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Turbo or Supercharge?

Metal Links

Metal Links

New member
What would be the more cost effective option in the long term, a turbo or supercharger? I am hoping not having to replace my tranny, yet, if that affects the decision. My car only has 70k miles on it.
 


Turbo for sure. Save your $$ and get a built TEP trans. and install it at the same time as the turbo goes on. That way if you ever decide to demod it and sell it as stock you can swap the 70K stock trans back into it and sell the built one separate since you will never get extra money for mods if selling as a whole to the general public.
 
Metal Links said:
What would be the more cost effective option in the long term, a turbo or supercharger? I am hoping not having to replace my tranny, yet, if that affects the decision. My car only has 70k miles on it.
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What is your goal?

Most cost effective way to a happier daily driver is top swap and headers.

If more fun is required down the road, throw an intercooler and pulley drop at it. Go any further, and you'll be into transmission fun. Though beat on a intercooled M90 car, and you'll kill it anyways.

Turbo, higher cost up front, easier to make more power, thus easier to break transmission.

So if you're going for a budget build for a quick daily, go turbo and trans.

If you're looking for some more get up and go, top swap. Nothing beats power on demand.
 


How much will a complete top swap cost? This will be a daily driver and I will maybe take it down to the strip a few times.
 
All depends what you have the patience for in terms of shopping for parts.

I've been out for so long I don't know what things go for anymore. I used to consider 1000 for parts, gaskets, fluids, headers a good deal. But I'm not sure if the $200 headers are still available anymore.
 
industrialfish said:
ZZP sells a complete all-new-parts topswap kit for $1500ish.
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Or you could, if you have patience, purchase everything you need for cheaper on the forums. If you put in requests for all the parts you'll need for the topswap.
Gen 3 Supercharger ~$150
Gen 5 Supercharger ~$400
Gen 3 Upper intake Manifold ~$75
Gen 5 Upper intake Manifold ~$150?
L67 or L32 Balancer ~ Not sure, $50?
L67 or L32 Heads ~$200
Tensioners needed ~ Not sure, $30?
Belt needed ~$25
All new Gaskets ~$160
Headers ~$200 (SD Headers Ebay)
Being able to say I did that ~$Priceless

So for about $900 give or take you could do a Gen 3 topswap, unless I left things out.

Or a Gen V setup for about $1105.

Again, prices aren't exact, I am just going off what I've seen parts go for on the forums while glancing over time.

Also consider the tune you will Definitely need. Especially with the higher compression you'll be pushing. You can get a custom tune for the topswap from ZZP, or Will, or maybe even a member on here.

I would probably do the Gen 3 setup because I like to save money ;P and I would cam it while I was that deep in the engine. I recently cammed my L67 and dropped to a 3.4 pulley and its pretty sweet so far. Not as powerful as I thought it would be, but I still am on the stock tune =/

I'm sure someone will chime in with more info soon

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk
 


go turbo. there wont be much lag if you build it right, right size turbo etc.
it wont automatically hit 300 whp like everyone says. again, if you build it to how YOU want it you can still make more power than any 3.4 and not worry about breaking the trans. and you will always have the option to just upgrade your turbo and bam more power.
 
ctracer said:
go turbo. there wont be much lag if you build it right, right size turbo etc.
it wont automatically hit 300 whp like everyone says. again, if you build it to how YOU want it you can still make more power than any 3.4 and not worry about breaking the trans. and you will always have the option to just upgrade your turbo and bam more power.
Click to expand...

I've done the turbo a basically stock trans thing. It held up well...ask GMR Badass. That was a really fun DD in my opinion too. I just rolled my foot out of the throttle when I was driving it to help the trans during shifts...but I wasn't really beating on it either.
 
If you can weld do a turbo.
Run a small/cheap turbo @ 6-8psi and it'll rock socks and maybe not implode your trans in 100 miles.
 
I feel if I go turbo and eventually replace my tranny it might just be better/cheaper to get a better platform and mod that. I guess it depends on how long the stock tranny will last. My big issue with going with a new platform is the amount of issues it could have(looking at you GTI) I love my GP and it really doesn't have any major issues and its easy to work on.
 
When moving to nearly any other platform, be ready for an exponential increase in price of EVERYTHING.
Headers for my GTO were $1000+
 


The painfull truth........
If you cant or dont plan on upgrading trans id leave it alone.
Ask around imo trans is the single biggest factor in how the s1x cam e85 gen5 car i bought runs.
Fairly simple cheap mods but it woukd have shredded a stock trans quickly i promise that.
After driving this car id never mod a 3800 with out doing the trans also again.

Considering the mileage is pretty low id assume you plan on keeping the car for a while. Id think the 330/400 i have in this car would keep most happy for a daily driver.
 
If staying in the GP platform then go the turbo route. It will provide the most fun and most power in the long term. However, if you add all the costs up associated with going turbo(buying a kit used or otherwise new) and trans(sometimes twice) it will quickly reach that of similar costs of changing platforms.

I will never regret going turbo in my GTP, but what I will regret is not moving to a different platform. Don't get me wrong the TGP was fun to drive, but no where near as fun as a RWD platform.

It's not uncommon these days to spend a little bit extra from a GP and move into the V8 RWD world. Or better yet, you can sometimes spend the same amount or close to it and do the same. Prices of LS and even LT1 cars have dropped considerably over the years.

Im not not saying you should just sell your car and move that direction, but if it's an option you should at least consider it.
 
For me the GP hasn't had any problems and its a a 4-door car that I can fit in(cant say that for many Asian vehicles) the only other platforms I could see me getting into is a GTI, but it has to many issue and up keep is terrible, or a Saab. I have a hard time finding a 4 door sedan that I can fit into, that has performance capabilities,or can be modded to have some, and that is reliable.

I love my GP but the transmission just sucks. If I could go turbo and not have to replace the tranny I would not be thinking of switching platforms. Once I start looking at the price of a turbo and a transmission I start to think it may be better to wait alittle and get a more capable base car.
 
Decent mid size to full size sedan that has any kind of modding potential is going to be hard to find.
Esp one that doesn't cost a fortune for parts and upkeep.
 
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