You hear a loud whistling noise followed by a BA XR6 turbo nailing past you, that’s Garrett’s ball bearing GT3540 working hard, the GT3540 has to be one of the best matched turbos to a production car since the CT26 on the MR2 and Celica, producing a nice 320hp with only 5psi of boost (on the BA – BF models, FG runs 9-10psi).

The housing and centre are standard GT35r Garrett gear, so anyone who thinks the GT3540 is unique then your dead wrong, Garrett doesn’t list the GT3540 as a turbocharger but the compressor housing and cartridge are identifiable to the GT35r, but the turbine housing is one of Ford’s best contributions to the turbo world, an internally gated 1.06 A/R 5 bolt housing, this is great if you want to upgrade a stock turbo on another car and keep it all internally gated for that stock appearance, a lot of people retrofit the GT3540 turbochargers to older cars such as the VL turbo or and RB25’s due the availability and reliability of the Garrett ball bearing turbochargers oh and did I mention the GT3540’s hp rating of 400hp – 600hp?

The stock wastegate isn’t much chop with only a 5psi spring and if you know the rule of wastegates you should only be running a maximum of double the spring pressure, so if you plan to use a boost controller to crank up the psi then you should only be using a maximum of 10psi, but fortunately Turbosmart has a nice solution for this, the bolt on WG75 wastegate for the GT3540 with interchangeable springs depending on your desired boost level, for the same price as an electronic boost controller you have have a wastegate and spring fitted for the stock appearance and less of a defect chance.

The standard Ford turbine housing is a 1.06 a/r so if you are planning to use the GT3540 on a smaller engine like an SR20 you might want to change to a .86 or .63 housing for better response and quicker power delivery.

RRP $1650

Tech Specs

Rated HP: 400-600