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Speed/Performance Mods.

jsbrenman

New Member
Hello Everyone...I'm a newbie here so please forgive me if these questions sound stupid but...

I just purchased a 1989 TTA, which is mostly stock. I would like to perform some substantial modifications to get the car into the mid-11's in the quarter. I'm prepared to invest some good cash to do so. (I have a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8 which does the quarter in about 13 seconds, and my TTA absolutely HAS to be faster!!)

Anyway, I contacted a local speed shop (specializing in Grand Nationals) and they told me about all I can do (considering that I wanna keep the vehicle as reliable as possible) is install a chip, a downpipe and a new exhaust. They told me that if I install a bigger turbo, then I'm likely to damage my engine, which has 70,000 miles on it. Does this sound right?

I really would like the power I could gain with a bigger turbo, but I'm wondering what other mods I will have to make to keep the car reliable, as its my daily driver.

So I guess my questions are....how can I make this BEAST fast AS HELL without damaging my engine and maintaining reliability? Should I just go with the minor mods suggested by the speed shop, or should I go with a bigger turbo, etc? Also, can anyone please recommend a good speed shop with experience with these engines? I'm in Chicago now but am willing to travel. THANKS SO MUCH IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR ADVICE!
 
No I would say the shop is wrong. There's several turbos that you can go with that are fine to run on a stock motor. There's the TA49 which looks like a stock turbo just a little larger compressor wheel which people have gotten into the 11s with but it's more common to see cars in the 12.30 range. There's the TE44 again a little bit bigger which would commonly get you to about 11.80-11.90 with a pretty good tune. Then there's the PT51-PT54, I have a PT51 and still have some traction and tuning issues to solve but I've run a 12.2, however with the PT51 with good traction and good tune you should be in the 11.70 range fairly easily. If you move up to the PT54 you should be in the 11.40 range would be my guess. I hope this helps but you're gunna need to size your injectors accordingly with the turbo.
 
jsbrenman said:
Hello Everyone...I'm a newbie here so please forgive me if these questions sound stupid but...

I just purchased a 1989 TTA, which is mostly stock. I would like to perform some substantial modifications to get the car into the mid-11's in the quarter. I'm prepared to invest some good cash to do so. (I have a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8 which does the quarter in about 13 seconds, and my TTA absolutely HAS to be faster!!)

Anyway, I contacted a local speed shop (specializing in Grand Nationals) and they told me about all I can do (considering that I wanna keep the vehicle as reliable as possible) is install a chip, a downpipe and a new exhaust. They told me that if I install a bigger turbo, then I'm likely to damage my engine, which has 70,000 miles on it. Does this sound right?

I really would like the power I could gain with a bigger turbo, but I'm wondering what other mods I will have to make to keep the car reliable, as its my daily driver.

So I guess my questions are....how can I make this BEAST fast AS HELL without damaging my engine and maintaining reliability? Should I just go with the minor mods suggested by the speed shop, or should I go with a bigger turbo, etc? Also, can anyone please recommend a good speed shop with experience with these engines? I'm in Chicago now but am willing to travel. THANKS SO MUCH IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR ADVICE!

Where are you from? That shop is wrong. Get a turbo,downpipe, fuel pump, injectors, chip from eric, alky from razor, and maybe a convertor. There may be more thats just off the top of my head...
 
Thanks for the input Chris...I'm from Chicago and the speed shop I was referred to is in Gurnee, I think. Do you know of any TTA experts in the Chicago area who could make the mods I'm looking for? NEED HORSEPOWER!!
 
i live in mundelein. not far from gurnee. whats the name of the shop?
I have always done all my mods myself. if your handy its not too hard to perform some of the mods.
 
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