Turbo-matching explained.

[Sirc]

Turbo matching is probably THE most important thing to do when it comes to building any type of turbo race car. Anything from Le-mans to your simple street set-up it's integral that you pick and choose and do some R & D for the turbo set up.

Putting a GIGANTIC turbo onto the car and then doing a quick street tune, butt-dyno isn't going to do you any good. To understand this you have to know a little about how turbos work.

An engine is essentially a big air compressor. The intake manifold "sucks" in air and the exhaust ports shoot them out. The way a turbo works is that instead of the exhaust gases being let freely out the rear of the car, a turbo is put between the exhaust ports and somewhere before the exiting portion of the exhaust.

The turbo is spun by the exhaust port gases, this process combined with the air that the turbine in the turbo housing sucks up creates a combine vaccuum force that pressurizes and eventually when it hits a certain amount of pressure is released into the piping that heads back to your intake manifold.

A smaller turbo will spin faster and get to that certain point faster but not push as much air no matter how many PSI's it's running. How much boost you're running doesn't help with anything if you don't know what kind of turbo setup someone is using.. A bigger turbo will spin slower but will force more air into an engine at a lower amount of PSI. Of course things such as displacement and engine size comes into play, but let's not worry about that for right now. The spinning of the turbo is regularly known as spool or spooling. Not to be confused with Spooning. However one must also realize that both will spin around the same speed when fully spooled, but large turbos generally take more time to get there.

Turbo matching is important because of a few things: 1. Powerband. It helps to put you into the right kind of powerband you want. 2. Efficieny. You don't want a turbo that spools 3 days from now only to make like 250hp when you can do that much faster with a smaller turbo. And 3. Cost. Bigger turbos generally will cost more.

I can't tell you which turbo you should go with, that's all personal preference. However I can put into perspective as to how important it is to match your turbo to your engine size.

Let's say that Mike Lane and I are going to have a sprint run around a track. Since I couldn't get a hold of Mr. Lane while writing this, let's say for the sake of arugment that Mike wears a size 14 in mens. I wear a size 10 in mens. We get up to the starting line and Mike decides to put all 220lbs of his manly canadian muscle into a size 12 shoe. I step up to the plate, with all 145lbs, and am strapped snuggly into a size 12 shoe also, waiting for the light to turn green. The sun shines on my bronze skin as the wind sweeps across his pale sweat-swept body. We flex our muscles and wait for the go.

The light turns green and we're off! Mike thunders down the strip with all 220lbs of muscle beating the ground like an earthquake the whole way through while I majestically and swiftly take off. I reach the end before he does and win the race for the universe. But why? I mean he's a mounty for cripes sake, shouldn't he be able to run faster than me? Of course, he probably does run faster than me in real life. But he wasn't able to use his full potential. Then again neither was I. But I had more potential to use all of my ability while Mike was stifled with his ability. This is what it's like for a small displacement engine to get a big turbo it can't spool very well and a large displacement engine getting a small turbo that it'll "over-spool."

So we start the race again, this time I'm wearing size 10 shoes and Mike's wearing his size 14's. This time we're there with our A game. We're wearing a loose fit jersey with cute matching shorts. We both line up and glare at each other as the gravel beneath our fingers tremble with anticipation. The gun booms and we take off! I sprint with all my heart and reach the finish line before Mike. He gets mad and throw a brick at me and wins by default. But the question here is, why did I win again? Well it was all in the tuning, I had some Nike pumps while Mike was wearing some Addidas. I was able to turn up the boost in my pumps and manage to not only keep up but also pass him. This is much like tuning. Just because the displacement is larger and can do more it doesn't necessarily mean that they'll beat you. It's all in the tuning. I can still increase my ability to run with certain modifications and/or spend more time training/modding myself to go faster.

I hope this has somehow helped any of you. Good day and good night.

-Chris

[NoSirItsAToyota]

Thanks Sirc.....I think.


STICKIED!

[Sirc]

I'll show you something sticky... Anytime big man.

[Paul Boz]

Hahaha, you're ridiculous.

[joeo]

I wrote up an article about compressor maps that I hope someone finds useful.
http://www.lovehorsepower.com/MR2_Do..._flow_maps.htm

[NoSirItsAToyota]

Originally Posted by joeo

I wrote up an article about compressor maps that I hope someone finds useful.
http://www.lovehorsepower.com/MR2_Do..._flow_maps.htm

Thank you very much Joe, and welcome to the board!

[two fun]

I didn't know Mike was in the RCMP....

[rhouck]

Originally Posted by joeo

I wrote up an article about compressor maps that I hope someone finds useful.
http://www.lovehorsepower.com/MR2_Do..._flow_maps.htm

hehe this is a good guide and is also included already in the Turbo MKII FAQ already

thanks for writing it

[Sirc]

Originally Posted by joeo

I wrote up an article about compressor maps that I hope someone finds useful.
http://www.lovehorsepower.com/MR2_Do..._flow_maps.htm

Thanks for stealing my thunder...

[NoSirItsAToyota]

Originally Posted by Sircnay

Thanks for stealing my thunder...

Sorry, I had to do it!

[Weasy2k]

I think that was a great write up Sircnay,
if that does not make you learn how turbos work...then i dont know what will....

Perhaps a video of this as well?

[Sirc]

I just realized how gay this is.

[jdchmiel]

i just thought it was lackinig in any factual basis but didnt really get an opinion of its sexual orientation.

[flyingbrick]

Of what sex was the article to begin with?

-Nathan

[Darko916]

I found this really great video that helps show in a HQ animation of Turbo chargers and how they work.

How a turbo works - YouTube

[Shady]

TURBOS WITH ECU :S *Faints*

[CJMR2T]

This is actually one of the worse "turbo sizing / matching" threads I've ever read.... Some of the infomation is total wrong in it and a lot of vital / good info is or was left out...

How is it a "Sticky" who makes a sticky, a sticky? Do you bother to research facts before hand?

[FGLC Nate]

Originally Posted by CJMR2T

This is actually one of the worse "turbo sizing / matching" threads I've ever read.... Some of the infomation is total wrong in it and a lot of vital / good info is or was left out...

How is it a "Sticky" who makes a sticky, a sticky? Do you bother to research facts before hand?

There's no way to say what I want to say without sounding somewhat rude, concieted, or otherwise condescending.

Fortunately I have come to terms with the fact that I am somewhat rude, concieted and condescending so that solves that problem.

If you have better or more complete information how about you write a revision to this rather than complaining about the person who made it a sticky? Would seem like a more productive way to go.

And on that note...

[CJMR2T]

Originally Posted by FGLC Nate

There's no way to say what I want to say without sounding somewhat rude, concieted, or otherwise condescending.

Fortunately I have come to terms with the fact that I am somewhat rude, concieted and condescending so that solves that problem.

If you have better or more complete information how about you write a revision to this rather than complaining about the person who made it a sticky? Would seem like a more productive way to go.

And on that note...

Cause its been written 100's of times on this forum and countless others not to mention the countless regular web pages that have it all on too... To take the time to write what's been written 1000's upon 1000's of times would be a waste of time.

Think about it, taking the time to re-write what's been written many times over wouldn't be very productive on my part but what would be productive is if someone who has the ability to make this a "sticky" checking to make sure that what they are making a sticky is good and correct information. Think of it as almost like the editor in chief of a magazine or news paper.

[Andy_Turbo]

i am andy christian and i appove that messgae

i actaully read the article and i still dont know anyhting more than 'a .50 trim is better than a .60 for the 3sgte' or 'the 46 or 48 trim (whatever it is) is better for the compressor side than the 50 trim .

what i really wanted to see in here was actaul proven facts with an actual mr2 turbo! something showcases popular tubo upgrades for mr2's like the gt3071, gt2870, gt35's, td06, td05, t3/t4 turbos with .63a/r and .48 a/r turbine sides but with different comp sizes (50a/r, 60a/r and 70 a/r) for each.

that would be a WHOLE $HIT LOAD OF INFO but this is what i actually wanted to see. i know noone will probably ever dyno an mr2 and test all these turbos as i definitely cant to see where they begin to spool or make some/loose power but that would be greatly appreciated though...........just my 2 cents on the whole topic here