Sticking A Turbo On The Zetec.

[Guest mcramsay]

righty ho, i have always wanted a turbo engined car, and i have always wanted to do a turbo conversion myself, so that got me thinking about sticking a turbo on the zetec over the winter. The car will be in the garage for 5 months and i need something to keep me occupied!

 

ive been doing a lot of reserch and reading various guides on how people have done the zetec turbo converstion, and i have come to see there are two ways of doing it. IE the expensive way, and the cheep way.

 

im looking for power in the region of max of 250 BHP. i think that would be plenty, and i believe that i can achive this using relatively low boost. because of that i plan on using a decompression plate to lower the CR ratio, and leave engine internals as standard (Apart from ARP bolts on the bottom end.) the zetec standard internals can take around 250 bhp no problem, or so ive read.

 

basically i wanted to list what i plan on doing for the inlet and exhaust and see what you guys think

 

 

im running twin jenveys, and need to find a turbo plenum for them, now Jenvey do sell a rather lovley turbo plenum and matching back plate but the total price of all that gubbins is £850 which im not prepared to pay.

 

the other option and more viable one is to use a plenum chamber off a Nissan GTIR, and make a back plate (and spacer) which will take the place of the current air filter back plate, which the turbo plenum can then be bolted to. as for making this plate up it shouldnt be an issue as ive got access to mills and lathes at work.

 

my next issue is mounting the turbo :

 

i have two options, buy a zetec exhaust flange and try to make my own manifold

 

or buy a escort rs turbo manifold (and T3 Turbo) and use an adapter plate to bolt this onto the zetec head. the adaptor plate is needed as the bolt patters are different. what i dont know is if with this manifold will the turbo clear the chassis? as there are triangulated strengthening bars that run down the engine bay of the zero.

 

any one got any advice or done this conversion them selfs ?

[owlman2222]

hi

i am doing this conversion over the winter but i have cheeted got the engine built for me but i will probley be using one of theses as my manifolds

http://www.chevroletls1.com/zetecturbo.html

[Guest alfaGTA]

could you switch to a GBS style intake plenum with a single large bore throttle body and uprate the standard injectors? May keep things tidy under the bonnet and not need side scoops to fit jenveys plus plenum?

 

Jon that turbo manifold looks nice!!

[owlman2222]

thats what i am doing getting rid of the jevenys for a big single one

[femster87]

I believe the GBS plenum is made out of sheet metal. I dont know how thick it is but might be worth checking if ti would take the boost. Dont know much about this just thinking out loud

Edited June 25, 2012 by femster

[Guest mcramsay]

I did think of this route... Thing is, I've bought the jenveys now, and don't want to get rid. So I would like to keep them if possible!

[Guest webby]

hi

i shouldnt think the gbs plenum would be an issue with the boost as realistically the most you could ran would be 1.5 bar which is 22psi as the bottom end wouldnt be strong enough for any higher boost. so the plenum would be pretty poor if it could take that pressure .

also keep your compression ratio down to 8 to 1 max or youll get issues. not sure a de comp plate the best way to go propably better to get the pistons machined, youll need quality head bolts and gaskets but 250 hp is a pretty realist figure with a t3 and still keeping reliability

nick

[Guest mcramsay]

i will try with the decomp plate first, the engine is brand new, so i dont want to pull the pistons out and have them machined....plus you are adding a weakness into the pistons by machining them, the worst i will get with the decomp plate is the head gasket blowing, i would rather have the gasket go than loose a piston and nacker the whole engine, but with lower boost i shouldnt see much trouble with the decomp plate, ive read up on quite a few build blogs from people that have used them and havent heard any horror stories. i cant justify spending 800 quid on new pisons at the moment! as i said i would like to do it on at budget.

 

the GBSC plenum is an interesting thought, i might give richard a ring and see what he thinks. ideally the way i would like to go is the GTIR plenum though, that would allow me to keep the jenveys...which to be fair are lovley all on their own!

[Guest webby]

hi

i agree about the jenvies throttle bodies are the way forward you would need to take very little off the pistons to lower the comp ratio not sure of the shape of the zetec pistons but if done correctly you wouldnt weaken them and you improve the shape of the quish. be carefull with decomp plates is very easy to warp the head when running even low boost then it gets expensive check item 2210 4978 7602 he may sell you the manifolds , turbo etc

[Guest webby]

sorry thats the fleabay item number

[steve_wilson]

if you want to go down the gtir plenum route i have a cad drawing to get a blank baseplate made up

 

i got laserman to laser cut the blank baseplate out of 5mm ali for mine and then i machined the holes in it to suit (i think he charged about £15)

 

pm me if you want a copy of the cad drawing

 

best place for gtir plenums is:

 

http://gti-r-us.co.uk/

 

think i paid about £50 for mine... delivered

 

cheers

[Guest mcramsay]

Cad drawing would be great! I've sent the bloke on that site an email so hopefully will get one from there! Just the exhaust manifold to sort out... Room is going to be tight!

[steve_wilson]

 

thats how mine sits with the gtir plenum on a pinto. the zetec has a lot wider head. so depending on how long yourthrottle bodies are you might have to put a hole in the bonnet.

 

pm me your email address and i'll get you a cad drawing sent across

 

i wouldnt bother emailing that gtirus place, they never got back to me, i rang them and paid over the phone, turned up the next day, cant fault them

 

cheers, steve

[steve_wilson]

exhaust manifold wise

 

might be worth looking at mk1 focus rs manifolds. they were a zetec with a turbo on the side (even though they are badged as duratec)

 

ive seen them on ebay going for 99p

[steve_wilson]

ta daaaa

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/focus-rs-exhaust-manifold-zetec-turbo-project-/170864798238?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&fits=Model%3AFocus%7CCars+Type%3ARS&hash=item27c855ea1e