Well, the time for upgrading from stock turbo's is coming soon.

I need suggestions for turbo selection, but the main thing I want is not a dyno queen but a turbo that is going to spool almost like stock with a bit more power to get me to the 500/500 mark or close to it, anything above 450HP I would think would be lovely.

- JWT Sport 500: spools like stock but might be a bit short of the 450 mark that I was shooting for. Fits current downpipes as well.

- TD0516G: great turbo, crappy manifolds (crack), and I would have to replace my downpipes as well that I got a bit ago.

- JWT 530BB: another great turbo from what I hear but not sure about it's performance/spoolups, have no experience.

- PE Turbos: Know nothing about them, relatively new to the scene from what I understand.

 

Just go with the Disco Potatoe's (GT28R) there is a write up on hwo to install them on 300ZXclub.com. the whole turbo swap will run you for about 1,500 +/- an dthose turbos will( good for about 600hp. (320 a apiece) the spool on them is really good. I have the same amount of lag with that T28 on my Sr than the lag I had with the Stock T25. great turbo great spool for a great price. it will put down outstanding numbers as well.

 

you also have the amz stage 2 turbos, and the gt525s and gt600Rs
i was going to choose between the amz stage 2s and gt525s for the 450 mark. still hoping to have them sometime in the next few years

ive heard a few good things about the PE turbos, but like you said, not many people have them. i have also heard bad stories about the jwts that they dont last longer than 15-20k miles, but it may not be all jwts fault(driver, eng condition, etc)

 

http://www.twinturbo.net/net/viewmsg...&msg_id=694402

found this in my Link Page.

 

Sport 500's are gonna be a little short of your goals.

PE1420's are laggy as hell and underperform... that's why no one talks about them anymore. Everyone was psyched about them when they came out (even made me reconsider my GT2530's for a while), then people started posting their dynos and they became a huge joke. Some problem with the wastegates not being capable of high boost or something like that, if I recall correctly.

Sport 530's would be perfect for what you're looking for, to be honest. They actually perform closer to the output of a Sport 600, but spool better because they're a bit smaller and ball bearing; they're a MUCH better turbo design than the outdated Sport 600.

TD05 16G is WAY too big for what you want. They're laggy (yes, I've driven TD05 16G equipped 300ZX's), and for what you're looking for, they're overkill. If you only want 450+rwhp, these turbos are going to get you there with too much lag.

In fact, if you were considering TD05 16G-like performance, I'd recommend the HKS GT2530's or Garrett GT2860RS with .64 housings (.86 makes them too laggy, hence why the Sport 700's aren't as popular as they should be).

Bardabe's suggestion is also note-worthy, but he got the names wrong. Not only are they not named that way anymore, but with all technicality, the GT28R is NOT a disco potato... here's the new names...
GT2860RS = Disco Potato
GT2860R = Disco French Fry (well, it doesn't have a fun name, but that's what I call it)

If you care for the history of the term, as well as why a GT28R is not a disco potato, it was a Nissan Sentra track car that was brown, and was equipped with a GT28RS (back when it was called that). The car became known as the Disco Potato (due to the funky paint job), which later got passed on to the GT28RS turbo. The GT28R (GT2860R) is a slightly smaller turbo, and is therefore not a Disco Potato.

GT2860R's will get you to where you want to be faily cheap, and GT28RS's are, basically, HKS GT2530's, so they'll perform a little better.

And also for reference, my old 300ZX with stock intercoolers and catalytic converters put down 431rwhp/416.6rwtq at 1.38 bar with GT2530's (after a 1 hour drive to the shop in 95degree heat with little cool-down time, and after two other runs at lower boost levels). With the Stillen Intercoolers I have on the way and test pipes, the car should EASILY make 450rwhp on my street settings. My old engine, compared to the one in my car now or the built one that I put in after the dyno, was very tired and didn't perform like it should have, despite the heat and bad dyno-conditions [by the way, stock intercoolers heat soak at 17psi VERY quickly, LOL].

Hope this helped.

 

Yah,

I'm sitting at 360/411tq (high tq for some reason) on stock turbo's at this point. I'm not really sure why I have so much more torque than most people Mark couldn't really explain it either, was really suprised and the # is consistent across mulitple dyno's.

I'm looking at the 530BB's but the price is a bit rough, I have to upgrade injectors as well and replace my downpipes. The 2530's were my other choice and the TD0516 my third.

What about clipping/porting/polishing on turbo's I've seen a lot but never quite understood the purpose.. I'm not very educated on turbo design I really need to sit down and read a book.. In my spare time..

 

Clipping the turbos will help lag but reduce power output (it essentially reduces the rotational mass of the wheels, at the sacrifice of decreased surface area on the blades). Not worth it, in my opinion. I actually haven't heard of anyone doing it to a turbo on a 300ZX; it's more common in the DSM world.

Porting the exhaust side might give some gains, but not much on a 300ZX with stock manifolds. You'd see more gains in a nice set of SZ Inconel manifolds, or even porting your own stock manifolds, than porting the exhaust housing (IMO at least). While porting the stock manifolds won't give huge gains like the inconel manifold would, I'd expect them to be larger than the gains of porting the turbo, since the stock manifolds are more restrictive.

If you're worried about cost and want power between Sport 530 and GT2530, the GT2860R is a great option. You can get two of these turbos for probably less than ~$2k, clock them, do some minor modifications (which are all detailed in a write-up that I could post if you're interested), and it'll be a great, inexpensive setup (about half the cost of the HKS GT2530 kit, when all is said and done).