Thank you, that is exactly what I was looking for. Another question will I have to go back to stock headers, or can I keep my longtubes?
The best "street" setup turbo with a stick I've run is a 76/75 precision with the .81 AR housing. Full boost hit around 4k with boost coming on mid 2000's. My 3.4 whipple pegged 28 pounds before 2k and made over 600 ft/lbs by 2,500 rpm.
In all honesty, I was trying to get him to just get a turbo and then get the manifolds and everything custom fabbed. However, I'm not familiar with the pricing for Cobras. I know for rx7s you can get some manifolds from Gleason, one of the best at what he does, for just over a grand. And that's with true twinscroll support, though you then have to buy two wastegates, it spools very quickly.
I feel like he'd be well off with something like an sxe s366. 76mm is pretty big.
I'm not familiar with Cobra pricing for similar things. I know for my DD vette, there's a bad vette tax on anything nice.
Anyone who says my 76/88 comes in instantly is a bold face liar if they are running a stick. No offense but our 4.6 cars are very very small V8 motors and are not exactly torque beasts.
As someone who has owned and built a handful of each type this path is destined for failure. To simply imply that turbo is better in every aspect is naive.
First, turbo you HAVE to go tubular suspension, all the "affordable" aka cheap tubular kits rattle clunk and ride like horse crap and all the "affordable" turbo kits use these crap tubular setups. (I.E. on3/upr setup) The only kit I've owned that rode like factory was the hellion kit with the MM k setup.
Second, belt problems/shredding belts is a problem. Turbo cars just have different ones. Like blowing out a turbo seal or an intercooler pipe off. Waste gate sticking open and wasting an engine. Each setup has issues to blindly say the s/c belt is an issue and not list any of the possible turbo issues is biased.
Third, a 2.3 whipple is an aged technology. A TVS blower will perform much better and it's efficiency range is maximized in the 600-650 range.
Fourth, the key to cooling mods is opening up the neck/nipple of the intercooler to increase flow. That and a larger heat exchanger and you are no different than running an aftermarket water to air turbo setup.
On a stick car, the TVS car will be more "fun" on the street and will beat the turbo car most of the time simply because of the lag/boost drop off. You can add a "no lift shift" box but you'll just be harsher on your stuff and still lose.
The turbo car will be significantly more costly to build.
If this is a true "fun" street car the blower will be fair be the most fun option. There are COUNTLESS turbo cars on this forum that get built, people cut corners use a stick try to make a big number and hate them then dump them.
You can't use long tubes with a turbo kit, the turbo kit runs the manifolds forward to mount the turbo in the bay. Hellion kits used factory manifolds most others supply their own manifolds.
If you don't know that long tubes won't work with a turbo kit (which is fine) I suggest you spend more time doing some research as you clearly are lacking some information.
You clearly are deadset on a turbo kit and no amount of logic will deter you. So make sure when you make the decision you know what you are doing, all too often people try to do this on their own and end up hating their car/crushing their budget and selling to recover the cost or to start over.
$7000 wouldn't be much more than the Hellion.
On the other hand, going Hellion would probably be a safe bet, and he could always swap out some of the odd parts to help with spooling and other things later I guess.
What's with having to change the suspension for a turbo Cobra?
Also, thanks for the really helpful replies man.
some good points!
but I'm not referring to ANY Turbo kit I'm referring to a CPR Turbo kit. it comes with a tubular setup and nothn rattles at all. maybe on the junk kits they do but never owned one myself.
This guy is pretty much right on. My turbo Cobra just recently got finished, and it was a pricey endeavor to do it the right way. CG fab hot side, customized cold side with bigger IC from a Hellion kit with a Gen 1 BB Precision 7675. The Hellion kit the car came with just wasn't efficient for more than 650-700 hp. I'm sure guys will argue with me on this on here giving countless examples of people making more, but spool/efficiency/etc were my goal in a street car with a manual trans. Not trying to build a track car or drag whore.Alot of people start off with a CG Fab hotside, which comes with manifolds, up pipe and a starter down pipe. That hotside depending on options usually goes for $1500-$2000. Then you have to add in wastegate(s), BOV, intercooler, finish exhaust fab, tubular suspension, cold side, turbo, etc etc
Most places, atleast around here, to make 1 off custom exhaust manifolds are in the $3000 range for a really good quality set.
To do a single turbo kit right on an 03/04 Cobra, I would budget in the range of $7000-$10,000 roughly This does not factor in the offset of selling stock parts that come off. Alot of people like to argue that point. The price will range depending on turbo, wastegate, BOV choice, boost controller, intake manifold etc. All that can swing the price quite a bit. Also small things like heat wrap, coating etc. Dont forget, other things that may be needed, correct suspension, clutch/input shaft upgrades, fuel system, tuning, tires, gearing, chassis components etc etc. It all adds up quick.
A "cheap kit" like an On3 which I would not recommend, you can do it cheaper, but you get what you pay for and we are back to my statement from my last post about hating it.
I ran a Hellion kit for many years and also installed many on customers cars. The out of the box kit is "OK" however it benefits from some improvements. It worked well for me after the necessary changes were made to the kit to fix its flaws and was very reliable and fit very well. Not the best kit on the market, certainly not the cheapest, but great quality, reliable and long lasting using good parts.