Need 1988 GL-10 Turbo Advice (Turbo Itself)

[mtsfabman]

I know some of you out there are Turbo Nuts! So I'm hoping to learn a little from you. I have an 88 GL-10 Turbo Wagon with a bad turbo. I am going to replace the turbo asap but it made be think about hop-ups?????

 

What are some common Hop-Ups for the EA82 Turbo motors/turbos??

 

Since the turbo is shot, should I replace it with another style/year turbo??

 

I would not be into hop-ups that increase power at higher rpms but diminish power at low rpms. I want to be able to off-road this car. In fact, are there any turbo mods that would boost low rpm power???

 

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

Mike

[Adam N.D.J.]

Not a whole that that will boost low end power. You could put a smaller turbo on there (EA81T), this will make boost at a lower rpm, thus giving you a better low end. You could also go with a higher compression block, high compression motors have more low end power than low compression/forced induction set-ups. Also look into different cam grinds.

One of the things you can do right away is open up the exhaust, I'd go at least a 2" downpipe (I'm running 2.5" on mine). Also open up the air box, take out the whole thing, and cut the whole bottom off of it so that the whole filter element is visable.

 

For the most part, wheeling a turbo'd motor is kinda not the best thing, they can be a bit unweildy, if your in and tight twisty area, and the wheels start slippin, then the turbo starts boostin, next thing you know the wheels are spinnin way too fast and BOOM, there goes a rear diff stub. This is from personal experience, while out wheelin, one of the Rogues (Soobme) in his 85 T-wagon, blew out a rear stub with almost no effort from the wheels slippin, and the engine boostin at almost the most in-opportune time.

 

If it was me, I would get an SPFI block, NA MPFI heads, keep the fuel injection, toss the turbo and run an NA motor with a nice torque ground cam.

[archemitis]

get a turbo from a lecacy, with an open intake, and better exh, and more boost, and you too will be turbo crazy!

legacy and t-bird turbos will fit as an upgrade. ford probe, isuzus, and mazdas will fit as a near same size replacement

[WJM]

For more low end power, and a little less high end if you always run pump gas....installa SPFI shortblock under all the factory turbo stuff. Goobs more low ends, from 1200-3500. Use stock cams. Open up the intake and exhaust, that will boost low end as well for this setup. Under a stock setup, the mid range will be way better, but low will be the same, and hign end will really suffer.

[Stupidru]

ea82t have slightly bigger turbo than ea81t...not much performance gain. Lagacy turbo is bigger but you'll have to modify turbo to tb tubing.

[Adam N.D.J.]

Yes, the EA81 turbo is smaller, but the nice thing about IHI's is that they are like Subaru's, they have that same lego like qualities. Whot you do is take the hot side of the EA81's turbo, bolt it too the cold side of the EA82's turbo, whot this does is give you a smaller exhaust impellar, and the same size intake compressor, so you will get a little more boost at lower RPMS. This is whot I have on my EA81T, The boost hits about 5psi around 1700 rather than 2200 with the stock turbo.

Still this is nothing compared to the old NA motor that was in my Brat, serious torque at 1400 rpms, and nothing like the current motor, GOBS of torque at 1000rpms.

When offroading, you want to torque to come in as low as possible, if you aren't making torque till close to 2K, then your wheels are gonna be spinning (if you can get them to move at all, in some offroad situations) way too fast anyways, and more than likely they are going to be just doing that and not actually moving the vehicle.

All in all, if your going to use forced industion offroad, I would use a supercharger, it comes in at low rpms, it may have a slight parasitic drag off the crank, but so do turbo's. And for those people that think other wise about turbo's, take an NA moter and neck the exhaust down to 1" at the end of the Y pipe, for about 3"s then neck back out to 2.5" you will notice a serious loss of power.

[mtsfabman]

Thanks for all the advice guys! I think I'll let someone else build a street racer out of this car and I'll start looking for an XT6!!!!!

[Adam N.D.J.]

Now a lifted Off-road XT-6 would be way kewl, not to mention you would have almost more power than you could possibly need. If your looking for one, there is one down here in Medford at a podunk little car lot, body is kinda rough, cybrid power steering is shot, motor could use a good tune up but the air suspension works, and it drives pretty good. Guy is asking 1200 I think, but it's been sitting there over a month now, and if you showed him 7 or 8 hundred he'd prolly go for it.

[mtsfabman]

That's exactly what I have in mind Adam, a lifted XT6 with Nissan Transfer case and R180 diffs sporting 4.375:1 gears!!!! I'm on my way to K-falls monday to look at one that sounds great except for the air suspension is shot. If that falls through maybe I'll come home through Medford and try to find the one your talking about.

 

Thanks,

Mike

[Myxalplyx]

Thanks for all the advice guys! I think I'll let someone else build a street racer out of this car and I'll start looking for an XT6!!!!!

So you want to make an XT6 a street racer eh? Good luck!

[mtsfabman]

No, No, No..... This thread started out talking about a Turbo GL10 wagon. After all the advice I received, I decided to not use the Turbo Car as an off-road machine and sell to a friend who would turn it into a "street racer". I want to get an XT6 and turn it into an OFF-ROAD MONSTER!!!!!!