by: ttLtrSl2

It all started back in the spring of 2000 when I had my 92 SL2 engine rebuilt at Performance Engineering in Ashley, Pa. This rebuild consisted of having my DOHC 1.9 liter engine bored to 2.0 and the head polished and slightly ported. During the rebuild process I added a few extra bolt-on goodies like an extrude honed intake manifold, SPS Fuel Pressure Regulator (FPR), Center Force Dual Friction Clutch, SPS exhaust, Magnecor wires, and Accel coil packs.

The performance gain of the rebuild was definitely noticeable but later that year when I had the car dyno'd it was only putting a whimy 122 hp to the wheels. Considering the money that went into the rebuild I was completely blown away with these sad results. So, ever since that fateful dyno day I toyed with the idea of forced induction, but never really did much about it until the fall of 2002. I never wanted to go crazy with boost. I wanted a car that was streetable and somewhat reliable, if there is such a thing. At first I wanted to install a supercharger, because it seemed like a simple install and it would be more of a pain to adjust boost, which is a good thing in my case. I didn't want to be able to easily adjust the boost for fear of blowing the motor. Anyway, I thought it would be cool to be one of literally a few people (at the time) to add a supercharger to their Saturn. I had researched superchargers for quite a while and tried to narrow it down to which one I should buy. I found that a decent supercharger would cost me at least $600-900. Unfortunately, this was well outside my budget since I wanted to do the entire install for that price. After a lot of thinking I realized a turbo (with no boost controller) would be more practical for me as far as costs were concerned. I could not afford to buy a kit out right, so piecing everything together was my only option.

I had a general idea of how a turbo worked, but needed to know more. I went to Barnes & Nobles and bought Maximum Boost by Cork Bell. I studied the book and formulated lots of turbo related questions in reference to my Saturn. It took some time to research everything and get all the pieces so I could do the install myself.

I started out by getting a turbo (Garret T3 w/ oil and water lines from a Saab) from the local junk yard. Since I was doing the install on a budget this was right up my alley. I also figured I could upgrade to a new or rebuilt turbo later on down the road. The biggest dilemma I faced was finding a manifold at a reasonable price. No matter where I searched everyone wanted a fortune for either pre-made or custom manifold. I got lucky one day and came across a Thomas Knight turbo manifold on eBay. I won the bid and saved about half the price of a new one. The next thing on my list was an intercooler (IC). I knew I wanted a fount mount style and it had to be aluminum, for looks of course. A friend of mine used an IC from a Mitsubishi Starion. He had good results with his and it looked good, so my mind was sent on one of those or one similar to it. Since these cars are no longer in production I would only be able to find one online or at a salvage yard. Again, surfing Ebay paid off. I got lucky and found a Starion IC for a great price. Once it arrived I had to get 2 ¼" piping welded to the end tanks, so it would mate up properly with the 2 1/4" IC pipes. I used a stock Blow Off Valve (BOV) from a WRX to take care of the pressure built up created by letting of the throttle, which was a freebie, well kinda. Earlier in the year I upgraded the BOV on my wives WRX and since the stock BOV was lying around collecting dust I couldn't go wrong.

To control the fuel needs I bought a Votech 8:1 Fuel Management Unit (FMU). I retrieved some information from the net on FMU's and figured an FMU would do the job. Since I am only running 5 lbs of boost I knew the stock injectors could handle the extra fuel pressure. The net recommended that I use a 9:1 FMU if I was using my stock FPR. I decide to go with an 8:1 FMU and if the car ran lean than I could install the SPS FPR to give me the extra fuel needed. To save on downtime I ordered the oil fittings and oil lines from Fire Power Performance Turbos. They were very helpful and knew everything that I needed to get oil to the turbo and back to the pan. Then one day where my father in-law works I found out that they were throwing away some aluminum 2 ¼" piping so I picked up my IC piping for free. Free stuff is always a big help with a budget project like this one. I am temporarily using silicone elbows to connect all my IC piping together. I plan on getting all the IC pipes welded together, but will have to wait until more money is available. The stock cooling fan was way too big to allow the turbo to fit in its proper place, so I had to get a slim fan. I had some fun with this. I ordered one from JCWhitney for under $100 including shipping. After waiting a week I checked their website to see what the hold up was. It said the order was canceled. I desperation I went to the local auto parts store and forked out a few extra bucks for a fan. Only to come home the next day and find the originally ordered fan on my doorstep. Once the fan was taken cars of I moved on to the downpipe. I had my downpipe custom made from pieces of exhaust pipe and then had a nut welded to the outside for the 02 sensor. The downpipe is temporarily connected to my SPS exhaust using some flex pipe. I plan on upgrading to a 2 ½ exhaust and high flow cat, but as we know this is a budget install so I'm taking baby steps. Now on with the install!