Anyone ever dream of turboing a Trac?

[Don Tomczak]

Squires makes a universal turbo system that doesn't need alot of custom parts like headers and puts the turbo out back with the tail pipe. It looks like it might work if the 4.0L could handle the 5psi.



The price isn't that bad either. What do you guys think? I am not sure that I would ever turbo a trac because of the complications later on, but could be nice if someone here wanted to do it.

 

[Dingo]

I've thought about doing it many times. But there are issues there that complicate it.

 

[Bill Barber]

Several guys on this site have

http://www.explorer4x4.com/

 

[Jon Richmiller]

There are more than a few who have turbo'ed their 4.0 SOHC's. One person specifically has turbo'ed his 4.0 SOHC in a Sport on explorerforum.com using the STS Universal Turbo kit. He's been very successfully and only until recently trying to up the psi to 12 has he had issues with the engine. When encountering the issue here are the power numbers

The top end! After a dyno session the other day with a boost setting of 12psi we ended up (with problems) max hp 358 & max torque of 448lb.ft torque , from 2400-4600rpm the torque never dropped below 400 lb.ft. We shut down at 4900rpm due to valve float, if we could finished the pull the truck would've easily made 450-460hp. After evaluating the dyno sheet it was obvious that the valve springs (at the higher boost setting) werent controlling the valves they were only there for the ride.

The 4.0 should handle 8psi from a turbo just fine.



I was very much considering a turbo, but with the amount of power i would aim for would be too much for the 5R55E, >400HP.

So crunching some numbers and potential issues with swapping in a capable tranny, a V8 swap seemed like a better bet. If you have a tranny cooler and keep the temps down, and make sure the bands are adjusted it should be able to handle <400HP.

 

[Richard Kolb]

I wonder how much hp the manual can take.

 

[EddieS'04]

I dont see a price listing on their web site..

 

[Jon Richmiller]

They have 3 different Stages for it's Universal Kits, they come priced at $1995, $2495, and $2995 each stage kit just includes more parts that are more than likely necessary for the install. The stages don't mean increased performance.



http://www.ststurbo.com/universal_system



The M50D-R1 was built for the 160HP OHV engine, while the M50D-R1HD was for the 210HP SOHC.



I would venture to say it's capabilities are slightly better than the 5R55E.



For a strong transmission to replace the E would be the 5R55S, it's much stronger.

 

[Kevin Lang]

Putting a turbo on does seem massively complicated....



How much gain in performance will 5 psi give?



If you've opened up the exhaust, will the backpressure of the turbo take the pressure back to stock exhaust levels, or kick it up even further?



Is the intercooler necessary, or with the EGR's cylinder-temp-lowering abilities can you get away without the ricer staple?



Putting new stuff in the trac engine bay seems unfun--it's so _small_. How I wish the ST were wider.



btw, Is it even possible to turbo an obdI vehicle that isn't a noted performance car?

 

[Bill Barber]

Kevin, these are mounted back near the rear axle, not in the engine bay, so space is not an issue. do not think they have been perfected yet tho.

 

[Jon Richmiller]

The STS Turbo tuned by somebody experienced with the 4.0 SOHC and turbo can work very well. There are more than a few tuners who would love to tune the vehicle for you.



Not sure what you meant by "do not think they have been perfected"



But those who know have had good success with turbos.

 

[Gerald Pierce]

I was watching one of the shows on Spike yesterday (don't remember the name off the top of my head) where they were installing a similar turbo unit in a Lightening to run against a 454SS. Pretty easy install, but I wonder what impact there would be from having the intake back there exposed to all the rain, dirt, etc.

 

[Jon Richmiller]

It's all filtered and protected from the elements.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

A turbo makes a huge difference in acceleration. The little 1.3 L Turbo Diesel engine in my new car nearly accelerates as well as my Mazda 3 did with a 2.3 L engine. Of course it is incredibly small and light, so that doesn't hurt either.

 

[Torrie McPhail]

From a calibration perspective it wouldn't be hard to tune at all. But that would solely come down to someone knowing what they are doing. That would be a real fun project. Turbo's are a great way to go. My GT has been thru different variations for R&D with Stock blower, then twins, now with the stock blower and twins just to see the end results.



Torrie

 

[Dan Long]

Until you get into higher boost levels, there's no real need to intercool these. Due to the distance of the turbo from the engine and the length of pipe the charged air goes through, the temps stay much lower than a conventional turbo setup mounted off the exhaust manifold. If you really want it, the methanol injection will give you all the cooling needed and then some until you get crazy with the boost.



I've been wanting to do one of these since they first came out several years ago. One of these days I'm going to find a big bag of cash lying around and actually be able to do it!