buddyIam wrote:
Tystevens.
The 3.5 had a lot of turbo related intercooler problems that took a long time to fix.
Chevy had a stop sale and recall on it's 1.4 turbo.
I will say that the more expensive diesels have worked out the problems on their turbo's. GM has seemed to fix al their injector problems and Ford seems to have worked out all their problems. But while they worked out all their problems their diesel option price has almost doubled.
I am not sure that 1 or 2 grand really covers the cost to Ford for it's turbo setups. And if it does, has it been at the expense of reliability.
Am I a doubting Thomas? Well with regards to turbo gas engines I guess I am. But you have to remember I have been interested in cars and driving for over 50 years. And up until now have not really seen a lot of turbo/super charged gas engines in a vehicle that was required to go more that 1/4 mile maybe a couple of hundred miles in the Indy cars.
Lets not forget the wonderful power and unreliability of the old Indy Buick.
The turbo could be the next miracle. But why not the supercharger? The supercharger doesn't have to sit on top of the block anymore so the clearance issues are no longer a problem. The super charger doesn't have to deal with the tremendous heat that the Turbo does. It can come in at real low rpm and doesn't restrict the exhaust.
The 3.5 didn't have a lot of intercooler problems, it had one problem, condensation. And was only repeatable under certain conditions, which I think added to the difficulty of replicating the issue and finding a solution.
If you are afraid of turbochargers you should probably not buy one. My wife has driven a turbocharged vehicle since before we were married (Volvo S40 that went over 100K trouble free miles, and now a Ecoboost Edge we have had for >2 years.) The turbo mill can boil the front tires from a stop easily, I'm not sure what the downside of the turbo is that you are so concerned about.
