Thanks for the advice, just an idea I came up with after midnight lol. So any advice on a turbo setup for the 5.7 liter that I could do for a reasonably low price?
its totally cool, I'm all about new ideas and such, so its good to be thinking about stuff like that, you never know what you might be able to come up with.
as far as turbos to use, really any turbo could be made to work, but picking a turbo(s) is like picking a cam, different designs and setups will yeild different results. for example, on the turbo intake side of things, bigger turbos will have a lag before they can build up the pressure (and thus power), but can make more overall power, smaller turbos will provide more power lower in the RPM range, but will be limited on the max they can output....there are similar things to look at on the exhaust side of the turbos too (since the turbo is a compressor that is run by the exhaust output of the engine), if you're looking at the exhaust side of the turbos, you'll want to examine how they'll be run, i.e. 1 turbo run off all 8 cylinders vs 2 turbos each run off 4 cylinders, etc...
what kind of setup/use were you looking at?
building a junkyard turbo setup will save alot of money over a 'kit' but it's not going to be too cheap either...just to give you an idea of some things you'll need to look into making or obtaining, or just things that will need to be taken into account will be:
1. the actual turbo(s) (and if they're junkyard turbos you'll probably want them inspected, balanced, etc to make sure they're in good working shape)
2. oiling setup for the turbos
3. exhaust setup to the turbos and from the turbos (you'll also need to know the kind of turbos you're using prior to building this since you'll need to know if your using internal or external wastegates)
4. intake ducting setup (this isn't too hard to design, but it'll likely take up alot of space so planning is still a big part of it)
5. optional intercooling (if you decide to do some intercooling, you'll need to design that setup since there are several different ways to go about it like air/air, air/water, water/meth injection, etc)
6. fueling (more O2 concentration will require more fuel to burn correctly and safely, and may require intake manifold changes to get the fuel needed)
7. tuning with a wideband(s) (you'll need to get the tune right which will either require you to do the tune, or have a tuner do it in person on a dyno, I would never suggest a mail order tune for a forced induction setup, especially a home built setup)
generally, a single turbo setup will cost less just because of less equipment and stuff that is needed, but it will still require the same areas of attention.
Lextech is using some junkyard turbos off a late 80's early 90's turbo thunderbird IIRC in his twin turbo 5.0L setup. I'm still slowly working on my turbo build, but I'm building a forged 383 for them so I can run higher pressures safely and reliably, my turbos aren't junkyard ones, but they are based off some T3 designed turbos with kindof similar sizing as the thunderbird setups, but a little different to suit the higher altitude that I live at and the larger engine size I'll be using. but also remember both of us are twin turbo setups, so for a single turbo setup those kind of turbos would be too small (at least on the exhaust side), you might look at some of the diesel turbos out there for a single turbo setup, but either way just make sure you do some good research before you buy anything.
