Old Grandad... turbocharged?

Part of my grand scheme for road tripping is to get my dad's old Ford pickup back up and ready to go. It is the key to my plans and will haul my ATV and my mom's trailer down the Al-Can to the lower 48 for me, and around and hopefully one day back home to my parent's house. (Oh, how I hope I can come back home). But, my first goal, is to get Old Grandad (the truck) rebuilt to be road ready. This means (among other things) rebuilding the engine, which is something I have helped do at least four times over the years.

I'd like to make sure that when I rebuild the engine, Old Grandad has the best performance I can get from the engine, and so one of the options I have considered (but not yet asked the real mechanics in the family) is if he could be fitted with a turbocharger.

Now, for those who are unfamiliar with what this is, a turbocharger is an air compression system connected to the vehicle's exhaust to provide more compression in the cylinders. Related to the turbocharger is the supercharger, which differs in the source of power to run the compressor - a supercharger draws its power from a belt in the same way the alternator gets power. The turbocharger is seen as the more energy efficient of the two, since it is powered by what is otherwise a waste product.

Whether using a turbocharger or a supercharger, the result is the same - an estimated 30% boost in engine performance. Not too shabby for such a simple modification, huh?

Looking at TurbochargerPros.com I don't see that they have any turbochargers in stock for either my dad's truck or any Volkswagen turbochargers that would work with my mom's '66 Ghia - but maybe you'd have better luck with a search for a newer car. I did find other parts they say are for '69 Ford F Series trucks - so I might check back when I figure out what all is needed. The wheel assembly was, unfortunately, not the one I need for Old Grandad though. The ones the search brought up were all for 4WD Superduty Trucks, F250 and up, and the 1969 is a F100 2WD. There are a bunch of parts listed for the '69 F Series Ford truck, but just one currently listed for the '66 Ghia. I guess I just own cars that are too old. ;-) Not even going to bother searching for stuff for my New Yorker...

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I *have* to be able to come back home, what would I do with my mom's Ghia and my New Yorker if I had to move? ::whines::

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Site only goes back to 1961 anyway. But for those of you searching for newer cars, it's worth checking out and seeing what they have, because TurbochargerPros.com does look like they carry a wide range of performance parts. You are going to need to check for your own vehicle, however, since the site seems to be set up so that the only way to search for parts is to search based on year and make of your specific vehicle. I could not find any way to simply browse through parts like in a catalog.