Ryley Archer

Hey I have a 1994 trans am 5.7L and I want to add a turbo! I want to get some opinions

blown94

Post in the correct forum first of all. And it's not all that simple. Turbo kits for lt1 get expensive to finish, and are not for the newbie imo. Plan on dropping $5-10k to do it correctly unless you do everything yourself.

Injuneer

Let's move this from "Parts For Sale" to "Forced Induction".

Is your engine totally stock? What kind of HP level are you looking for? What is your budget?

Ryley Archer

As far as I know it's a stock engine, picked her up not too long ago. As for hp I'm not totally sure and for budget 2000-3000. I've read a few suggestion about vortech

Injuneer

Vortech sells centrifugal superchargers, not turbochargers.

At that budget level, for a turbo setup, you are looking at used components, and doing all the fabrication work yourself. How many miles on the engine?

David94TA

We aren't trying to be discouraging here, but we do want to be realistic. A turbo kit for your car would be in the $6000-$7000 range and that would not even include installation and many supporting modifications needed.

Additionally, just adding a turbo (or supercharger) to a stock LT1 decreases the life expectancy of the engine dramatically, ie you will be rebuilding the engine soon.

Use the search feature with the words "turbo", "supercharger", "forced induction" etc and you will find a lot of information here on this subject.

I'm no expert but I'll will be happy to try to answer any further questions you may have.

97WS6SCharged

If you set it up correctly a "stock" LT1 will go for quite a while with a turbo and 7-10 lbs of boost. Most people just don't want to go through the hassle of yanking the motor to gap rings and do some of the other things needed.

Zspoiler

You can`t just throw a supercharger on a stock LT1. It will kill it,.And among the other things compression is too high. Its needs to be no higher than 8:1 compression. So it is better to build an engine from "scratch for it . From some one who knows what they are doing.And a supercharged engine puts a lot of strain the cooling system,and the rest of the power trainIf its not set up right .You will brake barts.And the worst thing of all is . That I have seen people try to drive any high horsepower car.And it just scares the Hec out of them.And they just walk away,and never drive it again.So you need to do more research.

blown94

This is not entirely true and needs clarification. You CAN throw a supercharger on a bone stock lt1, many have including myself. They make kits for the stock setup. The key there is NOT to exceed the recommended 6psi. That being said, many have pushed it to 10psi including myself, but when you do everything else needs to be perfect in your tune so you don't run lean. As far as the compression, 8.0 is easy too low unless you're pushing 20psi, which won't happen with Small charger. My 383 short block was built to 9.5 and the builder said going any lower with only 10psi boost is going to hurt your low end torque drastically. Knowing where you will end up is a good place to start, meaning even if I upgrade to a D1SC and push 15psi, he said that would be ideal. This guy is no newbie to engine building or racing and has been building engines all his life and he's got to be almost 70 by now. You don't stay in business giving bad advice for 50 years.

Most recommend 9.0 for a street driven vehicle and that's if your going to boost a lot. I actually thought 10.5 worked out well for low boost, but your timing curve needs to be spot on or you'll likely pop head gasket or experience detonation. Ask me how I know. My suggestion for that is run a methanol kit so you can use pump gas. Boosting is not for the poor. Can you do it on a budget? Yes, but only if you're ready to do a lot of the work yourself, and are very careful with the stock engine. Do a lot of research, talk to a lot of people that are boosted, then read some more, so you know what you're getting into and signs/symptoms to look out for before you break stuff. That's a whole different thread. These cars weren't built for 450up. The rear end is weak and the trans needs attention before you start beating on it out that will be your next investment. At least do a shift kit if you're auto.

Have fun breaking stuff, and try not to get too discouraged. There nothing like the feeling of boost, except boost with spray

RealQuick

If you build the kit yourself and use cheap chinese parts, you could complete a kit for $2500. If you want to use nice parts and build it yourself, expect to spend $3500+. If you want to buy a pre made kit with quality parts, there arent many options, but there is one guy I know... sells them for $4500+ depending on kit.

Search google and you may find what you are looking for.