I absolutely love the idea of the turbo kit that
Mike @ 5 Star Tuning has been developing.
Kudos to you for what you are doing in the industry!

I see a lot of expensive, production, race vehicles out nowadays.
I also see a lot of threads on here asking about getting more power
out of there vehicles.
Well maybe this will offer up some more choices, besides the obvious.
Some of us here are familiar with all the different ways of externally
adding (bolt-on) power kits to an engine and how they work.
I figured this thread could help out those out there, that are not so
knowledgable about this fairly cost effective way of producing power.

WE ARE NOT INCLUDING NITROUS...FOR STREET DRIVEN ONLY.

What are the pros and cons of different bolt-on power adders?
What effect does each different type have on the output and
characteristics of that engine?
What kind of engine mods are required or suggested for each type?
ETC.
ETC.

These include:
-turbo
-supercharger
-numerous others

 

This is an interesting topic, hope more knowledgable people reply

 

Me too!!! Where are all the knowledgeble replies?? This topic really applies to me. I have a 99 F150, 4x4, 5.4 and just ordered new 18x9 wheels with 33" Nitto TG tires. So far I installed Flowmaster catback exhaust, K&N intake kit and the Hypertech power programmer. I really couldn't feel any power increases with the upgrades I did (each done separately). So I want to feel the next upgrade. This is considered a daily driver but I only put about 2.5K on it annually. I am the second owner and it only has 68K on it. I plan on keeping it for at least a few more years (owned since 03).
I would like to do a 4" suspension lift and everything else I plan on doing will be a performance upgrade. I think my next upgrade will be a gear change, but not sure yet. If I do a gear change, I know I need to have a plan for performance so I can size the gears properly. I want to supercharge it when I have the money. Was considering a HD SC takeoff assembly but that may change. This is why I am very interested in replies to this topic!!!

 

I have a slow 04' F250 Superduty 5.4 and have been looking at Superchargers and what not. If I drive my truck (try not to) I have 130 miles roundtrip to work! it sucks...and I get bored and want some power for all the hills I have to go up! So anybody out there thats done it...I am listening.

 

Where did you hear about this? I don't see anything listed on Mike's website...

 

For turbos on 5.4s, PSI Motorsports are supposedly the go to guys for the job.

Welcome to PSI Motorsports

PSI Motorsports of Texas [Race on Sunday, drive to work on Monday]

 

i have a 2006 ford f150 sterling edition and i needed help finding mods for some additional power ;0 i already have a K&N intake on it and flowmasters.. also nitto racing tires.

 

RE: "...Flowmaster catback exhaust, K&N intake kit and the Hypertech power programmer..."

Considering the poor weight to power ratio of truck/SUV small to moderate increases in power will not be felt in the seat. A dyno and road timing tests hopefully justify the expense, and/or improved fuel mileage.

Curious, have you recorded any change in gas mileage since the mods?

A lot of snake oil is peddled to the point I'm fairly cynical with all the marketing hype for such mods. I'm looking for 3rd party non-partisan dyno testing before laying down my hard earned cash. ;-)

 

In my opinion, a turbo is the best power adder you can buy at a reasonable price and it's not too hard for a DIYer to build and install.
The OP suggested not to include nitrous but, It's been around for a very long time, starting in WW II in fighter planes and developed for street and race cars in the late '60s and through the '70s.
If used with a little common sense it makes a great addition to any power package for occasional use in any application.

 

One man's reasonable is another's fortune. ;-)
Simply adding a turbo with enough boost to feel it significantly will add stress on an engine not designed for the higher effective compression ratio, power, etc.. Better get those spark plug inserts done first, eh? Can't help but wonder about the reliability effect and what the weakest link in the drive train will be that gives out first.

Doing it right IMHO will require lowering compression, porting heads, perhaps valve train & injector upgrades, nice big intercooler, custom headers, Tial valve, boost controller and a new hood to enhance cooling and make more room for everything + insulation. Rear end should handle it but the trans...hmm...I wonder. Great performance and reasonably less than a GT40 engine swap I'm sure! :-P

 

I have had several turboed motorcycles that had pretty high compression that ran great without an intercooler or drastically lowered compression usually in the 9.5 to 10.5 to 1 range. while cruising down the highway at 75 to 85 mph with zero boost the bike(s) ran smooth, but when you cracked the throttle and the guage showed just a small amount of boost you could really feel the bike starting to go for it, as the boost increased the bike just continued to accelerate to much faster than I wanted to go and I've been known to run my big bikes close to the 200 mph mark. My turbo bikes were limited to only 10 to 12 lbs. boost.

For a DIYer a turbo is the least expensive power adder other than nitrous, which I like also, but is less easy to control.

 

When you added your engine upgrades, that just brought the performance back to near stock since you also put on 33's. You probably need to change rear gears to 4.10 to get the full benefit of the engine mods. Don't know what your stock gear ratio was, but it was either 3.55 or 3.73 I would guess. Also you would need need to recalibrate your speedo. I know Hypertech makes a separate calibrator and Superlift used to have one also. Can your Hypertech programmer do this?

 

Personally I have FELT the difference big time when I did my first add on. Which was an Edge Evolution Programmer(Approx $400). According to them it adds up to 35HP. I know that it felt like that muchc or more, but when you enter in the laws of physics, I don't think it really adds that much HP because my mileage went up about 4 MPG. I believe that changing the shift points was the real difference. BUT it is fun, and noticeably faster. Second I changed to 3" exhaust from the cat back and replaced the stock muffer with a Series II Flowmaster (installed by my good buddy Carlos at RC Muffler in Bako for $200). Truck breathed out easier, sounded much better and still feels like it gained HP. Still not satisfied I added a Volant CAI (cool air intake - don't be fooled a true "Cold Air Intake" is not made for automotive use because it requires either freon or anhydrous ammonia to make the air truly cold going in). On the box from Volant they claim HP gains of up to 22HP. Must be on a really cold day somewhere below sea level. But my 0-60 time is down to 6.75 seconds from 6.96 seconds before the CAI. Don't know if that $300 was worth it but it does sound pretty cool. Next I plan to replace the CAI with a Super Charger. Of course a SC costs more than everything else I've done combined running about $4k - $6K. but for the increase in HP it may be worth it. I'll know in about 6 or 7 months once I get to that point.

 

I've been building and racing Buick Turbo Regals for 20 years. I'm making 625 crank hp on my 3.8 V6 at 25# boost and built it for 800 hp so there's room to grow). Putting a turbo on an engine not designed for a turbo is a waste of time and money, just add nitrous and save yourself a fortune and have the control you won't have with a turbo.

Turbo's bring a whole list of new adventures of things that can go wrong very quickly. Supercharging is much more controllable.
Unless the compression is 9 or lower you can't run much boost on pump gas so you won't need an intercooler and you will have stay below 10-12 lbs.
Turbo motors do not like detonation at all. You will deteriorate or blow head gaskets very quickly or instantly with knock so you will need a knock sensor system that backs timing out very quickly to save the motor during knock or overboost (rod stress testing). You will need to map new fuel signals and larger injectors. Exhaust temps go up significantly. You will need to map new timing curves. You will have turbo lag you don't have with nitrous or supercharging. You will not have the low end grunt you will get with supercharging unless you set up duel small turbos, more expense. Turbos are influenced greatly by air density and humidity so your level of boost will have to fluctuate with temp and humidity conditions. You will have much greater underhood temps to contend with. Intercoolers (fortunately we can steal those from the diesel guys) need air flow to work and then you'll want an alcohol spray system so you can run even higher boost on pump gas (more power and more expense). To truly set up your truck to take full advantage of turbo chaging you'll spend $12-15K to dial in 20-25# of boost and make 650-700hp. 75 hp nitrous shot cost under $500 and it installs easily.
75 hp turbo/supercharger shot costs $4-5 K. I can buy a lot of refills for the N bottle for that.

I'm sorry but turbos are a lot of work if you want max power from them. If you just want to add 6-8# boost fine but if you over boost and lift the heads off the block, expensive and that is real easy to do. Superchargers are easier to limit or just use nitrous when you need it.

Now when I go to full boost on the street and my car goes from 0-100 in under 9 seconds and the turbo sounds like some huge eagle screaming and everyone's head snaps around to see what is making that noise I am in tostesterone heaven. But my wife hates the high maintenence budget I have to throw at that car. With all my safeties (rev limiter, knock sensor and timing reduction, overboost protection) something has still gone wrong. I blown head gaskets twice and I've grenaded the engine twice and the trans twice.

Mikey