I certainly do not have the experience of say Orma Roberts on turbo charging a VW motor. But I have done a fair amount of turbo charging on high performance and smaller displacement auto engines.
I am a true believer in the benefits of turbo charging an automotive engine and have thought a lot of the possible benefits of a turbo aircraft application. But a combination of concerns have kept me from doing it, especially to a VW motor. First I and many others have struggled with high oil temps on our N/A VW motors. Add a turbo and I believe you will compound that issue to a level to great to overcome. This was something of an issue with automotive apps and that's with a turbo that can use large oil coolers and computer based turbo timers, advanced air fuel metering to ensure best fuel air delivery and therefore better engine life and so on. I just hesitate to believe that adding a high temp turbo with its added weight, higher oil temps, mechanical waste gate and such is something Im willing to bet the life and cost of my VW motor to. Your thoughts and concerns of the custom exhaust and such would be the least of your concerns in my opnion. Its oil temps, accurate air fuel control and boost/ waste gate control that would concern me. That and the associated motor life, head gasket life and such. I believe Rayjay had or has a turbo for the VW and its the same one that was used by Revmaster. Someone can correct me if im wrong and I don't believe Revmaster offers a turbo anymore. But they do have an interesting new 23xx VW motor available. I love turbos. On cars, just not sure how to do it right on an aircraft. Especially a VW powered VW. Jeff York KR-2 N839BG Lexington/ Georgetown KY. -----Original Message-----