2.3L NA vs. Turbo Differences

[ricardo93]

Wow, thats cool, ive never seen a turo or supercharged carb'd motor ijust know the limits the carb seals and such can handle

 

[LSX_Marshall]

Well with the draw through setup, the carb doesn't see boost so the seals aren't really under any pressure. But I heard the fuel running through the turbo eats turbos pretty quick, probably the reason nobody uses them much anymore. And I believe the draw through 2.3's had the turbo made into the intake manifold.

 

[ricardo93]

Do you have a diagram like that of how a supercharged carbureted motor looks?

 

[LSX_Marshall]

Well the old style blowers and screw type supercharger were almost all draw through before efi came along. Doubt anyone ever made a draw through centrifugal supercharger, couldn't find one anyways.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Scotts90ranger can help you with informantion concerning turbos and turboing the 2.3

I don't know much if anything about carbureted engines unless they're single cylinder , I'm with the others, hard to tell unless you pull the head, a boreoscope might help but probably still hard to tell

 

[Kenneth S]

Well with the draw through setup, the carb doesn't see boost so the seals aren't really under any pressure. But I heard the fuel running through the turbo eats turbos pretty quick, probably the reason nobody uses them much anymore. And I believe the draw through 2.3's had the turbo made into the intake manifold.

With a draw through carb like the old 2.3 turbo setup the turbo has to have a carbon seal on the intake side of the turbo for a positive seal since a draw through turbo sees intake vacuum. The carbon seals prevent the engine from sucking in oil on the intake, and prevents gasoline from getting into the bearings of the turbo. Carbon seals also have more drag which also makes the turbo spool up slightly slower than the regular "piston ring" type seals used in turbos for diesels, and blow through setups. The "piston ring" type seals do not like intake vacuum, and gas which will wipe out a turbo after a while. The real reasons the draw through 2.3 setup wasn't popular mainly because it was low boost 5-6 psi, the added price, and mechanics were afraid of them. Just like the old turbo Covairs in the 60's, auto mechanics didn't know much about turbos, and when one brought in that didn't run quite right they blamed it on the turbo, and convinced the owners that they should be removed (kind of like now if you were to take a truck with a points distributor, and carb to a dealership most mechanics wouldn't know the first thing to do since they couldn't plug a scan tool to it first).