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Turbo vs. top swap

RedLedbetter

RedLedbetter

New member
Lately ive been in a turmoil over what i should do to be able to make my GT get up and go. And ive been stuck wether a turbo set up or a top swap would be better. i know a top swap will be cheaper, but won't wont provide as much power.

ive been looking at the turbo from PFYC, its a cartuning turbo. i guess im just asking how much more work goes into a turbo than a top swap and what other parts ill need to change and such. thanks in advance
 


Have $4k-7k sitting around and the patience to work on your car when something breaks.

The Z3 kit is putting out some good numbers and its only $2300 right now.

I went with a used ct kit, should be interesting but I also have money sitting aside for when the tranny breaks. The 1" chain on the tranny when hitting over 400hp is $1000 itself.
 
if you get a turbo kit without a worked transmission then youre asking for a blown trans. a top swap can be similarly effective with blowing up the tranny, but not as bad.

top swap is cheaper, but wont net you as much power. a turbo will be a never ending money pit but it will haul ass.
 
Mines a gtp and I havn't put the kit on yet. I got it with the intercooler, just the cartuning intercooler and bov.

If your looking into a kit I would go with zzp's z3 kit, it has the most bang for your buck right now. It is also probably the easiest to install too. You can piece together your own intercooler for less than 500 and there are writeups on clubgp for them too.

Depends on if you want to run 300, 400 or 500whp, but you can easily hit 300 with just a turbo kit itself. With an intercooler and a decent tune your looking at 400whp. With a cam or rockers and some more work, you should hit over 400whp and this is where your tranny needs a 1" chain and then you may have to rebuild it every year if you drive it hard.
 


i think that im going to go with the M90 SS kit from ZZP. i know its not really a top swap but it will get me some horsepower.
 
It depends on how far you want to go. If you want turbo power, there's no replacement for it. But if you just want a spirited DD with OEM reliability and functionality then a top swap is a good route to go. I just finished mine less than a week ago and couldn't be happier with the results. I threw in some 1.9 rockers, bigger injectors, and porting with it too.
 
I've done a bunch of topswaps for guys with nice clean W-body's, and they all love the gains. Most opt for a mild-moderate cam, and headers in the process, to end up with a mid-low 13's car. This all still costs about half of what a basic turbo build would run you.

Doing a turbo build now that the owner has turned into a huge money dump (with good reason). He started off hoping to find a $2k kit and some mild tranny upgrades... now has a fully built '06 L32 on my stand, with L26 UIM, large cam, heads, MLS/ARP, etc... and $3k into a tranny with GM chain & all the likes.

I still create ways to save him money (alot of custom work, etc.) while making it as good as can be, but that's the slippery slope you go down with any modding path (some of the topswappers are also creeping in that direction).

- Dave
 


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