"I've already heard some of the negatives from others, but does anyone have a list of positives?"
Both Jeff Scott and Jeff York have responded to this and made excellent comments to be considered. I admit I am biased to the positive side of turbo's so I will add my opinion. As far as more piping is concerned this is entirely application specific. I have seen installations that used less tubing than a four-into-one exhaust header. Cooling is by far the most important issue especially for an air cooled engine. Installing a turbo without installing a intercooler is a mistake. And since an aircooled engine's turbo relies on good oil an oversized oil cooler should be installed. Air/fuel ratio is also critical to the life of the engine and your ability to control this with a carburetor is just as important and can be done. Exhaust leaks and weight are also installation dependent. But weight will be increased over a NA engine installation which is acceptable when you consider your ability to create sea level HP at whatever the critical altitude of you turbo turns out to be. In general terms a 100 HP engine at sea level will be down to approximately 73 HP at 10000 feet where your turbo installation is still producing 100 HP. That's 27% more power for whatever your weight increase happens to be. Remember that the air is less dense too so the overall drag on the aircraft is less at altitude also. Wear on the motor is application and operational specific. If it is a normalizing application there should be no increase in wear on the motor. Turbos come in all shapes and sizes and can fit all kinds or RPMs. 2400 engine RPM should not be a problem. In general small turbos are used in automobiles and spool quickly. Not really what you want in an airplane installation so the turbo you want in your airplane will probably be larger than you think. In my opinion turbos are worth it but they are not without issues. These issues are not beyond the abilities of anyone who rebuilt their own engine and has at least a basic understanding of how they work. Stephen Teate Composite Cooling Solutions, L.P. 4150 International Plaza, Suite 500 Fort Worth, Texas 76109 817-708-9140 ************************************************************** The information in this email is confidential and may be legally privileged. If you are not an intended recipient, you should delete this message. Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorized, and any disclosure, copying, distribution or action taken or omitted in reliance on it is prohibited and may be unlawful. **************************************************************
