im very interested in putting a turbo on my 96' 650. has anyone done this or have any information on it? Would I have to do other performance upgrades to do this or could it be just a expensive bolt on piece?

No Turbo for me....

If you want a bike that has a bit more power - while still has simplicity and reliability....then you need to do engine upgrades to the piston, cam, cylinder head, muffler, header, carb. (Or the cheaper and easier route is to just buy a bigger and faster motorcycle).

If you want a complicated project, a bike that is more to work on or look at then it is to ride, then you could try to install a turbo.  As Gary said...the stock oil system on this bike cannot handle the additional oil flow (or cooling) that a turbo needs....you would need to add an additional oil pump for the turbo, and it can't be electric as the bike doesn't have enough capacity to run additional electric components.

And.....it is not just an expensive bolt on piece.  You will pretty much be on your own to design and fabricate it.  The Savage engine is primitive....it does not have a knock sensor, fuel injection, oxygen sensor...or any of those things that modern fuel injected cars have that can adapt to a bolt on turbo kit.  There is no computer that can take readings from various sensors and adjust the fuel and timing to compensate for what is going on in the engine, and the engine most likely will run poorly or self destruct unless you spend a lot of time tuning and adapting things.

Here is a link to Savagebob's 1.5 year supercharger thread. It is no easier than a turbo, and in the time he has been working on it I have ridden my bike 6,000 miles.  Do you want to spend time in the garage....or on the bike riding? (sorry Bob).

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1372223359/0


 

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 03/11/15 at 09:49:14:


Which is why I'm doing upgrades to my 87 to make it as bomb-proof as possible... because I'd rather ride.

thanks for the help guys. I think im just going to stay away from the turbo, it was just a thought.

Dave's suggestion of a high compression piston, cam, ported head, and performance exhaust will probably get you to where you want to be. A stock 650 will dyno around 26hp and I believe that the aforementioned mods will get you into 40hp range. That's a 50% improvement.

After my bike is sorted out and it gets torn down for painting, I'll be upgrading my engine as per Dave's suggestion.

I was looking at a turbo originally, even found a suitable size turbo to fit up. However, as been mentioned, I came up against the major hurdle of how to cool the turbo without an adequate internal oil system, and without adequate electrical charge to run an external oil system.

So I went with the supercharger, and whist it has been a lot of work. It wasn't that hard to do really. Dave makes it sound like I've spent 1.5 years working on it for no gain which isn't true. It took me 1.5 years to build the entire bike, not just the supercharger system. Now I ride it everyday to work and it's awesome.

If I was a mechanic or knew more about tuning bikes it would have been easier, but hey, great way to learn right?

My thoughts were that the gains/$ ratio working up the 650 just didn't seem worthwhile and bolting on the power seemed like better bang for your buck. That said, it is a lot of work getting it right.. there has been a lot of trail and error with it but tinkering in the garage is part of the fun for me.

savagebob wrote on 04/06/15 at 16:32:27:


I didn't mean to pick on you - but most folks think that bolting on a turbo kit is simple and easy and foolproof.  Buy the kit and be back on the bike after a weekend.  I couldn't talk my nephew out of buying a turbo kit for his brand new Camaro V-6....and 2 weeks after he paid to have a performance shop put it in the turbo seal went out, later it was the clutch, then later again it was the second gear synchro.  He had to sell the car in less than 6 months to get something he could actually drive.

I just did't want anyone to get in over his head.....and end up without any bike to ride.