looking to boost my 1998 sedan base model. have done a lot of work on the paint, suspension, and interior, and a few bolt on mods to the engine, but now looking to build for boost.
so I was wondering you guys suggestions on the best way to boos this engine? no I don't want to switch to an ecotec and bolt on the supercharger kit. I am looking to turbo this car and piece together a turbo kit, or looking to supercharge it, but it doesn't seem it has been or can be done. any suggestions?

Check my profile

It's been done plenty of times.

What are your goals?


"A car just isn't a car without a little blood, sweat, and beers." -- Shadowfire

ive read some of yours stuff, seems you've done a lot! well currently stock motor and internals, so I plan to run between 5-8.5 lbs of boost. and when you say its been done plenty of times, are you referring to the supercharger? I want to piece together a kit, hoping to spend about 1000$ in all the parts, already found a garrett t28 turbo my friend has I an get for 100$. hoping to spend about 2000$ in custom welding and tuning and install.

lol @ $1000 for a turbo kit.
You might want to save for a couple more years, and do it right.
My turbo was $850 alone, intercooler was $500.
5-8.5 psi isn't worth doing, you would have much more fun with N2O.
It would be cheaper and get you the same HP gain.
I'm running 22-25 psi and that is where the real fun is at.
Build the motor, and price out reliable components.
You will soon see that $1000 isn't a good base number.

then where do you suggest starting with building the motor?

I would do pistons, rods, all new bearings, HVHP oil pump conversion, cam, 1.6 roller rockers, hybrid lifter conversion, pushrods, valves.
Resurface the head and block and use a high performance head gasket, I recommend Cometic MLS.
While you are rebuilding, you can weld in your turbo oil drain, and plug this until the turbo is fitted.
Also, with the engine out, you can mock up your manifold.
I sell 2200 stainless exhaust flanges if your going to make your own manifold.
You can look through my profile, and ask me any questions.

I ran 5psi for a while on a stock motor, then 10. I wouldnt advise against it; and it can be done for under $2k if you look in the right places. The car was fun, but it wasnt what I would call fast. My best time with a horrible launch was 14.7 at like 96-98 (i forget) on 5psi.

Also, with a t28 you would be wasting money building the motor IMO.

Do I think a full build is a complete waste? no; but if the end goal is 275whp or less (i would advise more like 250 and under for most) then there is no reason to put a motor together as long as you can get a quality tune in the car. I would put a t28 at 250whp on an ln2 and leave it stock and drive it without worrying (I ran an ebay kit with a $150 "t04e" this way for like 50k miles/3 years).

If the OP is looking for 300 or more, i would advise on a larger turbo and a motor build.

However, I wouldnt do *ANY* of that at all until you can find someone who can tune the thing. If you dont know how to tune and cant find someone familiar with j's then you are going to end up with a pile of shrapnel or a motor that just doesn't put out as much as it can because of a horrible tune. The only area that I will say that needs a quality set of parts is the fuel pump, FPR, injectors, and wastegate.

After having a build motor on my setup running 21psi last year I can vouch for how much more fun it is, but I did have quite a good time with the car running on 10psi before I had my built motor together.

I would like to see another boosted LN2 though, so no matter what you do... DO IT!!




"A car just isn't a car without a little blood, sweat, and beers." -- Shadowfire

shadowfire, I plan on boosting sometime within the next year. I have a friend with a sentra running 12 psi on a stock engine making 220 to the wheels. I say this because I am going to have a custom kit built and installed by a place called mlp in Portsmouth Virginia. if I supply thr turbo, intercooler, piping, and larger injectors their total for a tune installation and all custom parts to be made is around 2600$. not bad and I have seen them do quality work. my end goal is about 230 hp to the wheels. do you think this is achievable for a t28, intercooled, a good tune, on a stock engine with intake and larger fuel pump and injectors?

230whp is definitely doable on a t28 and stock motor. Idk how many psi it would take to get there, but the motor can take it.

Leave room in the injector size for more power than 230 though. Just in case you want more power down the road.




"A car just isn't a car without a little blood, sweat, and beers." -- Shadowfire

what size injectors should I start out with? ic size? kinda new to boost, I understand how it works just never researched specs. since youre the only guy I know that has a boosted 2.2l , do you mind giving me A LOT of insight that will save me headaches?

Conner, there is a good deal on a set of RC Engineering injectors in the classifieds right now that should work.
For my turbo 2200 built I'm using the Cobalt SS LSJ injectors which are 36# IIRC. Another good source for injectors is a supercharged
Pontiac Grand Prix or Buick Regal, their injectors are a direct swap and i believe they are 32#.
All depends on your plans with the car and where you want to take it in the future. I would say that if you plan on building the
engine later to go a head and grab some larger injectors maybe some 42# ers.

If it were my build, and looking back on what I have done with my car already I would honestly get a set of 60s. I had a set for like 2 weeks in the car till i upgraded to 80s lol. Ive gone through injectors 4 times now. The car drives like stock on the 80's that are in it so I would recommend at least 60s. Theyre not much more than a set of used injectors of a smaller size.

Regarding boosting the ln2, there are a number of guys on here who have done it and a few with high power builds too. Concerning a stock motor under 250whp there really arent that many headaches.

I would recommend either the racetronix pump or something larger. I have an aeromotive 340 in my car and it performs quite well. Doing the fuel pump, either upgrade the wiring with the drop in kit from racetronix or make your own relay with larger wires. My 340 burned up the stock connector pack pins before I upgraded the wires. I made my own harness and have the relay in the trunk mounted to my battery box

I have the aeromotive boost reference FPR too on the fuel rail. I think most guys run that. Solid piece (i forget the part number though).

If youre building your own exhaust setup (or having it done) there really isnt much advice in that area. I made quite a bit of power on 2.25" that was kinda just hacked together. I recommend at least 2.5" throughout. Log manifold will be fine for the power level youre looking for.

I recommend quality parts for the Wastegate and Bov. I ran ebay cheapo stuff for a long time without problems, but I wouldnt call it a good idea. Towards the end of the season my wastegate was ranging from 21 to 26psi because the diaphragm could not take that level. at 5-10 psi it was just fine though.

Personally I dont like manual boost controllers (yea, im sure they are fine for 99% of people). I recommend either a good electronic controller OR getting a gate spring setup that works for the pressure you want/need to run and run it right off the gate alone.

I got a vacuum block from ebay that I tee'd into the brake booster line for boost refrerences. I wanted to use the brake booster port cause it has more volume than the little ports on the throttle body. Probably not necessary, but it looks cleaner than having 40 tees in the vacuum line system and theres less chance of a vacuum leak cause there are fewer connections.

Dont do anything without a wideband. Im sure you're aware of this, but it always begs repeating. You simply cant tune without it safely or properly.

Regarding the turbo oil supply. There are ports on the back of the block that are 1/4NPT and have a square socket (1/4 drive ratchet extension will fit in them). Thats where you can pull oil from without any adapters besides whatever you choose to use to get from the 1/4NPT to your turbo. I run -3an.

Oil return, this is where a lot of people have a lot of strong opinions. The principle is simple though. Get the oil out without any delay or back pressure. If your turbo is high enough on the car then you just need to have a fitting installed on the oil pan to drain to. As straight as possible and as large as possible (-10an is the typical size). If the turbo sits low like mine does, you will need a scavenge pump to pull out the oil and return it to the motor. This is less likely though. On my old setup I had a gravity drain right into where the oil dip tube goes (didnt have the tube on the car). Some make adapters to keep the dip tube and tee the drain into it, I would recommend that.

Along with oil being drained from the turbo you need to be concerned with crankcase pressure. Crankcase pressure (if there is enough of it) will impede oil drain into the crankcase. The 2200 has a PCV nipple on the valve cover and one between intake runners 2 and 3 under the intake manifold. I plugged that port under the manifold because there is no check valve there and boost will enter the crankcase. I then added 2 1/2' nipples to the valve cover and plumbed them to a catch can to alleviate crankcase pressure. There is more than one way to skin a cat, but the crankcase pressure needs to be relieved somehow.


Other than all that, there isnt much more info to provide for a lower power setup (unless im forgetting something... its been a while since I had a stock motor in the car)

The only other 2 things I can say are:
1) Prepare to replace the motor. They are cheap enough. Not that you WILL break something but you should not go into something like this without being at least prepared for the worst. If anything itll make you feel better that you knew what could happen. I never damaged my stock motor on low boost/power (heck the bearings, block and internals all looked almost new when i disassembled it at 120k after 20k of boost).
2) I dont recommend doing this to a car that you use as your sole transportation. I cant count the number of times I ran into the "@!#$ I forgot to get that!" or "Damn it this broke!".








"A car just isn't a car without a little blood, sweat, and beers." -- Shadowfire

thanks for all your help. have a plan to save 100$ a week until next summer, starting when I return to college. I have my own little hustle on the side so I should be able to budget for it, also an accounting major lol. but I appreciate the help and insight into what it takes to boost the ohv. just picked up the garrett t28 turbo yesterday. I have it sitting in oil until I decide to put it on. next things to buy are an ebay intercooler, blow off valve, and exhaust flange with an adapter. slowly parting together the kit, when I have all the parts I think I need, ill hand it over to the shop for all the custom welding and install and tune. hopefully by next summer well both see another 2.2l ohv running around 8-10 psi!

You will gain a lot of knowledge from the people on this forum. The most important part of building the engine is research. I have a fully built and boosted 01 sedan, 2200 OHV with a fully built 4t40e auto tranny. At the moment, I am not done tuning, and my goals are around 325 wheel hp at 20 PSI or so. I had been buying parts for about 3 years, and the car took me about a year an half to put everything together when it was all ready. I did the ENTIRE car over. My build thread is on here as well for pictures and reference if you need it. Pistons, rods, arp studs, M98 oil pump, MLS gasket, full head work and a decent size turbo with the right fuel upgrades and tune and the car is a blast to drive. The tune is the most important part and will make or break the build.

Driving my car around now on only 8 psi and its a completely different car when with just bolt ons. You will spend lots of time and money on the build if done right, but its a great feeling when its finally all together.


XtremE2200CaV: The Build has Begun
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/3864109/2001-chevrolet-cavalier-sedan-4d