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My buddy's uncle is getting rid of his turbo that he had on his LT1 T/A for a short while and he said I could have it. My engine has 132,xxx miles on it and no work done to it :dot: What do I need to do before I put the turbo on and how many lbs of boost should I be running? Thanks for any replies.
132k miles is a lot if the car has been abused. If its been well taken care of there might not be any issue.
If it were me and I planned to do this I would do a compression check and perhaps even pull the heads/intake and check everything out to make sure you dont have any valve issues. Also, LT1s are known for the intake leaking so this would surely help that.
Might want to have a valve job or throw some new springs/valves and what not on the heads and clean them up a bit.
Not sure how much boost, depends on what you are after. :)
How much are you wanting to spend? If the TA isnt your only mode of transport, then throw it on as is and run 6psi until something blows up. Could be a year from now, could be the next day. Depends on the tune, the current condition of the motor, and how you drive it.
If you want to spend some money and do it right, tear the motor down. At the very least a bottom end rebuild with forged pistons and rods. I'd stay with stock stroke and a small overbore (.020 or .030) for rebuild purposes. Rebuild your heads with better valvetrain components that can take more revs, and a mild turbo cam. And all the other stuff associated with a rebuild (all the machine work, rings, bearings, gaskets, timing chain, etc).
If you want to go nuts, go all out on the motor. New forged everything, AFR ported heads, etc. I'd still pass on a stroker motor, as there would be too much torque to use anyways, and turbo motors love to rev, so a shorter stroke works great.
And as always you'll need all the supporting drivetrain mods to support the power and put it to the ground. And what you do can also depend on what size turbo you're dealing with, and how well the kit was built. You're looking at a big project either way. And if this is your only car, I'd pass altogether.