So clean and so simple. It might not fit under a stock hood, but it would definitely fit under a hood of some sort, modified slightly at most. Unfortunately for some, I’ve only ever seen these made to fit Chevy small blocks. Photo courtesy of www.theturboforums.com
The Eagle Talon and Mitsubishi Eclipse don’t have a real flattering place in the history books, but most of the turbo cars were crazy fast right up until the moment they inevitably broke. The Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Laser were also quick if you wanted them to be. They just seemed to get hot under pressure. Diesel engines have been using turbochargers and superchargers forever. Nowadays, the trend is smaller engines with turbochargers, but I say, why not the same old big engine with a turbo on it? The Chevy LS platform loves boost, and so does the Dodge Hemi. If they make efficient power, they won’t be inefficient on fuel. I’ve kicked the idea around for a long time of doing a budget turbo build, carbureted, of course. Low compression small-blocks are everywhere, and if old Martin turbocharger kits were even half as common, I’d already be rolling and shopping for a posi.
Have you ever seen something so clean and so simple? It can use the stock air cleaner, the stock carburetor, the stock linkages, everything. I’ve never seen a complete kit, but apparently, they even included some way to control fuel pressure and spark. One obvious issue I see is that the passenger valve cover is no longer accessible, but with good gaskets and some thick gorilla snot, it shouldn’t leak. Just add the oil on the other side during oil changes. The intake manifold is where the engineering magic happens. Fuel is dumped straight down into a plenum, then shot out the front port on the intake manifold into the turbocharger. The air and fuel is then blown back into the intake manifold through the rear port and distributed to each cylinder just like it would be with a traditional carbureted non-turbo setup. There are a few arguments out there on whether this is a good or bad way of doing business. Some say it’s good, as the fuel cools the turbocharger, but some say it’s bad, as the turbocharger heats up the fuel. Either way, there’s, unfortunately, no way of fixing any problems, as an intercooler not only wouldn’t fit, but it also would de-atomize the fuel inside. How much power did this setup make? Not a whole lot, but it was a drastic improvement to anything it was bolted to in the eighties when 200 horsepower was the leader of the pack. The odd setup pops up for sale now and then and is usually not that expensive. In reality, the intake manifold and the two cast aluminum duct pipes are all that one would really need to acquire. All other parts could be bought new or fabricated as needed. The nice part is saving huge money not having to buy a fancy blow-through carburetor.
Have a question or comment for Kelly? Post it at lmtimes.ca/kirk
