Reliability of turbo'd M20?

[cowmoo32]

Initially, I wanted to drop an S52 into my car; but after talking to my friend who's a BMW mechanic, I'm toying with the idea of slapping a turbo on the stock motor. It would be a whole lot cheaper, and maybe less work? I'm not too sure about that latter point. Anyway, how reliable are the turbo setups on these cars? I want to track the car, so it's going to be run hard. And how much power could I expect if I go with this?

[whiltebeitel]

Power-wise, I've seen from 225-310 rwhp. It varies greatly depending on your tuning and the manifold/turbo/etc you use.

[backtrail69]

www.e30tech.com....

[Jesse30]

www.e30tech.com....

werd.

r3v is more for swaps.

[Erick]

It depends how greedy you are. I cannot stress enough that especially with turbos, it all comes down to the saying: "Cheap, Fast, Reliable. Pick two."

A turbo M20 setup can be very reliable.

[nando]

with proper tuning it can be reliable. just don't expect to run 10psi with the stock ECU and have it last very long..

[blueapplesoda]

yea...i was...key word was pushing about 15psi on a stock b25 with megasquirt, but after about 10,000 miles, the rings are shot, and im gettin alot of blow by.

my motor was an auto, and it was turbocharged at about 125,000 miles. I've blown my headgasket doing 145mph around 132k, and im at 138k right now, rings are basically toast, and my injectors are not up to the task of making the motor push more than 13psi right now.

"Cheap, Fast, Reliable. Pick two."

this is truly the ultimate saying.

When i do take another shot at it, im gonna take the Fast and Reliable route...

but be advised that I chose Cheap and Fast, and it only lasted me 10,000 miles.

Your choice.

[Erick]

You know how hard you're stressing your motor at 145mph though? Even a stock motor... that's a lot. Aerodynamics is making your engine's life a living hell.

I've done 10,000 miles. Havent burned a quart of oil yet. *knock on wood*

[cowmoo32]

Well, my car is going to be my track car, so 10k miles is going to be a lot. I like that saying though, it really applies to any motor.