In low range a 2.6 carb motor will have plenty enough power to climb whatever you can hold traction on.

It's not quite right to build a carb motor and just add a turbo, as the base compression is too high. The carb motor CR is about 8.7:1, the turbo motor has 7:1 compression. The max compression for a 7-10psi boost turbo motor is about 8.25:1, and you must use premium fuel of the best octane you can find.

Consult with Randy at EMS about the buildup for some solid advice. He has had some bad press on the starquest web sites, but I think those are just sour grapes, and not really indicative of his work quality.

Hi Monty, I will check your email, but in the meantime I figured I could respond here. as for using a Starion engine you would need a donor car for the ecu and wire harness to oerate the injectors unless you go with MPI which would not be cheap- The starion engine cores are getting harder to find and quite costly. I would not suggest just adding a turbo to the NA 2.6, Starions have piston oilers and one important item is the pistons have a lower compression to accept Turbo boost as the cylinder pressures can get quite high with high comp pistons, there are other minor differences.
As for a rebuild, the engines are very similar to build, In fact I am doing one now for an 87 Montero. You can check My starion page for parts ( some are interchangeable) and labor prices are listed at the bottom of the page. On average it's about 20-24 hrs to rebuild a long block depending on what machine work is needed.
One thing also I might mention is for you to build it yourself. I welcome calls from the starion community on any build questions and would do the same here.
In fact I have a engine rebuild on the starquestclub site that I would be more than happy to share on this site for anyone that might want to consider doing the build themselves.

Randy

PS, Fast eddy, Bad press? got a link?

Randy, it was several years ago, and I can't even remember on which starquest forum, and the other posters all hopped on the complainer. It was obviously a case of sour grapes, a punk kid who didn't assemble what he bought right, or break it in. Even his buddies jumped his butt over what he posted.

I wouldn't worry about it. I recommended your parts a little less than a year ago for a build in the Pacific northwest for a lady who posted on here, and that all turned out quite well at last report. I'd use your parts, and if you were closer, I'd use your machine work.

Thanks Eddy, All is good, I thought it was something recent that needed addressed.

Randy

The SQC club board seems to have gotten all whacked out over the last few years. The whole SQC community seems to be polarizing across a few forums.

Back when I was shopping for a donor car for my swap, I spoke with both Randy and "Dad." (They aren't too far from me.) They were both very helpful and happy to talk with me. If I didn't have a guy here in Cleveland who was good, I expect I would have hauled my block down to Niles.

I have used a Montero block for a turbo conversion. The tricky part is drilling and spot facing for the oil squirters. I still have a the tooling I made so It can be done on a Bridgeport style mill.

Past that the bottom end just need a hardened crank and the right pistons.

I have built 2.6 engines with several compression ratios. One was stock 7 to 1 with the turbo. It could take a lot of boost with out being fule limited.

The 8.7 to 1 motor I built did take a bit more tuning. I re-curved the dist to slow down the initial advance. The stock starion dist comes on very quickly since at low speeds without boost the extra lead helps cover for the 7 to 1 CR.

That worked fins if the the max boost was 10 PSI. On California 91 octane the detonation sensor wold drop the boost back once in a while, but it was not too bad.

The last motor I built has a 8 to 1 CR. That seems to be a decent compromise. It has enough CR to be a NA motor but running 12 to 15 PSI boost is not a problem.

Kevin

Thank you... gave me a good chuckle- I am Randy and Dad!

Randy

Had me confused...

BTW, it does seem that the SQ boards have become a bit polarized. Way too many experts ..

Right, I knew it was you, Randy...