Early 1998 is when I first got my INCON dual turbo kit. I was one of the first orders. This page will hopefully explain a little about the kit and turbos in general.

The INCON kit was designed by Dave Inall, owner of INCON Systems. He has been in the turbo industry for over 20 years, and even worked at Garret. The INCON kit is the only turbo kit (that I know of) that has a CARB exemption #. The # is 469, which was issued in Nov. 1998. The kit is somewhat based on the older DDMI/Spearco dual turbo kit. The placement of the turbos is very similar. Both turbos are placed on either side of the engine, as close to the cylinder heads as possible. This helps keep underhood temps. down because of less exhaust tubing, and also has another benefit of spooling the turbos quicker. The turbos spool using the exhaust's heat energy, so the closer the turbos are to the exhaust valves, the more heat energy is transmitted to the turbine. My turbos achieve full boost at about 2700 RPM. This creates massive torque as I have full boost when the engine's torque peak is reached. Turbo lag is minimal. If you are anywhere above 3000, the turbos are spooled almost instantly, especially in lower gears. It really is a blast to drive. It has very good street manors. You can drive the car to and from work like any other Mustang. I still get over 23 mpg on the highway (when not into the gas of course). Unlike a supercharger, which is constantly trying to make boost, a turbo reacts to engine load, or throttle position. At about half throttle is when the turbos start to spool up. So normal driving is exactly the same as a non turbocharged mustang. However, give it half throttle, and you hear the turbos spool up. The car starts accelerating much faster. Put it to the floor, and you're going somewhere FAST! The sound is incredible. When the car idles, it sounds almost stock, because the turbos are like giant mufflers. But when you get on it, you hear the turbos howl like an F-14 taking off. You can hear the exhaust, but you mostly hear the turbos from inside the car. Behind the car, you will mostly hear just the exhaust. I have Borla mufflers, so others might sound different, but the turbos do quiet the exhaust considerably. It's a sleeper! You can see some pictures of the turbos installed on the engine in the pictures section. For a performance comparison, I ran 13.59 @ 99 mph before the turbos and ported stock cylinder heads. After the ported heads, and with the turbos at only 8psi, I ran 11.67 @ 122.3 mph. The 13 second run was with excellent traction. The 11 second run was not. Judging by the mph, I would estimate that with good traction, the ET could have dropped to the 11.20's. That's a HUGE improvement in performance! Improvement from just the turbos was probably about 2 seconds and 18 mph. Not bad for only 8 psi, eh?

Because I get many e-mails about the turbos, I have created my own FAQ page, based on questions I get asked the most.

Here are some turbo "myths" that I would like to share, and how they relate to a 5.0 L Mustang:
Myth: Turbos are laggy.
Reality: This mostly stems from the turbo's used on cars during the 80's. Those turbos were older designs and were not as efficient as today's turbos. Also, and probably the main reason, is that most turbocharged engines are smaller 4 and 6 cylinder engines. Because they do not have much exhaust flow, the turbos spool very slowly. Full boost is not reached until higher rpm's, and turbo lag is much more prevalent. But on a 5 liter V8, there is plenty of exhaust flow to spool the turbos quickly. Also, dual small turbos spool a lot quicker than a single large turbo. The ball bearing design of the INCON turbos also helps the turbos spool quickly. Older turbo units used sleeved bearings instead of ball bearings, which caused more drag on the turbo shaft than with a full ball bearing center section.

Myth: Turbos need an intercooler because they run so hot.
Reality: Only the turbine side of the turbo is hot. The compressor side is separated by a shaft and the center section is also water cooled. The real reason the incoming air is heated is actually due to the laws of physics, and ANY method of compressing air is affected by this (including superchargers). Boyle's law states that as a gas (air in our case) is compressed, the temperature of the gas increases as well. So any turbo OR supercharger will increase the temperature of the air, simply by compressing it. There is no "heating" affect to the air because a turbo might be hot. It is the turbine side that is hot, not the compressor side. So, the air is compressed and the temperature goes up. And we know that colder air produces more power and it is less likely detonation will occur. So we introduce the intercooler! The intercooler is designed to decrease the temperature of the compressed air. It works kind of like a radiator. But the trick is to reduce the temperature as much as possible without decreasing the pressure of the air. All intercoolers have a certain efficiency measured by how much the temperature drops, but also by how much the boost has dropped. It used to be that superchargers did not have intercoolers. This was mostly due to the drop in boost pressure an intercooler causes. Superchargers are limited in boost pressure by the compressor size, efficiency, crank to compressor ratio, and engine RPM. So it was not practical to use an intercooler, until more powerful superchargers were made, and intercoolers were more efficient. Turbos however, have tons of boost in reserve. Usually they are limited to a certain psi from their actual total psi rating using a wastegate that controls how much exhaust flows over the turbine blades. The INCON turbos, for example, are capable of well over 20 psi, yet are usually limited to 8-12 psi for normal use. Since turbos had plenty of boost in reserve, an intercooler could be used without problem. It is only recently that superchargers have started using intercoolers, or aftercoolers. Once over a certain amount of boost (usually 6 to 8 psi), the air temperature has increased dramatically and needs to be brought back as close as possible to ambient temperature to keep detonation from occurring.

Myth: Turbos don't make any power compared to a supercharger.
Reality: Wrong, wrong, and wrong again! Most of the fastest Mustangs in the world have... turbos! Here are three reasons why turbos can (if properly engineered) make MORE power than superchargers at equal boost levels.
1. All superchargers are driven off of the crankshaft via a belt. And just like any other belt driven accessory, it eats up power. In fact a supercharger can take an enormous amount of power just to turn it. I don't have exact figures but I believe your basic S-Trim Vortech can take up over 50 HP to turn (no wonder some superchargers require huge 12 rib or cog belts!). This is parasitic loss, in that it's HP you never see at the rear wheels but need to consider when designing the fuel system. Superchargers often require more fuel than a comparable turbo kit and this is probably one of the main reasons. The HP loss will vary depending on design, efficiency, compressor speed, boost level, etc. How much HP does it take to drive a turbocharger? It is estimated to be a couple of HP for a street turbo kit. The turbos are not driven off of the crank, and use the expended exhaust energy (energy that is just going to be sent down the exhaust pipe), so the loss is minimal. This translates into a flat out 45+ HP advantage to turbos.
2. A properly designed turbo system will achieve full boost at a low RPM level and hold that boost till the rev limiter. This is not the case with a centrifugal supercharger (Vortech, Paxton, Powerdyne). A centrifugal supercharger's boost is mostly linear and proportional to RPM. So it's advertised boost (say 10 psi) will be available at 6000 RPM (normal advertised RPM), but at say 4000 RPM (where you're likely to hit after a shift), you might have only 5 psi of boost. And down around 3000 RPM you might only be getting 2 psi of boost. What this translates into is more "area under the curve" for a turbocharger. This means that the turbocharged car will be accelerating faster throughout the rpm range. Note: roots style (BBK Instacharger) and screw style (Kenne Bell) superchargers do not have this problem. They develop full boost at low RPM levels.
3. Lastly, turbos have just about always (as far as I know) had intercoolers on them. As stated above, any turbo OR supercharger can benefit from the use of an intercooler due to Boyle's Law. The intercooler drops the temperature of the incoming air to very close to ambient. Temperatures before the intercooler can be as high as 300 degrees F! That's pretty hot! Of course actual temps will vary depending on turbo efficiency, boost level, etc., but in the end, cooler air equals more power and less chance of detonation. It's only recently that superchargers have started to use intercoolers, or aftercoolers. So those that do not have them are at a big loss, as they will not make as much power with hot air and will more likely have detonation problems.