If your worried about install price on a turbo then you dont need to go with one. How much do you think its going to cost to rebuild your motor and install it after you blow it up.

 

Yes.

Are you going to make more power with cooler engine bay temps?? Who cares about underhood heat as long as your not burning up anything.

Just like the stock manifolds that many STS people recommend you keeping. The PTK headers are just like any other header which is 1000x better than the stock manifolds when it comes to changing plugs.

 

A nice cowl hood will remove alot of the underhood heat, ceramic coatings will also help quite a bit.

Either way, changing plugs in a 4th gen is a royal PITA.

 

Reread my posts, especially the second one.......I never said that you or I should go out and buy an STS kit, or that I was concerned about costs. I have an N/A car. I simply stated that the lower install price/ease of install would be attractive to SOME people. Not everyone has unlimited funds and may be inclined to go the cheaper route. It depends on the individual and their goals.

-Mike

 

My comment wasnt directed to you personally, just a general suggestion of what anybody who is considering forced induction should think about.

sorry if it came out that way.

 

No problem


-Mike

 

Not trying to be negative here, just realistic. I think the STS kit would be easier to install, but it would also be easier for someone to steal since it is technically not "inside" the car. Am I being paranoid or could someone lay on their back with a "mini hack" or some similar tool and steal your turbo? I haven't really seen in-depth install pics on the STS system but this kinda scares me since me and my friends have had our cars broken into a couple times before. And If someone saw what I had and followed me home some night, I could be a pissed off camper in the morning. I don't know if I'll ever go FI with my car but if I do, I damn sure want to be able to keep and use my investment until I'm ready to part with it instead of letting "Joe Thug" down the street decide when I will part with it.

 

I'll post a few observations here. I've read most of the STS threads, and inevitibly it seems some here consider this worse than putting a Ford (or import ) motor in your F body. Kudos to CJ & transam8 for their adult exchange in this thread.

1. Cooling
In my case, I need AC and after shoehorning in an ATI P600B and overheating, the front mount setup (which requires loss of the driver side fan & replacement with a pusher) is not an option. Unfortunately, I have a lot of experience (all bad) with airflow and cooling systems from a 383 powered 1984 RX7 I built. Trying to push air through a condenser and then the radiator does not work well. Pushing air is a lot less efficeint than pulling it, and the RX7 overheated even w/o the AC condenser.

See this page for my construction of & results with thinner puller fans. I dropped from 240 degrees (and climbing) to 180 by reinstalling the stock fans, even with a FMIC in place.

If there was room, I would probably go with the front mount or would have retained the ATI SC.

When I put a SC or turbo on my Durango, it will be a front mount, since after putting headers on the TA and the Durango, I saw the Dodge has the Grand Canyon on each side of the motor as well as lots of room up front.

2. Performance
This horse has pretty much been beat to death. From what I've seen, the STS unit will provide sufficient power for my needs, and it is the only setup I can run that will allow me to retain my stock cooling & AC.

IMHO, STS went "outside the box" on this, and I believe they have sufficient evidence that the system will do what they say.

I have two Chevys with "remote" (rear) mounted engines that were pretty controversial in their day, but they still do what I need them to do and work as they were designed . They had the option of a turbo, and it was in effect a front mount since it was on top of the motor.

3. Theft
I kind of see this as another urban legend. These cars sit low as it is, so I don't see anyone being able to "jack" the turbo w/o lifting the car. If they are going to do that, then a front mount is vulnerable as well.

 

This is fun. I haven't been here for about 5 months and we are still beating this dead horse.

I was one of the first to post an STS link and defend the outside the box thinking. At that time (2003) nobody believed the STS would make more than 400hp. Now we are seeing 700+ systems (with some out there sneaking aroudn with 800+), with no reports of peoples cars being jacked up and the turbo stolen!

I drive a 1971 Chev Pickup truck. When they built that truck they built it with the hood latch in the grill, you didn't unlatch it from inside the car. Funny, but without a lock I still have my big expensive engine sitting under that unlocked hood!


If the STS concept stresses you take a valium, go watch a demo-derby, and go back to wrenching on your 283 smallblock. The sun WILL come up tomorrow.

BBB

 

Your prices are off for the sts. I could have gotten the base kit for $3050. Upgraded turbo and BOV would have put it in the $3600 range. Pretty cheap. You have to check around with different vendors.

As far as PTK, their LS1 kit has already been advertised on ls1tech.com for $5k without turbo.

Just felt like sharing some pricing info, since alot of it was wrong.

 

Silence free thinker...you will be stoned for your talk!

 

Mine was gt70 upgrade kit, upgraded BOV and boost contoller, everything was like 4100

 

Don bent you over, haha!!! J/k

 

Nah, you just got your's at near below cost.

 

I didnt end up buying it, but yeah, it was a good deal.