You need both turbos and
I picked up a pair of GT1549L turbos to be used as cores. It's 2025. What's the best direction to go to with our factory turbos on a daily driver? Garrett makes Powermax turbos for the F150 EB. There's Gearhead, CR Performance, Turbobay, etc. What are you fast guys using for turbos?
If you’re sticking with the transverse 3.5 EB (SHO / MKS / Flex / Explorer) and want a true daily-driver upgrade, your GT1549L cores are perfect for the “upgraded stocker” route. That’s still the sweet spot in 2025.
A quick breakdown of what’s actually working well right now:
• Mild / OEM+ upgrades (great for DD)
Gearhead, Turbobay, and similar “stage 1” billet wheel rebuilds. Spool is basically stock, with a cleaner top-end. Good if you want to stay on pump gas + basic bolt-ons and don’t want to max out the factory fuel system immediately.
• Medium / strong street setups (what a lot of the quick guys run)
CR Performance Stage 3 and other upgraded CHRA builds using new OEM housings. These are still direct bolt-ins but flow a lot better. With an intercooler, downpipes, 3-bar MAP, 170° stat, colder plugs, and a solid tune, they make a really fun and reliable street car. Most people add meth or an upgraded HPFP once they push them harder.
• Big / custom turbo territory
Garrett PowerMax and the F-150/Raptor stuff is awesome on trucks but turns into a fab project on the SHO platform. Fitment, line routing, and housings aren’t a simple bolt-on. Not really “daily driver” unless you enjoy solving custom problems.
Right now, the majority of fast-but-still-daily-driven SHOs seem to be on some flavor of CR / Gearhead / Turbobay upgraded stockers, paired with the usual supporting mods (IC, downpipes, tune, 3-bar, colder plugs, meth or HPFP later). It keeps the car responsive in traffic and still hits hard when you want it to.
If your goal is a reliable DD that rips, I’d definitely build those GT1549L cores into a quality upgraded stocker set rather than chasing truck turbo conversions.
Some items to keep in mind bigger turbos more cooling so be careful what you ask for. Also bigger turbos mean more need for higher gas, keep that in mind too. In any event find Brads email from these forums AJP for custom tuning.
