Turbo-charging a GTE

[rob_wilkinson]

Does anyone know whats involved in turbo charging a gte. What size turbo can i fit and how much work is there.

[NovaNeil]

Hi Rob

Basically.....
If you want to do it yourself, this is what you'll need:

A Turbo (Mines a T2 but some use T3)

A Manifold (Courtenay sell a special one designed for the T2 for ?250 that fits straight onto the GTE/GSi)

Intercooler (Again Courtenay do one for ?250, but any will do, you just have to make the pipe work fit)

A way to lower compression (either low compression pistons which are very expensive, or the a spacer plate and two head gaskets, which is what I run. Again Courtenay will be able to sort you out, but there expensive)

And the final main ingredient is a way of controlling the fuelling. my car runs a stand alone ECU which is expensive, but all other 1.6 8v Turbos that I know of run a pressure sensitive switch (?7 from RS catalogue) which forces (not sure how) the ECU to fuel more. Not the best way of fuelling the car, but works well up to about 165bhp I found. Then you need a better way of controlling it to be safe.

Oil is taken straight off the main oil feed below the Alternator, and a small bit of pipe is brazed onto the sump for the return.

Also you'll need a Mocal remote oil filter (As the Turbo catches the original filter) These are about ?80 I think.

If its set up correctly its quite reliable, its all about getting the fuelling right. Mines blown up three times because it was running lean. But it seems to be OK now, as i've changed the ECU and played about with it.

Hope this helps, and let me know if you need anymore help

Neil

P.S: Look back about 8 pages, as theres a big topic about this on the Forum somewhere......

[Euan]

did you rebuild your engine before running the turbo neil. its something i'd love to try when i've finished uni/got some ? etc....

[NovaNeil]

No, the engine originally started out as a Courtenay conversion and ran fine for nearly 25000 miles, until the ex owner tinkered with it.

[_Ben_]

No, the engine originally started out as a Courtenay conversion and ran fine for nearly 25000 miles, until the ex owner tinkered with it.

Was it a silver K plate? I nearly bought that one from a chap in Bognor Regis.. or was that you?

The 25K miles thing is what reminds me is all.

[NovaNeil]

Yeah thats the one Ben, I brought it, drove it for 100miles then it blew up! The guy I brought it off said it made 181bhp on the rollers!! :o And that he had down tuned it to sell it. God knows what boost he was running :evil:

[_Ben_]

What a pisser!

I spoke to him on the phone and his story sounded a little dubious. Mind you, I walked away from that one and to the one I have now - had a similar problem where I believed the guy when he said "yes it was rebuilt 3k miles ago" and "yes it was mapped properly by my mate here called steve". (whips out laptop and other such equipment to prove he can do it)

fvckers.