thinking about going turbo

I hope you do build a turbo car! Here are my 2 cents:

I just built a turbo 340 and am working out the final bugs. There are a few decisions to make to get it dialed in for your needs. If it is a mostly street car, you might want a smaller turbo, or even smaller twins to get that quick responsive power. A mostly race car will want a much bigger turbo for massive top end power. You can set a horsepower goal and study the turbo maps to determine what lb/min airflow will support that horsepower at a given pressure.

The forums have great info, including some great turbo builds on this forum. Each builder is working toward different goals so keep that in mind.

It is also good to talk to people about your goals and price range. I called many turbo manufacturers and dealers to get opinions before finding a middle ground on all the recommendations. Everyone was helpful including: Precision Turbos, Turbonetics, Hellion, and Central motive power (talk to "Mack" at the Denver store). Hellion had good prices and options, and I got my Borg Warner S366 of the self for $650 at Central Motive.

Here are some good turbo resources.

http://www.turbobygarrett.com/turbobygarrett/
http://www.turbos.bwauto.com/aftermarket/airwerks.aspx
http://www.precisionturbo.net/
http://www.turboneticsinc.com/performance/
http://www.hellionpowersystems.com/
http://www.tialsport.com/
http://www.nelsonracingengines.com/

I started out with cheap power being my goal, and now I want crisp reliable power for my street car. The number one place not to skimp in my opinion is the waste-gate. Get a sold unit like a Tial. The benefits of ball bearing turbos is probably not worth the price for most applications, you can save money there. Billet compressors may be worth the price depending on the turbo.

This is my turbo build:
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showthread.php?t=278468