I have a 2005 150 4.6 so that just about cancels any supercharger out there I looked up this company a friend and i were talking about and the setup is amazing but i wanted to put this topic out there to ask if anyone has any experience with this company?

 

The owner of STS lives a block behind me. I have seen his Tacoma pull a large enclosed trailer at really impressive speeds. He is a great guy and from everyone around here that I have talked to he and his shop do great work. The only reason I don't have one already is the price. I think the prefab'd kit for an F150 is like $6K. You can however buy a universal kit for around $3K and just install it yourself. The kit comes with pretty much all the hardware, excluding the tubing to feed from the turbo to the intake. That is the route I am going to go. They replace your muffler and sound really cool. I am also picking up a 91 ranger this week. I hope to installe the universal on it as well and have a sleeper that gets close to 30MPG.

 

The STS turbo setup is interesting and somewhat innovative, however there is a reason that no one has really marketed this before: it's not very smart due to lack of efficiency. A turbocharger is a load based device and thrives on the wasted energy of the exaust system. The farther away the turbo is located from the engine, the more heat is lost through the exaust tubing walls and equally less energy is available to spin the turbine. Interesting idea, bad science.

 

Mary-Kate is correct, however the concept behind the STS rear-mounted turbo is that it performs better than no turbo at all, and is easier to install than fabricating complicated exhaust manifolds for mounting all this under the hood.

It's a product that will in fact perform better than stock, even though from an engineering/purist standpoint it's certainly not an ideal design.

 

Obviously a "true" turbo mounted under the hood is the best way to go if time and money are not an issue. As Federic stated, it is better than no turbo at all. Plus, have you ever driven a Toyota Tacoma? I have witnessed the Owner of STS pull an 8x14 enclosed trailer faster than my 02 SuperCrew 5.4 will. So whether or not it's the best setup is an argueable point, it allowed a Toyota to hurt my pride. That's a sad day for a blue blooded Ford guy.

 

Actually, fabricating a turbo system for any vehicle "under the hood" doesn't necessarily have to be expensive. A used/junkyard turbo (or two), a rebuild kit (or two), and some minor fabrication to take the output of the factory log manifolds and turn that output "up" and mount the turbos is all you need to get started. Of course you'll upgrade injector size, tune the EEC and do various other things, but turbocharging a vehicle doesn't require stainless everything and $1500 turbochargers. You'll have some limitations of course but it will perform better than naturally aspirated and of course not be terribly expensive - just labor intensive.

 

I've read other posts saying that if the engine wasn't designed for a turbo then a turbo might do damage and/or shorten the engine life. So, it seems to me that a rear turbo might be a nice compromise if it's set up to only add a lower level of boost.

 

If the engine wasn't designed for a turbo at all then how does running a rear-mount setup any kind of compromise? Still have to tune and tuning is what decides how long the engine lasts. My major issue with rear mount setups is one thing: 5 minutes with a cordless impact wrench and that turbo is gone.

 

Just a quick note for anyone interested in an STS, I was very impressed with the STS turbo kit that was installed on my neighbors F150. It installed quick and performed outstandingly. I'd have to say the lack of lag was the biggest surprise along with the huge power. it ran awesome for about 500 miles before new truck prices dropped and the owner decided he wanted to trade up to an 08 Harley Davidson F250 diesel so the STS kit was reboxed and I'll be putting in the classifieds in a few days...It is still like new ,intercooled and for an 04 up F150. It is ready to bolt on and even includes the Cobra fuel injectors, Diablo Maf ia MAF adaptor, and HPC coated charge pipe...

 

I sent an e-mail to STS for pricing on a 2008 F-150 and got the biggest run around and still no one told me the price. How much was that unit new and what is your neighbor trying to get for it? I'm not interested since I have a Roush on order, but I'm still curious.

 

all of this stuff on the newer trucks is cool but what about us guys with the the pushrod guys... i like power and my little 302 isnt the most powerful thing on the road... i get depressed everytime i climb in my dads 05 dodge hemi truck... for my truck being a 96 with a 302 and a 5 spd and 35 inch tires with 3.55s the truck doesnt run too terribly awful... but i was curious if i were to build my own kit like frederic said how much boos can i run without going to changing injectors and eec tuning and all that i understand after so much horspower you have to do all this hoopla to the engine but what about just running around 6-7 lbs of boost on all stock stuff... they are doing that with the 2.3 rangers guys keeping their stock parts and building up to 6-7 lbs of boost all im looking for is that little bit of extra power to push you into the seat and climb a hill without downshifting... i dont wanna fry all 4 35s from a stand still in hi-lock... i just want a little boost and maybe a little better fuel economy and for a lifted 302 10-13 on a regualr basis isnt too bad in my oppinion... but would that turbo lean out the mixture just enough to provide a little more power and better fuel economy? if there is anyone that reads this and could help me out i would greatly appreciate it i have been interested in turbos for a long time and would like to do something with them... thanks again... chad

 

i'm interested in knowing the answer to chadc2003's question as well.