[js335]

Not talking about 10 second dodge caravans but turbo'ing for FE like discussed in a nearby thread. I am a long time lurker on this site and would now like you guy's input on this project. I have a 3.8L ford windstar kid hauler in the fleet that get amazingly horrible gas mileage, around 15-18mpg average, due to the fact that it is... well a ford windstar, and 90% of the time she drives it on very short trips around town(1-5 miles), a lot of times it doesn't get close to reaching operating temp.

I would really like to put an ac motor and half ton of lithium underneath of it but that's no where near in the budget. She wants me to put a diesel in it after seeing how I rarely I fill up my TDI, but a finding an affordable donor car is like finding gold.

I know a lot of people are on the fence about if turbocharging produces FE gains or not, but I think it might if done right, and it will be a fun project so I'm going ahead with it. For this reason I'm not looking to discuss that aspect too much, I'll just see if it works, the worst thing that could happen is I end up with a cool minivan that's fast and gets worse FE.

I'm a euro-car mechanic by trade and like many people on this board my hobbies include welding, fabbing, ecomodding, wiring, building, renewable energizing and (to most people) unnecessarily modifying everyday things. I have installed several turbo kits and built a few homemade turbo systems out of junkyard parts, but never a FE turbo build. One thing I have learned about installing a turbo on a NA engine is that it reaches operating temp much faster, a big benefit in the winter.

My plan is to use a single or dual turbo setup underneath the passenger compartment just rear of the subframe where the exhaust Y is, plenty of room under there, none in the engine compartment. An oil drain scavenge pump will obviously be needed and water injection(I'm a fan) will be used for intercooling.

The first thing I need to figure out is the turbocharger size, I am hoping to find a common unit used for cheap. I want to run 5-6 psi so I'm thinking a smallish turbo(s) with very fast spool. I may have access to a free pair of VW K03 turbos for a VW 1.8t, these small water cooled turbos spool very fast on the 1.8 and I figure the 3.8 is roughly twice the size of the VW engine. I would much rather use a single turbo though, because of the extra fab work involved with the twins.

So for starters, any thoughts on which turbo?