just wondering in general about stock cars that come NA or turbo'd. are there any reasons to pick one over the other? Say you have two cars, one NA, and one turbo, but very similar specs. which one would you go w/? do NA engines last longer than those w/ turbo (i guess im curious about reliability?

 

Cost, reliability, insurance costs, and some may like te looks, but need the HP of a boosted car......

 

is lifetime of an engine decreased w/ a turbo? even if it's come stock?

 

The longevity of one's car directly relates to how the car is driven...N/A and Turbo cars will last equally but the one with the turbo will wanna' run faster.

 

when you say same specs and you mean same hp/tq and all that good stuff and you don't plan on modding and doing maintenance, go with the n/a the powers there when ya need it. no need to wait for spool up. n/a is more reliable too. that can be proven time and time again. but if you're moddin and want to squeze more power out of it and got the $$ to do it, TURBO BABY!

 

just out of curiousity, is this in relation to the 300zx? I ask because I was wondering the same thing

 

it depends on the design and quality of the engine.

 

**MOST**Turbo'd cars are cheaper to make faster...If it came stock with a turbo, then the engine is usually going to have alot stronger internals than n/a as well.

I had a 92 Probe GT...the F2T engine in it was considered bulletproof. The car was a 15.4-15.7 1/4 mile in stock form. With a $40 mod (Dawes Device Boost Controller...basically a home depot mod)...the car would run 14s. Only because stock boost was set at 9psi and the ihi turbo could handle up to 14psi without fuel problems. Just an example from experience.

I definitely agree though that depending on how hard they are driven, both could last just as long as the other. After the Probe, I got my Maxima and I couldn't be more happy...turbo lag really does suck, and I never noticed it till now.

By the way...I'd vote for n/a over stock turbo anyday now.

 

I'd definitely agree. Go with the NA if you don't plan on modding. With a turbo there's one more thing you have to maintain and turbos cost major $$$$$$$!

 

IF i did plan on modding..... i kno i could get gains for less money if my car was already turbo'd.... BUT im also concered about the longetivity of my engine, and reliability of my car. would NA still be the way to go?

 

If you like to drive your car hard, I don't think a turbo will last as long as an NA car, for these reasons:

1) Turbos cook motor oil. The oil change frequency on a turbo is half of an NA car. Say for example you change your NA car every 5000 miles. On the turbo it would be 2500.

2) After a spirited run, instead of just turning off the car and going about your business, you should let the car idle for a bit to let the oil circulate and cool things down. If not, extremely hot motor oil will settle on the turbo bearings, reducing bearing life and cooking your oil, and that will hurt the rest of the car, too. I used to own a Supra turbo. Once on the highway at night I stopped to in the emergency lane to read a map. I decided to pop the hood and see how my turbo was doing after my highway run. It was glowing orange It wasn't dead or anything. It just worked HARD.

3) After a while, the bearings inside the turbo die. They can't last. Those things have to spin at 140,000 rpm for a living, in intense heat. When the bearings go, oil starts to leak into your intake system.

The fun thing about turbos, like others have said, is the ease of which you can make immense power from your motor with basic upgrades. But maintenance is high.

DW

 

turbo cars can make higher hp for less$, if you wanna go N/A theres gonna be a point where ur gonna strugglle for every last hp and spend alot of $ doin it.
also the letting the turbo cool down is why we have a little thing called a turbo timre. Also the turbo cars internals are usually alot stronger than a n/a car. If ur really looking to go fast turbo is the way to go, ull end up saving more $ in the end than trying to extract hp out of a n/a engine

 

All i know is i luv the feel of having a turbo in the car, my last car was a 93 eclipse gsx. it was pretty bad ***, i wish the car was built better tho. I do plan on returning to the land of boost tho. in a few years ill pick up a Suburu WRX off some old geezer who thought it wa sa good car for the winter since its AWD! and it seems like a lota old people have wrx's too thank you god! what do you think a 2001 suburu wrx will retail in 2004 with 60-80k on the engine?

 

is this even if you turbo timer it after driving?

 

Isn't that why most turbos use liquid bearings?

 

Isn't that why most turbos use liquid bearings?

 

Whatever the case may be, what bearings a turbo uses, the quesion of this thread is, will a turbo car last as long as an NA car. So, you guys are saying that a turbo will be 100% operatinal after 100,000 miles, including alot of aggressive driving, comprable to an NA car?? Doubt it. Even with the turbo timer. You have to be absolutely religious with short duration synthetic oil changes. Turbos are alot fo fun, don't get me wrong, I'm just showing the other side, the higher maintenance side. That part of the reason turbos have almost disappeared from most manufacturer's production lines. They seem to be coming back again, the WRX, Neon turbo, etc. But I bet their maintenance intervals are more strict, too.

What is interesting about turbos, though, which I think alot of people may not have nocticed, when the Japanese came out with the twin sequential turbo concept, premiered by the 300zx and made legendary by the Supra turbo MKIV, those turbo systems had maintenance intervals similar to NA cars. The MKIV had an oil change interval of 7500 miles in their manual. Impressive. But then, what do most MKIV owners do who want even more boost, throw out the twin turbo system and drop in a single larger turbo. Lag down bottom, insane power up top. You can't keep everybody happy


DW

 

doing anything to mod ur engine will decrease the life of it, but nobody likes to leave their car stock. the more hp you have the more likely it is to break sooner, especially if u start out with low power to begin wite. if you bet a small turbo say t-25, then run it at like 6.5-7 psi, itll last a real long time as opposed to running the shiznit outta a t-61 at 31 psi.

 

I plan on buying a 91 300zx tt.. and from what i've been reading so far i'm under the assumption that owner this car and modding it will require extremely high maintenance and careful calibration of the engine and it's components to keep it running and lasting?

Would this theory also apply in the event that I dropped a SC into the VQ engine? Half duration of oil changes, etc?

 

Not a reliability issue but given similar specs (HP/Tq) the turbo will tend to use less gas in day to day driving.

As for reliability, stock turbos these days are pretty solid if you don't tweak them. My father owns a 89 Dodge Caravan with the 4cyl turbo. Best damn engine Chrysler ever built for the minivan. It hasn't given him a hint of trouble and is still running strong today. Mind you my father is a firm believer in proper engine maintenance and regularly changes the oil which is doubly important for turbos.

 

aznsap - what plans would you forsee having for the turbo ride? And it depends on the engine as others have touched upon...(some have the guts to take a lot of boost. Others, not so much..)

If you plan to leave the turbo at stock/low boost, from what I've seen I wouldn't be too paranoid about reliability. Even DSMs seem to take well to stock pressure

 

It really depends on what you plan to do with the car. If you plan to leave it stock, you may have to put up with turbo lag if you decide on the turbo car, so I would get the NA. I have a turbo Passat, which sucks at the low end. WRXs are pretty quick though but command a premium price. If you plan to increase HP, turboed cars are definitely the way to go, no doubt there. You can get more power by just raising boost and being careful with the fuel.

But there's nothing more fun than turbocharging an NA car!

 

yes, i guess i'd have to agree w/ u. but while raising the boost, im afraid i would be decreasing the life of the vehicle. but w/ a modded NA car, the reliability shoudlnt' change, rite? so i guess it's kind of a trade-off between: do i want a LOT of hp now? OR do i want some extra power available and be able to have mah car until the wheels fall off (which hopefully is a really long time)?