Has anyone attempted this? Would it be worthwhile? My dad (having too much time on his hands) is considering buying a N/A, doing the turbo conversion and fitting a set of twin 40's he's got 'just lying around' onto it.
Any thoughts on if this would work/any power increase/other work required to do it?
I like the thought, just not sure about the practicalities.
Yep, perfectly possible.
My first motor, a Metro Turbo used an SU carb. There are tons of older cars out there with turbos and carbs.
The problem comes when you find that you need specially sealed versions of carbs to use with a turbo - you can't just use a normal DCOE or DHLA. You also need some other way of getting the correct amount of fuel into the engine - with carbs its difficult to get the mixture right - you tend to either get it too rich at low revs so that its flowing the right amount on boost, or it runs smoothyl but leans out on boost.
If there is already a fuel injection system available for a motor it is infinitely preferable to a carb'd turbocharger.
Possible, yes. Practical, no.
The Renault 5 GT Turbo (Excellent car bar build quality) had a carb didn't it- I don't remember them (the carbs) giving 'too' much trouble in service...