Quote:
Originally Posted by gtengr
I think this is where our opinions diverge, because I can confidently say without looking at the parts list that I would not be getting everything that "I" would want in a turbo kit at $4.5k. When I priced the turbo option with all the accessories I'd need, it came out to ~$7500. I agree the cost difference isn't necessarily big enough to be a deal breaker, but it is more expensive.
Agreed. It's great to have so many options. I prefer a lot of things about turbos, but the stock rod weakness, along with the Edelbrock and CS400 being able to get me near where I think the safe limit is, has me leaning away from turbos. It would be another story if I was looking forward to building the engine some day.
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As long as you keep the boost levels sane (i.e. 7-10 psi for a base kit), I would think a turbo would be more friendly to stock rods than a supercharger kit, unless you're absolutely lugging/loading up the turbo at low rpm in higher gears (which is just begging for problems). Consider flooring a car at 4000 rpm in 2nd gear (with sticky tires) - superchargers and their instant response could provide a much higher instant load on the stock rods than any turbo kit.
Also I'm somewhat wary of the Rotrex kits - the number of failures (regardless of kit manufacturer) of the Rotex units is not insignificant. May be due to incorrect priming or belt tension, not sure, but the failures are there. If you have warranty coverage, your car is out of commission for weeks. If you don't have warranty coverage, you're out $1500-$2000. On the other hand, take a basic SBD kit, they sell for <$3000, add $1000 in protective goodies, and if that turbo fails it's no where near as expensive to replace as a rotrex units. Maybe the Vortech units/Eaton/Sprintex units are more reliable, don't know much about their track records.
They both have their reliability issues, any FI is a risk. End of the day, I decided my car with tune & header is quick enough
