I was looking at a turbo on eBay, its a T3 Super 60 w/.48 exhaust. I asked the guy what the compressor A/R is. He replied, it a Super 60. I thought Super 60 was the trim, which has to do with the wheels, while the A/R has to do with the housing. Am I wrong?

 

Can you post that ebay link? Chances are it's not an actual Super 60, but a .60 trim/.48 turbine.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=7932494826

 

This is how it works....There is the hot side and the cold side.

The hot side is the first number (in this case .4 This is the A/R (aspect ratio) of the housing itself. The wheel on the hot side can also be changed, they call it stage 1 stage 2 and so on. The higher the stage number, the slower the turbo will spool. They do not change the size of the housing when they put a staged wheel into the housing, the angle of the fins is changed to let more exhaust gas flow though before it completely spools up.

The cold side is the second number, this side is more complicated. This is where the compressor maps come into play. You will have to do some reading on order to understand how to read compressor maps. But once you understand how to read them, all of your questions will be answered as to what turbo will work for you.
One other thing to remember is that turbos ARE NOT rated in how much PSI they can produce, they are rated in how much air the compressor can move. The more air it will move, the more power it produce. Think of it as a fan blade, if you make the angles of a fan blade sharper, it will push more air though it, but when you increase the angle, it takes more power to get it spinning.

I hope this tells you a little bit about turbos...I don't know it all, but I do have a good understanding of how they work. BTW, a super 60 will flow enouph to make around 350 hp at it's very max, but there are more varibles involved that just the compressor wheel...I hope I'm helping more than confusing..anyway, I shut up now GOOD LUCK

 

Great explaination.

 

the higher the stage number the slower the turbo will spool?

 

Correct, but higher stage #'s can produce more power. Turbonetics uses this goofy Stage system.

That is definatly a Super60 turbo, pretty decent deal to.

 

Think of it this way...it's same size hole that the exhaust is going through, there is more space between the fins on the wheel, so it takes more air to make it spin. Bigger spaces will allow more air through (more top end power) but it will take longer spool. The turbine really determines where your boosted power band will be...on a B16 it's kinda like this...

.48 = 3000 or so to spool up
.48 stge 2 = 3200 or so
.48 stge 3 = 3400 or so
.63 = 4000 or so
.63 stge 2 = 4300 or so

bla bla bla...you get the idea....

If you have a .48 with something like a stage 5 wheel, you can even make it spool slower than the .63 housing...but this is unusual..people usually just go to the .63 instead...