The feeling of how the car surges forward as the turbo spools is really awesome. When my car was turbo'd, it felt totally different from anything else I'd ever driven.

 

Haha thats what I want, and from the few people Ive spoken in person with who had S/C they are nice and give power, but they dont give that surge..

 

Just be prepared to spend money. It will end up costing you more than you think. If the engine and car is in good condition than go for it. The engines are very reliable. I wouldn't say that either the retainers or jet bolts are necessary. I doubt you would be any more likely to break a retainer being FI than NA. They break from mechanical over revs not power. also The jet bolts were never even proven to be an issue. but if you have the cash it wouldn't hurt to replace them a long with the retainers to ease your mind.

If you want the reliability I would go with a SC instead. but if you like messing with the car then go with the turbo. There are lots of good turbo kits out there now.

 

I'm in the process of installing a turbo kit. I have made a spreadsheet of the components I need and the cost. I can tell you that it'll cost around $11k after said and done. If you want to do it right, it'll cost you but I'm hoping it's all worth it when I'm done with tuning. Good luck.

Terrance

 

Agreed. I'm right around $12,000 into my turbo build. Still need tunes(91 and E85). After factoring labor for the turbo kit/clutch install it'll be somewhere around $14k

 

You dont wanna even know how much I spent, I dont wanna know

 

Im at a hair under $6k on my build. But all the work is being done by myself and a good friend including fabbing the manifold, downpipe, dump tube,wire tucking, relocations, and tuning. Its been a fun project. Best thing I could tell anybody looking to boost is buy a daily. Just something that can get you back and forth to work if your car breaks.

 

Tru dat. If the car ain't broke now, you'll be messing with it until it is.

 

I'm still on the fence with that. I've been FI for the past year or so, and multiple things have broken... But it was never bad enough that I wished I had a second car as a backup. Worst case, I could have rented a car for a day or two if it was really needed. (Never did though.) $30/day to rent a car takes a while to add up to the cost of buying and maintaining a second car when you include gas, oil changes, local vehicle taxes...

Now, the serious turbo guys are in a different situation than me with bolt-on kits.

 

my car has been down for 4 months now lol.... i've been lazy taking the motor out for a rebuild but yeah... i've spent close to 5k already and its still not running.... still havent gotten a tune yet either... just be ready to spend a lot of extra money then just the kit itself