Talk me out of/into a Turbo conversion

[baloo]

Originally Posted by 75 911s

.... I do a lot of lightweight mods for two reasons. 1. It's fun and it's tinkering and creative. It definitely brings joy in my life to work on the car.
Yep. definitely is an outlet, and a great sense of accomplishment
..........

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Finally, I'm also fascinated by threads with big projects. I'm a forum junkie and It's crazy to check that first post date and see how long projects actually take.
Agree! Me too.


Many of course never get finished. I like bumping those threads and providing positive comments to see if I can kickstart them again. You never know how a small bit of encouragement can re-ignite enthusiasm.
Good point, and very true

..........
In my build thread I talk about one of my core philosophies (regarding the car) is to keep it drive-able. No matter what mods I do, I plan out medium to small projects, complete them and then drive the car again. It keeps motivation up.
Another very good point! I have this policy (which I find difficult to adhere to) to not undertake any project that will keep the car off the road for more than a weekend!

...............

I think the main thing that will see the project through is the joy that I'm getting out of the whole process, whether it be building, research or just interacting with the community.
Sense of accomplishment, often not attainable at one's daily job

I came into my car project about 3 years ago with basic mechanic skills. I never thought I could rebuild a precision engine on my own. I've gained confidence in my skills by tackling various projects on my 911 of varying difficulty.
Good validation -- the experience and confidence attained by working with your hands extends to many other areas in life.

See responses in your quote in bold

[75 911s]

Shopping classifieds early this AM.

What's the story on used Turbo P/Cs? The thing I learned today was that turbo cylinders have cooling fins only on the bottom on 3.3 so that they cool the piston more evenly as the exhaust side is hotter.

Edit: Land clearances, detonation pitting, out of round? food for thought

I found some clean low miles 97mm 3.3 Mahle P/Cs for pennies on the dollar. Is there a good resource to explain taper and tolerances related to taper?

8.0:1 vs 7.5:1 I guess the difference would be 8.0:1 would be a little more responsive off boost?

Will cooling tin off the 3.2 fit the turbo cylinders?

Will 3.2 heads fit the turbo cylinders?

Do 3.3 turbo pistons use the same wrist pin as 3.2? Will the stock 3.2 rods hold up if I use good rod bolts?

If I just get pistons, is boring and re plating my existing mahle cylinders as easy as sending them off to US chrome or other and specifying size? I'm pretty sure they are Nikasil as I did the magnet test when I took them apart.

Any other cautionary tales to running dual spark on COP setup with a turbo? I'm sending out the heads, the fee to convert to dual is nominal compared to total cost. Of course there are more plugs to buy and wires etc.

VEMS people talk to me. What's the cost, support and satisfaction with the product? EDIT: Raceboy I see you are the VEMS guy. I found an older VEMS thread here. I'll probably reach out to you in the near future about more questions.

[Tippy]

Originally Posted by 75 911s

Shopping classifieds early this AM.

What's the story on used Turbo P/Cs? The thing I learned today was that turbo cylinders have cooling fins only on the bottom on 3.3 so that they cool the piston more evenly as the exhaust side is hotter.

Edit: Land clearances, detonation pitting, out of round? food for thought

I found some clean low miles 97mm 3.3 Mahle P/Cs for pennies on the dollar. Is there a good resource to explain taper and tolerances related to taper?

The top is tighter than the bottom to account for expansion from heat. Aircraft do the same.

8.0:1 vs 7.5:1 I guess the difference would be 8.0:1 would be a little more responsive off boost?

Correct

Will cooling tin off the 3.2 fit the turbo cylinders?

Dunno

Will 3.2 heads fit the turbo cylinders?

Yes

Do 3.3 turbo pistons use the same wrist pin as 3.2? Will the stock 3.2 rods hold up if I use good rod bolts?

Yes and yes

If I just get pistons, is boring and re plating my existing mahle cylinders as easy as sending them off to US chrome or other and specifying size? I'm pretty sure they are Nikasil as I did the magnet test when I took them apart.

Yes

Any other cautionary tales to running dual spark on COP setup with a turbo? I'm sending out the heads, the fee to convert to dual is nominal compared to total cost. Of course there are more plugs to buy and wires etc.

No, just do it

VEMS people talk to me. What's the cost, support and satisfaction with the product? EDIT: Raceboy I see you are the VEMS guy. I found an older VEMS thread here. I'll probably reach out to you in the near future about more questions.

Peep can answer all your questions. For MegaSquirt, there are a lot of us here that can help.

Added comments to your post

[copbait73]

Take-off 3.2 turbo kit listed here in the parts section. Want $3K. Maybe not everything you want or need but will get you turbo’d quickly, you learn some things in the process then make changes in part or total down the road.

[TurboKraft]

Originally Posted by 75 911s

Shopping classifieds early this AM.

What's the story on used Turbo P/Cs? The thing I learned today was that turbo cylinders have cooling fins only on the bottom on 3.3 so that they cool the piston more evenly as the exhaust side is hotter.

Will cooling tin off the 3.2 fit the turbo cylinders? No, but we have plenty of the stepped 3.3L cylinder tins to offer you

Will 3.2 heads fit the turbo cylinders?
Yes

Do 3.3 turbo pistons use the same wrist pin as 3.2? Will the stock 3.2 rods hold up if I use good rod bolts?
yes

If I just get pistons, is boring and re plating my existing mahle cylinders as easy as sending them off to US chrome or other and specifying size? I'm pretty sure they are Nikasil as I did the magnet test when I took them apart.
yes, and we can help you with good pistons

Any other cautionary tales to running dual spark on COP setup with a turbo? I'm sending out the heads, the fee to convert to dual is nominal compared to total cost. Of course there are more plugs to buy and wires etc.
other than cost, there is no down side of twin plug, though you would not need for such low boost

VEMS people talk to me. What's the cost, support and satisfaction with the product? EDIT: Raceboy I see you are the VEMS guy. I found an older VEMS thread here. I'll probably reach out to you in the near future about more questions.

I'd run AEM or MS3 over VEMS. Not PnP, but domestic support and unless your 3.2L wiring is impeccable you'll likely be building a new harness anyway.

[Raceboy]

Nowadays many people want to leave their cars mods reversible and most harnesses are good.

Regarding support, why is there prejudice that it is not good enough when it is not in US? My customers can vouch for the support I provide and I reply usually in an hour whoch is far cry from the "support" many US based vendors provide (not replying to emails at all, when problems arise ignoring them or blaming a customer etc). I have personally experienced that and so have many of my customers (who have turned to me after non-existant support for their MAF kits, mostly from 944 Turbo world, just do a search).

PnP with working config and no need for any hacking beats any time the need to build harness+having to take your car to the tuner for even getting it to run for a user that is not a die hard specialist.
Many of my customers have NEVER touched a standalone before and yet manage to get their car running (and running well at that) without issues. I have provided help and answered questions if needed.

[Tippy]

Originally Posted by Raceboy

Nowadays many people want to leave their cars mods reversible and most harnesses are good.

Regarding support, why is there prejudice that it is not good enough when it is not in US? My customers can vouch for the support I provide and I reply usually in an hour whoch is far cry from the "support" many US based vendors provide (not replying to emails at all, when problems arise ignoring them or blaming a customer etc). I have personally experienced that and so have many of my customers (who have turned to me after non-existant support for their MAF kits, mostly from 944 Turbo world, just do a search).

PnP with working config and no need for any hacking beats any time the need to build harness+having to take your car to the tuner for even getting it to run for a user that is not a die hard specialist.
Many of my customers have NEVER touched a standalone before and yet manage to get their car running (and running well at that) without issues. I have provided help and answered questions if needed.

If it was 100% guaranteed that the 129+1 wheel decoding would have worked and I would have seen it in time before buying MegaSquirt, I probably would have went VEMS.

[Raceboy]

Originally Posted by Tippy

If it was 100% guaranteed that the 129+1 wheel decoding would have worked and I would have seen it in time before buying MegaSquirt, I probably would have went VEMS.

Thank you!