Is this true?

[StealthKA]

I've heard that bolt-ons I/H/E wouldn't work that good if your engine is turbocharged?

[king_johnthegreat]

A "header", in the traditional sense of the term, would only apply to a naturally aspirated engine; a turbo manifold takes its place on a turbocharged engine. "Intakes" would only go so far as the compressor inlet, meaning that if you don't have a well intercooled system, the charge will be hot regardless of the intake temp. With a good intercooler, the intake is pretty much a mutt point, because the intercooler would be removing heat energy anyways. It could make some difference, though, I suppose (Not much, though). Exhaust should be a free flowing as possible with a turbo, though. Back pressure on the turbine will add a great deal of thermal loading onto the system, and drastically cut efficiency. The more the turbo has to fight, the more power you loose. So I suppose exhaust upgrades would be money well spent. There you have it, there is some truth to what you heard, but not entirely the case.John

[WDRacing]

You want a cold air intake, ported/polished head with the intake and exhaust mani's atleast port matched. And a free flowing exhaust, backpressure is the enemy of turbo motors.

The more efficient your motor is NA, the better it will perform with forced induction.

WD

[fiznat]

TURBOCHARGED ENGINES DO NOT HAVE HEADERS!

this should be a stickey... I dont know why it ticks me off so much to hear people ignorant about exhaust manafolds, but dammit it does... STICKEY STICKEY

[StealthKA]

So because a turbo kit comes with everything like 'intercoolers' and stuff, the I/H/ modifications defeats its purpose? What exactly is a free flowing exhaust? any aftermarket performance exhaust?

[TurboKA37]

U want an exhaust that has a large diameter tubing. 3" to just over 3" is pretty much as large as they get. a large diameter exhaust with little bends will help eliminate back pressure in a turbo setup and allow a turbocharger to spool more quickly.

[240SXedUp]

Ya, those things are useless on a boosted vehicle (aside from exhaust of course). Im gonna get them anyway becausee I wont have boost for a while so I need a lil something to satisfy me until i am. That alongwith alot of suspension.

[TomsMR2]

intake and exhaust help ALOT more on turbo cars than NA cars..

[240SXedUp]

How do you figure?

[Xero]

it's all about spool up, a intake and exhaust system will help ALL ACROSS the power band, whereas on a N/A car it'll usually only help the top end,

however, there is a reason why there are N/A and turbo exhaust systems,

[C-Kwik]

TURBOCHARGED ENGINES DO NOT HAVE HEADERS!

this should be a stickey... I dont know why it ticks me off so much to hear people ignorant about exhaust manafolds, but dammit it does... STICKEY STICKEY

'Headers' is nothing more than a term for an exhaust manifold. It's just not a commonly used term when associated with turbos. And turbos can and do use long tube headers. Doubtful that someone can use a header designed for NA applications with a turbo with any relative ease, but hell, if there is a will, there is a way. But I have seen a long tube header on a honda Accord many years ago that located the turbo in the area behind a headlight in the engine compartment. Either SCC or Turbo featured the car and were discussing some of the exhaust tuning benefits it might provide.

And if you plan on arguing about it, I suggest you go to page 122 Figure 10-8 of Maximum Boost. Corky Bell refers to them as headers. He uses the term in Figure 10-14 as well.

[Xero]

own3d

[zachosz]

BOTH intake and exhaust benefit a turbocharged car more than they would a NA.

[toki]

TURBOCHARGED ENGINES DO NOT HAVE HEADERS!

this should be a stickey... I dont know why it ticks me off so much to hear people ignorant about exhaust manafolds, but dammit it does... STICKEY STICKEY

:Werd I spent 40 minutes at a friends house last night and made an embarressing thread here trying to figure out the actuall plumbing of a turbo system. Someone should make/find a very well drawn/illustrated diagram of a 240 with a turbo and all the plumbing. That would be great.

[_dk]

it's not that complicated- assuming we're talking about a DE, manifold and turbocharger get bolted to the exhaust side of the head (driver's side of the car). downpipe goes from turbine outlet to cat or exhaust. if an external wastegate is used, it's mounted on the manifold and either dumped to ambient or plumbed into the downpipe.

from the compressor side of the turbo, piping goes from the turbo outlet through an intercooler, which usually crosses the front of the engine, over to the throttle body on the passenger side. blow off valve is mounted between intercooler outlet and throttle body, and if you've switched the maf to blow-through it's in there too; otherwise it's between the compressor inlet and the filter.

i think that's the basics, anyway...

[240nismo]

jordan fades away for the 3, SWOOOSH! lol

[TurboKA37]

and here comes Iverson! WOW! he dunks!

[sil80drifter]

reading this makes me feel like a toilet, and that's cuz you're not telling the n00b to do some serious F/I research before asking questions that would be very self evident to him once he read anything related to how or why engines are turbocharged.

stealthKA, please go read "Maximum Boost" by Corky Bell. You will then see the light. Then come here and read a bunch of posts about how and why people turbo their KAs. Then read MB again. Then come back here again. Keep doing it until you start getting what's going on.That's what I did. If your very next question will be AFTER you've read MB, you'll understand.

.........BUT IT ALL DOESNT MATTER CUZ ITS SNOWING!! FIZNAT!! SNOWWW!!

sil80
Modified by sil80drifter at 1:46 AM 1/23/2005

[C-Kwik]

You resurrected a thread and didn't even contribute anything usefule to it? Maybe it's not this thread that's making you feel like a toilet.

[sil80drifter]

u may be right.but i did not resurrect this thread, it was up there with the most recent KA-T threads... i dunno why or how but a lot of the old ones have been just showing up in the frotn pages... no clue what's appening... i didn't even look on the dates until someone mentioned it...sil80

[TrunkMonkey]

i dunno why or how but a lot of the old ones have been just showing up in the frotn pages... no clue what's appening... i didn't even look on the dates until someone mentioned it...sil80

please read.

-demetrius

[sil80drifter]

my apologies i'm so used to overlooking the stickies cuz i've read them all that i totally overlooked that one. you're completely right though, there is a lot to learn.

sil80

[Jookmasta]

so to shed some light on the answers to that first question........

intake - when u are NA, u have the option of injen, aem, ebay, or DIY. This does improve the power on the mid to high rpms. it may even add 1 mpg to ur fuel efficiency. who knows. when you are boosting, these intakes no longer play a role since the compressed air exiting the turbo is now routed to the throttle body. This makes the intake pipe useless or it can be fabricated to be used as intercooler piping. So does it make sense to buy an intake? well if your going to go turbo in four months, probably not. if your going to go turbo in four years, then yes. it will make the car more fun and u'll b more happy than with the stock intake.

headers - when your NA, this can improve your power since the exhaust fumes are flowing better than with the stock exhaust manifold. Headers replace the stock exhaust manifold. (has the shiny heat shield covering it). Usually to get the most out of the headers upgrade, you should also have an upgraded exhaust. the purpose of the headers is to make the exhaust fumes flow better out of the engine so an upgraded exhaust is like the helping hand. now if your going to boost, does it make any sense to buy headers? well headers run around 250 to 300 and they dont serve any purpose on a turbo'd car. This is because they are replaced by the turbo manifold and unless u can fabricate, u cant convert headers into a turbo manifold. So u will have to sell it once u are boosting.

Exhaust - this is probably the most fickly of the upgrades because there are so many choices out there. u could get a BRM or an HKS or Greddy or custom exhaust and they could all be used for NA or boosted applications. There is a BRM sticky in the 240sx general section where most of the exhaust questions have been answered. Whether or not to get one, it really depends on ur plans and ur location. if your boosting soon, get an exhaust which has the right diameter for turbo applicaitons. If your not boosting soon, you could still get a large diameter exhaust but u will lose some top end. (at least i did). i got a 3 inch cat back but some people prefer 2.5". Turbo's love a 3 inch cat back but 2.5 is the norm for NA. location is also a big factor as to what kind of material ur exhaust should be made of. if ur up north, SS is the way cuz they salt the roads. if ur in a wet climate, SS all the way cuz of the moisture. if ur in arizona or the desert, then u can go the mild steel or aluminized steel route. and if your in the current snow storm up north, dont get an exhaust and put it on now. u could dent, scratch or hurt ur new exhaust with all that snow ice sleet etc. just use common sense.

Dre