Oh, crap. What have I done? I thought you had ruled out the turbo early on because you wanted the more immediate low rpm throttle response of a supercharger.


I'm pretty sure the oil catch can kit is included with the turbo kit now, so you don't have to purchase it separately.

I personally don't think the ball bearing turbo is necessary or worth the extra money. The main reason Prodigy added that option was for people in very hot climates (middle east area) that wanted a water-cooled turbo (ball bearing is water-cooled, journal bearing is oil-cooled). Here's a summary of the differences between ball bearing and journal bearing that I've found in my searching:

* No difference in boost curve. Both are equally capable of reaching the same boost at any given engine speed.

* Ball bearing has slightly less lag (specifically, how quickly it spools up to full boost potential when you stomp on the gas pedal). Garrett claims 15% quicker spooling. My data logs show that it takes my Precision turbo about 0.3s to reach full boost when stomping on the gas around 3500 rpm. A 15% improvement would make that 0.255s. This is most likely imperceptible for a street driver. It may have measurable improvements to lap times at a track. The difference would be more noticeable at lower RPMs where the turbo spools more slowly, so it may possibly have a noticeable improvement for daily driving. If you have money to burn and demand the absolute best, then go for it.

* Ball bearing has much tighter tolerances. A very tiny particle in the oil supply could damage the bearings, whereas it would pass through a journal bearing without any problems. Journal bearings are generally considered more durable.

* Journal bearings are more easily/inexpensively rebuilt.

* With properly routed coolant lines, a water-cooled turbo will cause coolant to continue circulating even after the engine is shut off, reducing the need to let the turbo cool down when parking soon after some "spirited" driving.


Definitely pay for the Precision turbo upgrade. The Precision gives better driveability in "normal" lower rpm part throttle daily driving.


Definitely get the turbo blanket (heat shield). If you don't like the Titanium color, ask if they can get it in any other colors. They don't have any other colors listed for sale, but I was able to get a black turbo blanket. It's possible that this was a one-time special thing they did early on when sampling turbo blankets from different suppliers, but it doesn't hurt to ask.


I have heard of 3 drivetrain failures with a turbo kit so far (including the kit for the 3.8 engine). Two happened at a drag strip with abusive hard launching. One was a clutch, the other was broken axle shaft. The 3rd was a member on this forum that twisted a front driveshaft while driving very hard out in the desert sand dunes in the middle east (Oman, IIRC). If you abuse it enough, you can probably cause similar failures with a stock engine. I don't do any hard launches or other abusive stuff, so I'm not concerned. My entire drivetrain is still stock. I use plenty of full throttle, fast shifts, breaking the tires loose shifting into 2nd gear, etc, but I'm careful to avoid unnecessarily shocking the drivetrain. I never rev the engine up and dump the clutch to launch or when shifting gears, and I fully engage the clutch before applying full throttle.

Another insight into how much the OEM manual transmission can handle: The "stage 3" 12 psi kit for the 3.8 engine is only available for the manual transmission. The 4-speed auto trans couldn't handle the extra torque. That kit produces just over 400 ft-lbs torque at the wheels, similar to recent results for the 3.6 Stage 2 kit with Precision turbo and boost controller set to ~9 psi.

If you really want to beef up the drivetrain, there are higher performance clutches available, and you could upgrade to chromoly axles. I don't think it's necessary unless you want to do some abusive drag racing. Then again, one of this is really specific to the turbo. It applies to any major performance mod.



Yes, a 2" lift is necessary with the turbo kit to guarantee no contact between the front driveshaft and one of the exhaust pipes at full compression. More specifically, it requires 2" bump-stop extensions. Any of the 2" spacer lift leveling (2" front, 1" rear) kits on the market should take care of this. I went for the AEV 2" lift, partly just because they are local to me and I could pick it up the next day rather than wait for shipping. More details here: http://jeeplab.com/showthread.php?13...ull=1#post1824



To get full potential out of the stage 2 kit with the Precision turbo, you'll need to add a boost controller. But I recommend waiting on the boost controller. That's something that can be easily added later. You won't really save any effort/money by including the boost controller from the start. Get everything installed without a boost controller, confirm that everything is running properly without any leaks, enjoy it, get used to the power, take some time to research boost controllers, etc. Starting off with a boost controller installed right away introduces just one more layer of potential confusion if there is a problem with the install. Then some day later, you'll enjoy another relatively small and inexpensive project that gives you a very noticeable improvement.