1.8 16v Turbo conversion

[Toad 0]

Hey Guys, I've been thinking about trying to get my 1.8 16v a little bit more fun to drive. The years are starting to catch up with the engine now, and I reckon she could do with a bit more go to her to get the fun back into driving her. I've been offered a 2l 16v engine which I thought about rebuilding and dropping in. I've got a spare couple of 1.8 engines and a complete spare 16v car, sop i'd been thinking along the lines of building the 2l block up with a rebuilt 1.8 head, and the spare gearbox, new clutch etc, then the car would only be off the road for a day or two while the whole lump was pulled out and dropped back in.

 

But last night I got thinking that maybe a turbo conversion would be a bit more fun, keeping the 1.8 engine (rebuilt of course) I wouldn't want a big turbo, something small that would spin up quickly, after all i'm not after huge power, perhaps 175hp. That way the car would be perfectly driveable every day, sat in traffic on the way into town at low revs, but would get a bit of a shift on when I opened her up.

 

Has anyone done a conversion like this on here? i'd love some input. The way I'm thinking is to retain the original air box, running pipework over the back of the engine to a turbo, then have a different manifold on the front of the engine, something similar to the Schimmel SRI. I could run pipework- perhaps 2-2.5 inch round to this

 

My main questions are;

 

Would the K-Jetronic injection system cope with this? I do quite like it's simplicity and I had heard it would run up to 200hp?

 

Does anyone make a suitable inlet and exhaust manifold?

 

Where could an oil feed for the Turbo be taken from? perhaps the oil temp switch drilling on the back of the 16v head?

 

What other modifications would be needed? If i ran low boost, could I keep the original compression ratio? (10-1 isn't it?) I'd like to keep the car as driveable at low speeds as possible.

 

I know it'd probably be easier to buy a G60 and mod that, but I like the 16v, and I want to keep it.

 

Cheers for your suggestions.

[CoxyLaad 0]

supercharge the 16v with a mini supercharger.

[Toad 0]

supercharge the 16v with a mini supercharger.

 

Along the lines of?? Or do you mean a charger off a mini? I'd not considered charging it before....

[CoxyLaad 0]

A charger from a mini, not a very small charger :roll:

just my personal opinion, I much prefer the linear delivery to the surge a turbo provides

[Toad 0]

A charger from a mini, not a very small charger :roll:

:oops: I must admit I misread that to start with, after the second or third time I realised what you meant. I suppose that'd be as good a bet as the turbo, and I wouldn't have to do anything to the exhaust. It'd be pretty reversible too.

 

thanks for the suggestion

 

Right then, in addition to the questions on the turbo above, how much work would it be to fit a charger, I know there are 16vG60s and the (eaton or lysholm) from a mini would be a bit smaller, so it would fit.

 

Could the existing induction kit, ie filter, metering head etc, be turned to feed the charger, and the charger outlet fed into the throttle body?

[flusted 0]

Turbo it and use a kstar system to run extra injectors as stealth did with there turbo conversion!

I have a kstar forsale on ebay at the moment!

 

Mini chargers are tiny and would not supply a 16v. You would need a eaton m62 from merc

[steve_16v 0]

Don't know how much work it would be to fit a charger but something like the BBM supercharger integration kit would probably come in handy.

 

They also sell a 16v turbo kit, see here.

 

Only thing is they're both listed as mk2 kits so you'd have to contact them to make sure they will fit.

[CoxyLaad 0]

dont take advice from a man in an illuminous green jacket and a zebra skin hat

lol

[Toad 0]

Cheers for the offer flusted, i did check the Kstar out earlier, can i try it for free? I'm not so sure the mini charger would be so bad, i'm only looking for a bit more power....

 

Steve, good work! shame I can't afford that much at the moment, but it certainly gives me a few ideas on the subject.

 

Oh and by the way, flusted, do you really want everyone to see the outfit you weren't even allowed into G.A.Y in? haha :lol: I can't really talk though, i went out dressed as craig david one new years, complete with a rubber pigeon decoy as i couldn't be arsed to find a realistic kes!

[Jim 2]

You can easily get 160BHP from a 2.0 16v, and i'm sure with a little more work you could get to your target of 175BHP without the need for all the work that turbocharging your car would entail...

 

Could just rebuild and tweak the 2.0 16v off the car and then drop it right in!

[CoxyLaad 0]

true but 175bhp is just the peak figure, I would imagine the torque spread on a charged 16v would comprehensively munch a traditionally tuned valver.

[Toad 0]

I did think about polishing and porting and fiddling with the 2 litre, but i think it'd be fun to have something a little bit different, If something catastrophic were to happen in the short term, then it'd probably get the 2 litre. I think even 160 hp would make quite a difference to the way she feels. Can I use my 1.8 Kjet setup on a 2l block, could i just get away with the WUR mod and the engine would run well?

[VEEDUBBED 0]

Toad,i can give you my opinions as i've done nearly all the conversions,what do you prefer more,being pushed into the back of the seat or having supercharger power/torque from 1500rpm to the red line?.

Last year i turboed my corrado with a Garret T3/4 off a Lancia delta intergrale and also using the delta's weber injection system,very powerfull but fuel economy was awful as i was using 4 bosch green '803' injectors.

That was a 'PG' G60 block and pistons mated to a 'KR' 16valve head,turbo lag and ultralow CR made me change the engine to a 2.0 9A G-charged engine using 2 'ABF' metal headgaskets and SNS chipped Digi injection,well what a difference,ok granted,you won't get your neck snapped back due to huge torque but the fuel economy is exellent and reliabiltiy has been 100% positive.

My dad keeps nicking the car to go to the seaside so i don't use it alot but it's very quite and looks all OE VW,when it was turboed my dad would'nt touch it for fear that it'd break down...

[Toad 0]

VEEDUBBED , cheers for the input! i'm not looking for anything ridiculously quick, just want to get the car going a bit quicker, and more fun through the corners. The 1.8 is ok, but it needs a lot of work to keep the revs up and the car going quickly. It is a daily driver so i need, economy and relability too. What's the point in having a fun car if it's always in bits? I also could do with a conversion that didn't break the bank.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

One of the most tractable and enjoyable cars I've ever driven (and owned) was my old MK2 16V Turbo. It had only the slightest whiff of lag when planting it at 3000 in 4th or 5th, but general hooning around on part throttle was excellent and lag free. It was unbelievably smooth aswell (largely because of Stealth's refinements), much more so than the 1.8T and the midrange thump wasn't exactly brutal, but it was enough to plant a big grin on your chops. The way the power fed in and it's daily reliability gave off a real impression of OE....and it looked OE aswell thanks to Turbo Technics' excellent production quality.

 

The original 80s TurboTechnics kit was rejuvinated by Stealth in the early 90s and he built 12 cars. All TT used for the boost fuelling in the 80s was the cold start injector, but Vince made up a rail of additional VR6 injectors and controlled them with a mappable K Star KS301 unit. This is what made the engine so creamy smooth and tractable....and hiking power from 190hp to 221hp.

 

The kit was based around a Garett T25 with a high and low boost actuator, 8psi on low boost and 10.5psi on high boost. 185 and 221hp respectively.

 

I would link you to my old car on Stealth's project site.....but it seems to have been deleted :-(

 

That kit would suit your needs perfectly as it's so discreet and daily usable. Totally changed the character of the engine......oodles of bottom end (amazing considering the CR drop to 8.5) and the top end fizz was still there, but backed up with boost. It's a cracking engine....much better than the sterile 1.8T.

 

Sadly no longer available. Stealth pulled the plug on them in 2000 due to the 1.8T engine flooding the market, which is a lot more plug and play.

 

No shortage of options now though and no shortage of power either..... just not sure how many of them will have the same character as the original kits......

[LowG 0]

Its a bit pointless to do a 16v turbo conversion if all you are looking for is 180hp. A supercharged 16v would be a wiser choice in my opinion. Find someone breaking a G60 and get charger and the ecu and set that up on yours. I would lower the compression to around 9:1 and run an intercooler, give Bilal (SNS) a shout and he'll sort you out with the chip.

 

Turbo lag is cool 8) with the new ball bearing turbos you can run a huge turbo in a smaller engine.