I'm still learning about how turbos work and how to pick the right one for the balt since I'm keeping it. First question is can a turbo run just pump gas(92-93) at say 22psi or does it need race gas? I know once you have a nice sized turbo and you are running high boost you have to add better fuel. the turbos I have been looking at are the 50 trim(if it will work on the balt),gt28,gt30, and the Turbonetics GT-K 350 or 450(i think thats the name). I would like to run pump and make 350whp to 400whp. I have seen a few people say that the 50 trim does really good on pump. So i would like to know from the people that know their stuff to help me out so I don't waste time and money.

thanks for helping me learn

 

yes you can run pump gas with hi psi turbo applications. the only reason people use race gas is for even better numbers...

 

Ok thanks.

 

You can tune a car to run race gas...All blower cars run off high octane pump gas. Like tREBs said, putting in 100 octane you get more power but it's not good on your engine.

 

race gas can be used to achieve more hp,but car has to to tuned to reach the the power...poppin race gas into a un-tuned turbo car will give u bout 5-10hp vs 50-100hp..also u can crank up the boost more with race gas to see higher hp numbers

 

on a stock engine, adding a turbo effectively raises combustion temperatures due to more air/fuel mixture being burned per revolution. high combustion chmber temperatures cause detonation, which destroys engines rather rapidly. there are many common ways to combat this however:

intercooling---lowers intake temperatures and thusly lowers cylinder temperatures
lower compression ratio---lowers the amount the AF mixture is squished before igniting, reducing temp and possibility of detonation
retarding ignition timing---lowers combustion chamber temperatures
running richer AFRs---cold fuel cools the combustion chamber
higher octane gas---requires more extreme conditions before detonation occurs

basically, the lower the octane you use, the more your going to want to focuz on these other solutions

the reason higher octane fuel is loved is retarding ignition timing means less horsepower, lower compression means less horsepower, running richer means less horsepower

intercooling and higher octane fuels are the only means to resist detonation without sacrificing horsepower (intercooling actually increases HP as well)

hope you understand a bit more now, and feel free to ask any questions you want or IM me
AIM: HunterKiller2989

 

So if I get the gt30 and ran 20 to 22psi I would be ok, I just wouldn't see as much power as I would with race gas.

 

If you're running that high on boost I hope you've replaced your stock internals

 

and uhm a gt30 cant be down-boosted past 12psi or so..

 

Yes I know the internals have to be changed and I'll have to do some other things to it. I just wanted to know about which turbo I could run and the oct I would have to run with it.

 

+rep for our convo on AIM

 

Thanks and +rep for all the help you gave me.