LUVTruck.com

i have a '80 4x4, and i am keeping the stock engine in it. my friend may be getting rid of the turbo out of his Eagle Talon. i was wondering if there is any way i could mate it to my luv. the problem is i do not believe it will work by just mating it into the top of the carb, do to the fact it would pressurize it and not let it run correctly. if you have any ideas let me know.

we pressurize our vw sandrails thru the carb and they run great.the hard part your gonna have is designing a exhaust to hook up to the turbo then off the turbo back under the truck. with a 4x4 you might not like the turbo as it can make low speed off roading a chore. like when your climbing a hill that tubo lag can make it tough. you might want to consider that if you drive on ice alot it can be very unpredictable. with a fuel injected car the problems aren`t as bad because the fuel management is better.with the rails we don`t see much turbo lag thats because there so light there only about 1200lbs. but yes it is possible to hook it up just consider your trade offs first. later

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don`t have the luv no more but I still like em.72 el camino,
00 & 06 silverado one 4x4, turboed vw sandrail,99 banshee, 06 raptor 700, 02 polaris trailblazer.

I think you would play hell trying to get the carb tuned to match up to a turbo. You would have integrate some sort of timing retard knock sensor to keep the motor from detonating, and who knows what else. A turbo is a lot more than just exhaust to shove air into the engine. Adding boost creates problems that you have to deal with, and most of those problems are not simply linear with how wide the throttle is open. You just about need to have more control over the engine, ignition and fuel system than you can get from a 1.8L luv engine. I know there should be some Turbo guys here that can tell you more than I can how much of a job you are looking at. I'm not saying its impossible, but there is a lot to think about in getting it all setup.

If you really want to dig into this, I'd look at some newer 4cyl Isuzu motors that are turbo. See if you can find the oldest Isuzu inline 4 motor with a turbo and get some repair manuals for it. That should give you a better idea of what you might need. There should be a fairly close match to the LUV 1.8L in something like a 2.2L or 2.0L Turbo Impulse I would think.

Racelife: Seems like even a VW motor would need more than just a hat and some boost. There are tons of aftermarket parts made for them and hoards of fanatics though, so I guess I should not be surprised that someone would pull it off. That would be something to see, even sitting still just to learn how its done.

the rails we take to the dunes are pretty basic probably as basic as you can get with a turbo. the motors are totaly stock with the acception of intake,carb and header.we only run 6psi through them with no detination. electric fuel pump and regulator that is boost referenced.some of my friends motor have 8 seasons with no failers setup this way. but i think alot of that has to do with the weight of the rails .if you were to put that motor in street driven car with the extra load it would probably rattle it self to death. especially with a 4x4 i don`t think it would be to practical it would be interesting to though.

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don`t have the luv no more but I still like em.72 el camino,
00 & 06 silverado one 4x4, turboed vw sandrail,99 banshee, 06 raptor 700, 02 polaris trailblazer.

ive posted the story before about the buddies that put N20 on a mail jeep. dont remember the hp, but it at least double it. a mail jeep is a lot like a stock luv. it was a 4x4. anyway. they ran it in the mud fine for a bottle or two, and hit the road and chunked the transfercase. blew it to the moon. they were smoking the 30" tires with it

dont know if this relates or not, but just thought id post it. we DEFINATELY found the weak link!

Would a stock 1.8 even be able to handle boost without blowing the notorious head gasket?

dont know, but the little mail jeep had a 4 banger with a big kit on it, and it held longer than the t case. N20 on a 1.8 probably wouldnt be a good long term idea

if you want lowend tourque go by a superchager they will give you massive amounts of tourque and horse power trust me