Super Cheap DIY turbo screen

TT94SVT · Jun 8, 2015

Just thought I would share a cheap and effective way to make your own turbo screens. All parts are available at home depot.
I realize turbo screens can be had for cheap on ebay but these items are available locally so you do not have to wait for them to ship.

Aluminum Screen material, this is found in the window section and a huge roll is about $6

One (single) or two (twin) hose clamps that will fit your turbo. $2-4

grand total of $8-10

Installation Process

1: Cut a square larger than the diameter of your turbo
You can fold the screen over itself if you want your mesh to be extra thick
2: Place the screen over the turbo and install your hose clamp
3: Take a knife and cut away the extra screen

I will upload some pics of mine as soon as I get a chance

BOOOSTD · Jun 9, 2015

I did that exactly while waiting for my turbo guard screen to arrive as it was on back order LOL

ttocs · Jun 9, 2015

not sure I would recommend this myself. It reminds me of a few years ago when I was flying RC airplanes out in AZ. We had a dirt/decomposed granite runway that was perfectly fine until the ducted fan/electric jet engines came out. Because of how most of their designs have a completely open inlet from the top/bottom of the airplane it was not uncommon for them to suck a rock up into the fan/jet while on takeoff. Needless to say a piece of decomposed granite can do some damage to a plastic fan even if its only in it for a short time before it get shot out. To fix this some of the guys started to try and put different types of screen material on the inlet to protect this from happening but they were surprised to find out that unless they had a mesh big enough on the front that would still allow most rocks in that the screen material cut down on the intake that most of them could not take off. If they did get off the ground they barely had enough power to keep up in the air. It was pretty surprising to see that some of the mesh could reduce the intake by up to 40 percent. I would not be surprised at all if the same thing happens here.

BOOOSTD · Jun 9, 2015

^^ I see what your saying but it my case and prob must others it won't starve the motor. When I was getting tuned on a mustang dyno, the 4" cone K&N filter restricted the airflow more so than my double layered screen.

Orange 94 · Jun 9, 2015

I don't really like the idea of screen... however i remember from a work project that mcmastercarr has a good selection of screens. Can likely get better screens from there in a variety of different material, wire size and hole size.

BOOOSTD · Jun 9, 2015

^^ I didn't like the window screen material either but it held me over until the Turbo Guard Screen arrived. Its made of a "high quality stainless steel screen molded into 500* silicone rubber". Been running this since August 2014 and no issues.

Michael Plummer · Jun 9, 2015

Here's a video I made a looong time ago (2011) when my setup made less HP.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=g2hoHRc3AGM

Michael Plummer · Jun 9, 2015

More information on inlet devices for your Supercharger.

1) DMC Velocity Ring: Search Results : DMC Racing - Online Store
Expensive and they only have they for the larger race blowers but they do work very well.

2) Contact ATI ProCharger or Race Parts Direct
This is what I currently use on my D1 supercharger. Notice the solid wire mesh but my small D1 has pulled that mesh closer to the inlet of the supercharger. But this thing is 90rwhp better than the metal air filter from ProCharger.

3) ATI Procharger part # AF059I-001 / Metal Air Filter: $48.02
Very restrictive. My setup lost 90rwhp with this on the inlet of my supercharger.

4) Bellmouth with air filter:eBay: blox velocity stack
Should work just as well as the velocity ring from DMC and velocity ring with mesh screen from ProCharger as long as you leave the air filter off.

5) Anderson Motorsports part# AF-0131C $129.00
Never got around to testing this setup on my car. But my experience tells me it will not make as much HP as the velocity rings or Bellmouths.

I hope this helps
Michael Plummer

97stanger · Jun 9, 2015

^ Good info and options right there. It definitely appears its a cheap way to free up some restricted hp

TT94SVT · Jun 9, 2015

Michael Plummer said:
More information on inlet devices for your Supercharger.

1) DMC Velocity Ring: Search Results : DMC Racing - Online Store
Expensive and they only have they for the larger race blowers but they do work very well.

2) Contact ATI ProCharger or Race Parts Direct
This is what I currently use on my D1 supercharger. Notice the solid wire mesh but my small D1 has pulled that mesh closer to the inlet of the supercharger. But this thing is 90rwhp better than the metal air filter from ProCharger.

3) ATI Procharger part # AF059I-001 / Metal Air Filter: $48.02
Very restrictive. My setup lost 90rwhp with this on the inlet of my supercharger.

4) Bellmouth with air filter:eBay: blox velocity stack
Should work just as well as the velocity ring from DMC and velocity ring with mesh screen from ProCharger as long as you leave the air filter off.

5) Anderson Motorsports part# AF-0131C $129.00
Never got around to testing this setup on my car. But my experience tells me it will not make as much HP as the velocity rings or Bellmouths.

I hope this helps
Michael Plummer

Very nice. The double layered mesh seems to have smaller gaps than the screens available online. The filters I had were pretty restrictive. I'll have to test out some of these other options.

TT94SVT · Jun 9, 2015

ttocs said:
not sure I would recommend this myself. It reminds me of a few years ago when I was flying RC airplanes out in AZ. We had a dirt/decomposed granite runway that was perfectly fine until the ducted fan/electric jet engines came out. Because of how most of their designs have a completely open inlet from the top/bottom of the airplane it was not uncommon for them to suck a rock up into the fan/jet while on takeoff. Needless to say a piece of decomposed granite can do some damage to a plastic fan even if its only in it for a short time before it get shot out. To fix this some of the guys started to try and put different types of screen material on the inlet to protect this from happening but they were surprised to find out that unless they had a mesh big enough on the front that would still allow most rocks in that the screen material cut down on the intake that most of them could not take off. If they did get off the ground they barely had enough power to keep up in the air. It was pretty surprising to see that some of the mesh could reduce the intake by up to 40 percent. I would not be surprised at all if the same thing happens here.

Good to know, good thing my car does not see any type of gravel or dirty roads. I definitely would like to run a big filter however I have limited space

ttocs · Jun 9, 2015

I don't have the tuning exp michael has but as he has shown its surprising how much of a difference they make. The fanjets that I saw people experiment with I saw them take everything from window screen which in one experiment got sucked into the fan(worse then a rock) all the way up to gutter guard(which was only slightly better then the window mesh). I didn't see hp/tq numbers but it was easy to see the airplanes that no longer had the power to either get off the ground or stay off the ground after such a small change that people thought they were doing to help and were amazed how bad it hurt it.

TT94SVT · Jun 10, 2015

ttocs said:
I don't have the tuning exp michael has but as he has shown its surprising how much of a difference they make. The fanjets that I saw people experiment with I saw them take everything from window screen which in one experiment got sucked into the fan(worse then a rock) all the way up to gutter guard(which was only slightly better then the window mesh). I didn't see hp/tq numbers but it was easy to see the airplanes that no longer had the power to either get off the ground or stay off the ground after such a small change that people thought they were doing to help and were amazed how bad it hurt it.

I didn't notice much of a difference between having no filters at all and having the dual layered screen. I don't have access to a dyno but the car didn't feel any slower. If I knew someone with a dyno in my area it would interesting to test this out

BOOOSTD · Jun 10, 2015

^^ on the dyno, mine showed 30rwhp difference with a 4" cone K&N filter and 20rwhp with the dual layered screen. Car was making only 415/440 at that time.