What type of turbo can you put on a 1997 Camaro with a 3.8 liter engine?

Answer 1

That depends on how much money you have. Seriously. There are hundreds of options and you can make just about anything work with enough money and ingenuity.

That said, I wouldn't recommend it, anyways. Not that it's a bad idea. Turbos are great. They make great power very efficiently. However, in your scenario, supercharging is much more practical.

I'm going to assume that you are not planning to get into hardcore racing, otherwise you'd have better means to this answer (not to mention a V8), and are probably working on a limited budget like the rest of us. My guess is you're looking to improve the performance of your V6 and hopefully whoop the pants off of some of those smug V8 drivers while still getting 30mpg.

You could supercharge that car very easily. GM produced the 3.8L V6 engine in supercharged form in several vehicles. The Pontiac Bonneville SSEi, Pontiac Grand Prix GTP, Buick Park Avenue Ultra, Buick Riviera (can't remember trim package), and several others. The supercharged 3.8L is a surprisingly powerful engine with outstanding efficiency and phenomenal durability. I, myself, had a '92 Park Ave Ultra that ran 265,000 miles without ever touching the engine for more than maintenance and tune-ups, would beat my stock '87 Mustang 5.0 off the line (not in a race, just in get-up-&-go), and still averaged over 27mpg. Even then, the engine and trans still ran great...the rest of the car was wore out! My personal opinion is the engine was so good that GM purposely never put the supercharged version in Camaro's & Firebird's because it would have hurt V8 sales. I also believe it's durability is the reason they stopped producing the engine recently. It's hard to sell new cars when the old ones are still running better than much of the new stuff 10 years later! But, I digress....

The point is, it would be pretty easy to find a cheap donor car (there's a running Park Ave Ultra in good shape near me for $800) and simply swap parts. Or, pull the engine, freshen & beef it a little, and swap it in your car (then put yours in the car and sell it...win-win!). Instant performance upgrade, great efficiency, long life, pretty easy job, and very little cost!

What kind of performance? A stock 1997 Chevrolet Camaro 3.8L V6 makes 200 hp and 225 lb-ft of torque. A stock 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP (better choice as the computer will be more performance tuned than a luxury sedan) makes 240 hp and 280 lb-ft of torque. According to a 1/4-mile estimator I found, a stock hardtop Camaro weighing 3,306 lbs with a 200 hp V6 should do around 15.64 sec in the 1/4 (close to factory claims). The same setup with 240 hp should do 14.72...near a full second faster...and that's not counting the improved take-off of the exta 55 lb-ft of torque.

40 extra horsepower, 55 extra lb-ft, and 1-sec off the 1/4-mile for next to nothing?!? I know what I'd do!