You're right WE3RX7... I will chime in... where to begin... this is going to be a long one.
Honestly your price range depends entirely on what your aims are. Or you can invert that and have your price range dictate what your aims are.
Briefly going over the bare minimums of what you'll need in general:
- Turbo
- Intercooler
- Fuel Injectors
- Fuel Pump
- Coolant lines
- Oil lines
- Gauges
- Charge Piping
- Silicon/Rubber Couplers and clamps
- Exhaust piping
- Flanges
- Nuts and bolts
- EMS/ECU/Fuel Controller
Now that you have the basic list of what is required, decide right now what you want out of this car. Which leads me to tell you right now, how well do you know your car right now?
I promise you that if you do go ahead and do this you will not only know the car better, you will have an intimate knowledge of everything regarding the running of your car.
So lets start at the beginning. If you're buying everything new, none used, expect to pay a little over 10k for everything (and that's not even top of the line). Give yourself a cushion too of about 20% as a back up fund for odds and ends not accounted for, so the total price would be closer to 12k.
Now that number is a fairly good estimate if you're to buy everything new out of that list and just use it. Sure you can pony up the cash and get a semi bolt up application, but if you're really wanting to go custom and run a larger turbo here are things to consider:
Do you want to keep the 6PI? Do you want to keep any other functions of the engine? How many miles, and what are the seal conditions of the engine? Do you know if the engine has 3 piece or 2 piece apex seals? Do you know the compression numbers? Are there any problems what so ever with the engine systems? How's the radiator? What are your oil lines like?
Keep these questions in mind while I relate my thoughts on the subject.
my original plan was to just strap on a regular old, stock S4 turbo, but found a hybrid that would work for significantly cheaper. In the same lot I also picked up an intercooler. Total price $50 used.
I inspected the turbo and found stress fractures in the turbine housing. No play in the shaft, but it was rather hard to turn. So I sat on that turbo looking for better deals to come up.
Beginning of last summer I found the better deal. A friend of mine was selling his turbo below retail and market value. A Turbonetics inc. T60-1 F1-62 with an AR of .77 for $700. It's not everyday I am able to pick up a ceramic ball bearing turbo for a price like that so I jumped on it. To even sweeten the deal He threw in a blow off valve. I ended up buying a waste gate for about $150 or so more dollars.
Now I wanted stainless steel lines because quite frankly I was going to convert my fuel lines over to SS anyways and just make it all that much easier to get to and take off. This meant I had to get coolant lines for the turbo which Turbonetics sells. Almost 100 dollars later I have their universal water line kit, and their -4AN oil feed line.
Now I had to ensure a way to get oil to the turbo so I went with Racing beats oil adapter. Works great. So lets recap really quick. I've spent over 1000 dollars in turbo stuff alone and still haven't gotten the other parts necessary to support the added air coming into the engine.
Word of warning, the turbo I have is quoted as being good for 6-700hp, so if your goals aren't that high then there's probably no reason for you to get it.