just stalling it against the stock E4OD converter (~1700 stall). Even with the 5 spd you would easily have boost soon enough to be useful in all but probably 1st gear. I only had the opportunity to tow once with mine while I had it boosted and I can say it made a very noticeable difference. Unloaded it dropped 3 seconds in the 1/4 mile (went from 19.75 to 16.75 at 7 psi).

While the motor did hold together for the ~10,000mi or so I ran it before I removed the kit to sell the truck the tranny wasn't as happy. I ran around most of the time unloaded and only on a few occasions had more than just a few hunderd pounds in the back. Even when lightly loaded I had trouble keeping it from boosting at least a couple of lbs at highway speeds or on any kind of incline. Even a forged piston engine would have limited life if run under continuous boost without some extra precaution. You need to make sure that you can keep the pistons cool by using thermal barrier coatings and maybe even piston squirters. Look at most modern on highway diesel engines and you'll see that they have fairly complex piston cooling mechanisms to keep them from falling apart under continuous load.

The other big trick i see is underhood thermal management. Your adding a bunch of extra surface area with a turbo kit which means more heat will radiate and heat everything up. I know on my truck after even a 15 minute drive the master cylinder would be smoking hot.

I don't want to discourage you as I do think a turbo is a great way to make more power while retaining drivability. You just need to put some carefull though into turboing a vehicle for heavy or continuous use. Most of the feedback you'll find on the internet is from folks who turbo to get better performance on the race track where they likely aren't under boost for nearly as long as you will be towing. The requirements are different.

BTW. I have a GT4088 that is just sitting here waiting for me to throw it on my 95 F250 with a 460 and a ZF so I'm right there with you.

Steve

 

Hey guys i found a twin turbo kit for our trucks Someone try it!
1988-1991 FORD F150/F250 SUPER CAB V8 5.8 T3 TURBO KITS:eBay Motors (item 180427754987 end time Jan-01-10 16:36:52 PST)

 

I got a 351 built but low comp,on a 1989 f150 4x4 it has trw pistons cam and full exhaust,just for the sound and look,will I have to change the fuel pump and add a fmu or can I put this on because it is a speed density truck,and how about the injectors.It will be an a-trim with about 8lbs of boost.

 

Got pictures?

 

turbocharging my truck has always been my dream. i plan to run a big (stock) intercooler from the modern diesels i think im going to go with a single bigger turbo maybe from a chevy 6.5l diesel for cost and simplicity reasons, as for tuning and computer i think ill have to look in to something maybe already made up for the 5.0 mustangs. i wanted to heads, gt-40 intake, long tube headers and run the turbo somewhere around the back of the engine, get a cam that will optimize under boosted conditions and give it a lumpy idle of course. some forged pistons and lighter and stronger connecting rods..thinking about it makes me drool.i forgot to mention i have a zf 5 speed manual too.. imagine your in your truck, looks like a pretty basic ford form the 90's your at the staging area huge cam lumps away, a guy in a vette pulls up and looks over. the light turns green and you punch it the turbo spools up your engine screams and the tires light up and you start pinging off the rev limiter and slam gear after gear. yeahh being young is great

 

I'm wondering about this too. I have a 92 F-250 4x4 351W w/ a ZF 5 speed. I'm getting ready to freshen it up with a 408 stroker kit w/ forged pistons, a Comp Cams 35-255-5 cam kit, an Edelbrock Performer intake, a set of 64cc compression chamber 185cc intake runner 2.02 intake valve heads, swapping from SD to MAF, a Moates QH tuning chip, and upping the fuel pressure and rate. Now I seen an engine build online of an almost identical engine and it put out right around 400 hp and 400 torque so according to a fuel injector chart it says that I'll need 32 lb injectors, which sounds like too much to me, but maybe somebody on here can help me with that and how much of my fuel system that I'll have to change, but anyway, this is about turbo. I've been thinking about putting a 7.3l turbo on mine but wasn't sure if it would work right. Since mine's a low rpm truck in my mind it should, but then there's also the compression question. Originally my plan was to shave the block deck .010 or so, so I bought pistons that are around 9.8:1 so it would come out between 10.2-10.5, but if I leave it as a stock deck (I may have to have the pistons cut out for the valves just a smidg too, not sure, so the compression may only be 9.6-9.7), would I have too much compression for the 7.3's turbo, or should I just forget the turbo idea and go ahead and deck my block down as close to 10.5:1 as I can get it, because this is my daily driver so it's going to be pump gas (I know, you're wondering why I would build a daily driver that drinks that much gas, well, I don't drive far and I like power, lol). Anyway, any help would be appreciated, especially on the fuel system part, wether it get's turboed or not.

 

This is just bad/wrong info here.

 

His last post was 2008.