I was under the impression that turboing the 2.8 wasn't a good idea?
Is it more cost effective to turbo the 2.8 or swap motors?

http://www.youtube.com/watc...XO03c&feature=relmfu

If you 2.8L is in SOUND condition and has less than 50k miles on it, and if you decide to build you own turbo kit, then a turbo 2.8L should cost less than an engine swap.
The 2.8L turbo was my first engine upgrade and with a junkyard T-3 turbo, an exhaust mounting flange a rebuild kit, some custom exhaust work I was able to make in the area of 190HP running 8 psi of boost. The zero to 60 time was in the mid to high 6 second range. Not great but not bad for an $800 investment. The turbo addition offered much better performance but little upward mobility. I still ended up doing an engine swap later on.

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" THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, custom ZZP /Frozen Boost Intercooler setup, 3.4" Pulley, Powerlog manifold, Northstar TB, LS1 MAF, 3" Flotech Afterburner Exhaust, Autolite 104's, MSD wires, Custom CAI, 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite.
"THE COLUSSUS"
87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H
" ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "

Same as Dennis here. Whatever you do, be practical with the camshaft selection. The car in the video sounds nice from a perfomance standpoint but you don't want that kind of lope in a daily street driven turbo car, it can make for a sluggish take off. You don't want to turbo a stock 3 speed auto tranny either. I rebuilt two and one went behind a turbo 3.4L with the same result in short time, slipping 2-3 shift.

The owner of that car is a PFF member, "ConvictedRedneck"

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum1/HTML/089931.html

What is your budget? How much power do you want?

I bought a used 60k mile 3.4L pushrod engine and boosted it with a $75 junkyard T3 turbo. That was fairly cost effective for me. And it makes me smile whenever I drive it.

3800 series II's can be had for very little, and you can even find the supercharged versions for $500. Post on Craigslist. There is some modifications but really it is not that hard. I did it. BTW, I turboed my 2.8, Nitroused it, and then did the same on a 3.4. Of all the 3800 is the jewel. Very realiable and none of the tuning issues. Play with a early 80's engine, especially adding a turbo is just asking for problems.

I built the car in the video. It can be done for a reasonable amount, but in all honesty, if you're goal is power:$$ ratio, a 3800sc swap is the way to go. They're well documented and parts are available from vendors. The only reason I did the turbo was because I have a freshly rebuilt, $1400 2.8 that I just couldn't give away for what people are willing to pay for that motor.

As for the "cam" Joseph mentioned, that's actually a stock cam...that's how a motor runs whe you put the PROM chip in backwards like an idiot I assume the lope was from either completely messed up timing or some type of fuel issue...although it did sound pretty bada** lol. Check out my other vids of it running properly.

[This message has been edited by ConvictedRedneck (edited 08-13-2012).]

quote Originally posted by ConvictedRedneck: As for the "cam" Joseph mentioned, that's actually a stock cam...that's how a motor runs whe you put the PROM chip in backwards like an idiot I assume the lope was from either completely messed up timing or some type of fuel issue...although it did sound pretty bada** lol. Check out my other vids of it running properly.

I've done that before and I'm surprised it even ran. I could tell the engine was also probably running lean as well by how fast the turbo spooled on a light blip of the throttle although I thought it was because of a big cam and no tuning at that point.

Seeing as dropping the 5 digits on a 3800 swap or what have you is out of the question for the forseeable future, I wonder tha validity of cleaning up my stock 2.8 and throwing a junkyard pick turbo on it. Engine has in excess of 100k miles, but still runs strong?

Valid for something to give it a little more go in the meantime?