Auto Parts: turbocharger, wheel drive cars, rear wheel drive cars


Question
Is there a turbocharger that will fit a 3.4L V6 on an 04 Pontiac Grand am SE2?

Answer
    I don't think that there is anyone making a kit to put a turbo on that engine/car combination.  But, you can put a turbo on any car, if you really want to.  There is an excellent book, available from Amazon and lots of other places, by Hugh MacInnes that contains everything that you might need to know to adapt a turbocharger to a car (or a plane or a boat or a tractor, etc.).  It contains a lot of detailed information about past kits and adaptations, as well as a great deal of practical information about the detail design of these systems.  There's very little math involved, and it is all made very clear.  There are only two obstacles to what you want to do: 1) it ain't cheap (a turbo by itself is around a grand, and you will have to engineer and build the plumbing that connects it to the engine), 2) the transmission may not be able to deal with the added torque (this is why GM has only offered turbos in rear-wheel drive cars and four cylinder front wheel drive cars, the FWD transmissions are built very light and not up to the job).  It would be an interesting and educational project, just don't get the idea that you would be adding value to the car.  You could never get any of the money invested back at resale.  That money would be being spent on making you smarter (in more ways than you might imagine), not on increasing the value of the car.  Should increase the speed of the car, though, until something breaks.