Remote Turbo

New 3/13/05

Check this out. This company makes a turbo kit that replaces the muffler and mounts at the back of the car! Really slick. It was featured on a show called Two-Guys Car Garage. At 5psi, it made 135 HP over stock.

I never considered a turbo install from remote like this. Would make a custom job for a SHO so much easier!

http://www.ststurbo.com/how_it_works

http://www.twoguysgarage.com/episodes/episode.php?epi=322

Dave Garber

Saw the same show this morning. Actually STOPPED working on the Intake tubing for my Eaton Blower Project. This thing is TOO darned easy NOT to try. Looked under one of my SHO's and the rear exhaust split that goes to the mufflers would be a very similar area to where the TV guys installed Their Kit. The long return pipe would act as a poor mans intercooler too. With all that exposed surface area running under the car, the pipe would let go of ALOT of heat in the intake charge. Addt'l Benny - the exhaust will be cooler back there transferring even LESS heat to the Turbo. Agreed, the closer to the heads the better the exhaust is said to spin a Turbo, But with the offset of much lower intake temps and VERY LONG Runners I would expect healthy gains with a kit of this order. Now, How to keep the stock intake box from blowing up.....

IT . . . . . . . COULD . . . . . . WORK !! !! ! !! !!!!!

Eric Lehmann

This has definitely piqued my interest (and I'm a card carrying member of the VOD club!). The headache of an install like this on a SHO has traditionally been the close quarters under the hood. With this concept, that problem goes away. And I just happen to have one of the best custom pipe benders I've ever seen 30 minutes from my house!

I agree. Not only could it work, but I think it could be pretty reasonable cost-wise and relatively simple installation-wise.

Dave Garber

the hot side of a turbo is cast iron in most cases.

that setup would be great for down south but up here where we get salted roads??

that thing would rust hard. they rust bad enough under hood.

my turbo rarely sees water or salt and seeing I paid like 1200 bux for my gt28rs?? i like to see it under the hood all clean and dry.

does it make me think?? yes. great idea for constricted underhoods and Florida residents.

would have a bit of lag there too especially if you intercooled it. with that looong asss charge pipe.

but the idea is killer if you don't care about a rusted hairdryer. or maybe you could jethot coat the hot side. cast iron doesn't like water.

Peter m

what about puddles after you have been screaming along at hi boost.

hot cast iron meets cold water. most center cartridges of turbos are cast iron.

turbo would need to be looked after to prevent it being damaged by the elements. water, rocks, sand, etc.

ceramic coating on the hot side for sure. splash shields???

does make ya think tho doesnt it. ive already been under the ass end of my SHO 3 times this am since reading it. LOL looks like an easy install. fab fab

~Pm

Well, the MAF would have to go post-turbo (on the boost side). Well, it wouldn't have to, but that's likely how I would do it. The question of the airbox is a good one. If it were me, I think I'd go with something under the car near the turbo. It wouldn't have to be pretty, and could be constructed to use existing K&N panel filters (the filter the V6 cars use is pretty big). Hell, I'd bet you could literally mount a stock airbox under there with some basic modifications using bondo, tiger hair, etc (it wouldn't be boosted, so it wouldn't have to be any sturdier than it already is).

The rust issue, IMO, wouldn't be any more of an issue than it is/was with cast iron exhaust manifolds. You could have it ceramic coated, or leave it bare. Either way, NBD.

Dave Garber

Well, this company is already doing this. A look at their kit would be a good start before doing any real work. But the concept is certainly sound and is already being used. It'd be a matter of some custom piping, intake and mounting. Much easier at the rear than under the hood!!

Dave Garber

They claim turbo lag is negligible. Cost for the Camaro kit was about $4000 not counting install costs.

They take out the stock airbox.

Hey it even helps with front-rear weight distribution!

In reading the entire article by one magazine it seems this is the real deal. A plumbers nightmare maybe, but once installed, it should be low maintenance.

I wonder about damage from flying rocks etc. I guess the turbo housing would be sturdy enough, but how about the pop0ff valve?

Only FWD application is (of course) for a Honda and not available yet.

I doubt they could be talked into a SHO kit unless they had a dump truck load of cash for a one-off, or quite a few pre-paid orders, but it might be worth a call.

Don Mallinson

You really don't want to blow boost through the MAF. They weren't designed for it, and SHO guys have run into weird tuning issues with that setup. Plumbing the MAF in the rear wouldn't be a bad thing (pre-turbo).

I just gotta believe that this has serious lag, plus turbos like to be hot, so, apart from the long tube, this thing will suffer in the cold weather.

Really would need to run the single exhaust through it. Would be better the closer that it could get to the engine. Depending on size, would it fit in the area of the 3rd cat?

Ron Porter

The dyno chart they had showed a quicker rise in power than OEM.

Paul

I would hope so....otherwise, what's the point of installing it?

It just appears that it would be more sensitive to temp differences, since turbos need hot exhaust gas to work properly. Plus, a dyno won't show lag, which is what you can feel in normal driving.

Pretty good idea for a (relatively) simple installation (versus a regular turbo setup). If you ever saw Jeremy Prine's SHO turbo setup (now owned by the Toolman), it's effective, but not very pretty.

It's also not very cheap for the existing kits. IMHO, it seems that you could get a good exhaust guy to fab up a regular turbo setup closer to the engine, and with the cost of turbos being relatively cheap, you could do your own setup for around the $4K that they are getting for the kits.

I feel that the earlier posts about being better in a Florida climate, as well as the effects of road grunge, are pretty valid.

Ron Porter

Funny thing is that the installations so far have the turbo near the rear axle. On the prototype Honda install, they have the turbo all the way to the rear bumper area!

They claim turbo lag as less than .05 second to get air the distances involved at the pressures they need.

But really turbo lag is more from the design of the turbo than where it is installed.

Most typical turbo lag was the early Mopar units where they went for high boost and a big heavy turbin just won't spin up fast. So the mfgr hear claims they just design the turbo for the job. they are using fairly low boost (5 normally, with 7 with meth injection).

Test so far don't mention any nasty turbo boost. OF course for drag use, who cares. Now for say, road race use, it might make a little difference.

Don Mallinson

I strongly suspect the 5 psi boost is because the exhaust gasses are too cool way back there, and they can't get any more out of it.

Not that a 5 psi boost wouldn't be nice, but their kits are very pricey.

Since they don't have a kit for the SHO anyway, it would be interesting to see what turbo they use. Since it all has to be fabbed, it could be that someone could buy an off-the-shelf turbo and fab up their own setup for half the cost.

Ron Porter

What kind of intake would you fab up? The only thing that I could see is a filter exposed underneath the car and the MAF for that matter, would that go pre- or post-turbo?

Roman

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