allright.. i've driven a stick gs-t and loved it (i've got an auto NT).. I was just wondering if its worth having a turbo because anytime I mention anything about a turbo to anyone in my family.. they just say they always break...do they really break down as easily and as much as they say?

Is it Worth it, YES, being NA while you add Bolt-ons to your car to make it faster, ADDS up you HP and Power, with a turbo the upgrades you do are exponential. is a more efficient way for your motor to work, but you are putting a lot more stress on the parts, so sooner or later it will brakedown, but hell even NA cars do brake down, the keyword is maintenance....

you just have to know the limits of your car. most of us (specially the first ones to turbo) have worked out most of the issues by being guini pigs for these systems. read through these posts and you'll get an idea of what to expect and things to do BEFORE your turbo and while your turbo to make the most out of your car.

Turbo's use to be VERY unreliable. Meaning they would blow up WAY before your engine died (just from high miles). That has all changed though. With the creation of a turbo timer (allows car to cool off and get all the oil out of the turbo) a turbocharger can last just as long as your engine if not longer. Or you can do the cheap method and sit and let your car idle for a couple minutes after you drive it.

to answer your question, I must ask a question
does a bear shit in the woods?
does a one legged duck swim in circles?

One word- YES. I have now driven a 420A HRC stage 2 turbo 5 spd, and it was soooo much fun. It really feels like a totally different car. For the price, a turbo is the way to go. Keep up on the maint, and get the necessary gauges to keep an eye on your motor condition. Before you turbo, do a simple compression test on your engine to see where its at. And another thing, turbos sound cool as hell :thumbsup

hell yes its worth it! i fell in love with my car again. screw rims/bodykits/graphics, get you some SPOOL! there are naturally gonna be more posts about problems here than peoples cars running good. it would just be silly on how to comment every day on how good your car is doing. if you do the install yourself(with the help of a friend thats done it before maybe), you will learn so much about your car and will know how to diagnose probs if you have any

I hate to be the party pooper here but I would seriously consider rebuilding or atleast save some extra money to have around just in case something happens. I never though it would happen to me but then one day it did. After a while soemthing is going to break. You might get a year out of it or even 2 years but eventually something is going to give. And when it does get ready to spend a ton of money on it! The whole past year has been great for me driving around beating up on mustangs and other fast cars with the turbo. My car had a good run and served me well. Some people arent that lucky though. When turboed you might blow your engine the day you turbo it. Just make sure you know that eventually (when turboed) you will be rebuilding in the near future. I wouldnt have done it any other way though. I love my car and I dont give a shit that it broke. I am actually excited and happy that it did. Now Its going to be even faster after the rebuild but I am going to be paying for it for a while. I dont want to get any scared of buying turbos because it is the best mod you can do to the car but with the added speed and performance comes the added risk of breaking something and spending a lot of miney to fix. Well I have just written a whole paragraph and I didnt even answer your question. The answer is YES!!! I wouldnt even want my car if it didnt have a turbo on it. It just wouldnt be the same.

YES

Well said Dave. When people talk to me about turbos, I always say to plan to spend double the cost of the turbo kit. Like you might save up 3k for a kit today, but be prepared to have another 2-3k laying around to rebuild when you blow. It might never happen, but it seems that it does happen to quite a few people. To me personally, I don't think the risk is worth the risk on a daily driven car (if it is your only mode of transportation). Smog in CA is a real pain too. But I do love turbos so I guess I would say that having one is definitely worth it, but you just have to figure out if you are willing to face the consequences of a blown motor.

I would always rebuild when putting a turbo kit on a NA car, just for safe measure. Plus I couldnt be happy if I had to run low boost and always worry about a boost spike or stuff like that.

When you guys talk about rebuild...are you just talking about bottom end or more?? What do you need if you want to be careful?
Matt

I agree with marcus in regards with the hassle of turboing in CA.

At teh same time I agree with others that turbos are worth it to have.

I love my HRC kit as long as my motor is still intact...:P

bottom end= pistons/rods/seals. about 1K for parts, 1K for install. no cams needed