Gingerman Merkur and mustang/capri teams w/ 2.3 Turbo. What boost?

Ask the guys from Hennessey Tuning that run the XR4Ti at MSR every year. Have you seen the turbo in that thing? It's wicked fast ... when it's actually running and/or not in the penalty box.

Considering one of our guys helped both those teams out, maybe I'd get a little info.  If not, no biggie.

I'd just rather not blow the thing up for an extra 20 HP.  I do know the other TC to run in Lemons was able to run a whole race at 15 psi max.

I've played with turbo 2.3's a bit, my SVO was one of the more fun cars I've owned.

Stock turbo, you can push 25lbs into the engine without spilling the guts. The turbo will be so overworked at that level you will need to change it when you pit for gas.

I would set it up at 15 and roll it all weekend.

now you have me thinking about finding another turbo 2.3 for the pintostang...

Anything over 0 is a ticking time bomb with the 2.3. On the flip side with no boost you can almost drive it as hard as you want not blow up a 2.3 if you keep it below 6k RPM's

I run 12-14 psi on THE Tools XR4Ti.  We blew our head gasket and cracked our head while leading 4 hours into Gingerman in October.  The $10 head gasket had about 3000 street miles and 2000 miles of crapcan racing on it.  The engine, head, and turbo are all stock. The gasket was a $10 FelPro.

Do these engines naturally have issues blowing head gaskets?  It shouldn't let go unless something is wrong (detonation, etc).  When they fail, how do they fail?  Fire ring pushed into the coolant passage?  Or is it completely broken?  Any signs of melting?

If an injector drops out or your fuel tank is full of rust cause your crapcan sat for 8 years, then you're going to have problems (melted/cracked pistons, head gasket, etc).  But if you have a reliable fuel system supplying enough fuel (AFRs at least into the 12s @WOT @max boost) and your timing isn't too agressive, it should run and run and run.  Run fresh wires to the fuel pump(s) and make sure they're getting as much voltage as possible.

Fit the largest intercooler you can within your budget.  Many stock '80s intercoolers are not very efficient and have quite a bit of pressure drop at ~15psi (specifically the volvo 240/740 intercooler, which is large, but not my first choice).

This probably goes without saying, but port the exhaust manifold to match the T3 inlet and use the .63 a/r turbine housing.  Better top end, less heat buildup.

There are different ways to get the same max boost.  Could run a stronger wastegate actuator, or just a bleed valve.  This will build boost slower, but that might not be a bad thing.  A ball & spring manual boost controller will often spike and then settle back down.  There is a delay in the signal to the WG actuator, so it should build boost quicker.

I think we're still planning on adding a turbo to the volvo before New Jersey next year, so we'll see how things go.  A lot of things could go wrong...I'm just hoping none of them do.

One option is to install or upgrade to a fuel system that is capable of running with boost and supplying proper fuel and ignition timing.  In our '91 Volvo, it's easy. There were factory turbo models using the same basic fuel system, so we plug 'n play the fuel and ignition ECU from a turbo model, change out the injectors for larger ones, and install the turbo+plumbing.  It's really simple, and it works.

If that's not easy, cheap, simple, or even plausible, you could just slap in some slightly larger injectors, retard the base timing, and run low boost on an otherwise "non-turbo" fuel system.  Kinda sorta works halfway decent sometimes.

Or you can install hobbs switches and extra injectors, or a more fancy piggyback system to add fuel.  One issue may be the ignition timing, so you may need to change the distributor, retard base timing, or otherwise find a way to not run 50 degrees advance when you only need 28 at a given point on the map in boost.

Some systems will scale up with a larger air mass meter, resistor wired in, and bigger injectors.  You need to do your homework here and monitor everything closely because you may alter ignition timing as a side effect, which can lead to broken pistons if you're not careful.

If you like a challenge, just use a draw-through or blow-through carb(s).

Read the plugs, throw an EGT sensor on the hottest cylinder, let 'er rip.

60qt cooler in the back seat filled with ice water for the water injection system, refill as needed.

Blow through requires boost-sensing fuel pressure so you don't force the fuel beck into the float bowl via the jets. Suck through is just plain shitty.

Bandaids like water injection are best left to drag racers and people who don't need 'just another mile PLEASE' of capacity after it runs out. The hardware to drop boost/timing when it runs out costs more than doing the hardware right in the first place.