Stroker or Turbo? You pick....

Which route would u go?


  • Total voters
    19

nmcgrawj

Advanced Member
Sep 28, 2003
3,651
3
68
Indianapolis, IN
What route would u guys pick and why? 408w or a turbo 358. I know people have different goals and such so dont get too detailed on me. Just let me know which setup you guys would rather have, positives/negatives about each one in your opinion.


And assuming that the price difference between the stroker and turbo would be about another $1,000 in favor of the turbo.


Lets hear it!
 
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Nate - turbos LOVE stroke. The more piston speed you give a turbo, the happier it is.

With that said, I don't like power adders. Making power is too easy, and achieving the track times you want is nothing more than turning the wick up.

Joe
 
the stroker should be way less than the turbo because with a turbo you need to add alot of things that you dont think you need. Trust me I almost ventured down that route.

Negatives about a turbo (you have to spend alot of money, I dont know if you ever priced it out but these are items you will need to do it right, yes you can do half assed and have everything break, but if you want to do it right you need these parts.):
race block with forged rotating assembly
big heads like vic jrs
spyder intake or some short runner intake
a whole new fuel system (a 255 won't cut it you'll need an A1000 pump)
a custom ground cam would be best
an auto trans because with a turbo you're going after huge gains and most of the time you can't control that kind of power and you'll need an auto to get your best et. And also you dont want to have a violently shifting street car.

theres soo much more that people don't think about when going the route of a turbo. Some do it half assed and use their stock short block but that is a time bomb waiting to explode.

I agree with 94-302-vert on this one because you can always add the power adder in the future.

And I priced out everything that I was going to need to buy to do a correct 331 turbo mustang and it cost 21549. And I would imagine it would even cost more for a 351w.

just my opinion.
 
Agreed with Joe. That's the joy of having a twin turbo set up, with smaller turbo's. They would take barely any time to spool with a proper set up, and, as proven by GreenMustangGT, can produce wads of power at relatively low boost levels.

Big cubes with smaller turbo's = good time. I would put some research into it and go with both :nice:
 
Nate, if you still had a 302 I'd say turbo it without a doubt, but since you already have a windsor platform to work from I'd go with the big cubed NA setup. The 408 with the right parts should have no problem being a 10 second capable machine at the very least. I've been kicking around the same ideas in my head too with my next build... a high compression 347 or a turbo'd 306. Excluding building a dart based shortblock for the turbo 306 it WILL be cheaper for me to go that route. If I go 347 I have to replace EVERYTHING under my hood except the block and the total is over what a turbo and fuel system will cost... the turbo will make much more power too. But, like Joe I love running good numbers NA and I too have viewed power adders as "cheating" so to say. But, I can't look past the fact that even with a killer 347 I'd be VERY hard pressed to trap 120 in my car, and 120mph will be a walk in the park at even 5-6lbs of boost with a turbo 306. Plus, there are a number of imports around me now that are mid-low 11 second cars that are all trapping 120+mph in the 1/4. I don't know its worth it for me to spend thousands of dollars replacing everything and stroking my motor just for the sake of staying NA. I need to finish my decisions soon though...
 
soontobefastfox said:
the stroker should be way less than the turbo because with a turbo you need to add alot of things that you dont think you need. Trust me I almost ventured down that route.

Negatives about a turbo (you have to spend alot of money, I dont know if you ever priced it out but these are items you will need to do it right, yes you can do half assed and have everything break, but if you want to do it right you need these parts.):
race block with forged rotating assembly
big heads like vic jrs
spyder intake or some short runner intake
a whole new fuel system (a 255 won't cut it you'll need an A1000 pump)
a custom ground cam would be best
an auto trans because with a turbo you're going after huge gains and most of the time you can't control that kind of power and you'll need an auto to get your best et. And also you dont want to have a violently shifting street car.

theres soo much more that people don't think about when going the route of a turbo. Some do it half assed and use their stock short block but that is a time bomb waiting to explode.

I agree with 94-302-vert on this one because you can always add the power adder in the future.

And I priced out everything that I was going to need to buy to do a correct 331 turbo mustang and it cost 21549. And I would imagine it would even cost more for a 351w.

just my opinion.


Actually, i have priced everything out using the help of Mike(oink) and turbomustangs.com. That stuff u list is what i would call "going all out". Yes it is probably the "best" way to do it, but a different way spending less money isnt NOT necessarily worst. Look at all the guys on turbomustangs.com that dont spend an 1/8th of what you listed and still run pretty respectable times. Like for instance, my tko-600 would do just fine for now. Its not a race car so im not going to have a "NEED" for consistant times...sticks are still more fun to me as a street car. Anyway.....

Thanks everyone for their input...lol its the same stuff i've been telling myself. For those that dont know, i have the 351 in the car now with ported twisted wedge heads, custom cam, and tfs-r intake, so its a pretty healthy setup....or was:rlaugh:

From what i have setup in a excel worksheet, it would take about $2,000 give or take a couple depending on if i went single or twin, and what good deals i caught(good deal= even less $$$ spent, im not anticipating them) And for the stroker, i was planning on about $1,000 in machine work and about another $1100 in parts. BUT, i would rebuild the shortblock for the turbo, so that $1,000 could be taken away from both options. Leaving the 2k and 1.1k.


Keep the opinions comin if ya got em:p
 
NA less problems in sme cases i know im working on a turbo car that is a friend of mines dont matter how good your parts are or how much you spend unless the tune is good its just wasting money.
Turbo cars take patience in tuning and making sure things are done in correlation as to the power the car can handle and to how much the driver can handle.