v8musclecobra

How hard is it to make your own turbo kit? Is it cheaper? What stuff do i need?

fastwhite86gt

i just picked up a guy had. he did some of the piping himself. do you know anything about these things? i'm new to turbos and he said he bolted the turbo up to the header without use a welded flange? do you know if this is possible?

ShadowDrake

You're going to need a lot. Check hellionpowersystems.com to give you an idea of what stuff you will need for making your own kit. You will DEFINITELY need some fabrication skills for the job. Welding, bending pipes, the whole set of junk. boostang.com is a home-done kit too, you could probably contact him about it. (However, at the time of posting this, his site is down)

Vert_Lover

It's not overly hard, though it is time consuming and you WILL need fabrication skills (i.e. welding skills) to save any signficant amount of money over some of the put together systems out there. If you check turbomustangs.com they have a junkyard section for do it yourselfers like you. They go into a lot of detail about good sources for materials like tubing and bends, to junkyard cars you can find appropriately sized turbos in, to even a homemade welder. A lot of good information if you're serious. There are a number of people who have done it over there that could show you the way.

There are also easier ways. There are companies that sell things like "hot side kits" and other pieces that you could put together and pick your turbos, your intercooler, and limit some of the fabrication that is required. It depends what you want really. Most of those guys have their cars down for 3 - 12 months (though one guy did it in 1 weekend!), can you afford that downtime for your wheels to fab up a kit?

luckythirteen13

i think 3-12 months is taking your sweet *** time. on the other hand, one week end is flying. if you have all day (i.e no work or school) i think 7-10 days should be plenty of time as long as you have all the parts. then again, your fab skills may be different then mine so i cant judge

v8musclecobra

i got a beater car so the down time is fine. thanks for the info im going to look into it at those sites. Id rather work on my own car also.

FoxGT

1. Turbocharger
2. Fuel management unit (10:1 or 12:1)
3. Walbro 255 L/Hr fuel pump
4. Blow off or bypass Valve
5. Intercooler
6. Boost gauge
7. Air/Fuel ratio gauge
8. Fuel pressure gauge (mechanical or electrical)
9. (2) 1/2" NTP brass fittings for oil drain
10. Manual boost controller
11. Oil feed line (-3an stainless hose w/out fittings on ends)
12. 4 feet of 1/2" diameter rubber oil drain hose
13. Pipes

Those are the requirements to get the car on the road & running good without a tune. If you want to go the tuned route (you will get more horsepower this way) replace #2 (FMU) with a fuel pressure regulator, but you won't be able to drive the car before having it tuned.

T70fiveoh

Like it was said before, how hard and cheap depends on youy skills.
I built my kit in about 8 days of work. But I have a welder/torch/saws at home so it made it easy to do in my spare time.
If you spend a few months shopping for used parts or sales on parts you can build a kit with all the extras (gauges, tuning aids, etc...)
for less than you can buy just a basic kit for from a company. All you need is some imagination, fab skills, and good internet research skills.