wastegate for my car?

Question

what is a wastegate and what does it do, how much horsepower will i gain?

Answer 1

a wastegate is used on turbocharged engines to limit boost by opening and bypasing exaust around the turbo when a preset boost pressure limit is reached. you can increase the boost pressure (&horsepower) by putting a stronger spring in the wastegate so it takes more pressure to open it. it was pretty common in the 80s 4 cyl mopars to raise the boost pressure from the stock 7 to 10 lb. boost up to 20lb or more using a stronger spring thus getting a huge increase in horsepower & a huge decrease in engine life. some wastegates open between the turbo & the engine & just dump the excess pressure before it gets to the intake manifold

Answer 2

Wastegate takes away part of the exhaust gasses flow from the turbocharger (they "go to waste").
The idea is to regulate the performance of turbocharger.

Fixed vanes turbochargers are efficient only in limited range, so wastegate extends the range towards the higher rpm. If turbocharger as movable vanes their angle can be changed with speed and so the effective range extended both to lower rpm and to higher rpm without the wastegate.

So basically wastegate on turbocharged engine is either already installed or there is no need for it.
And to increase HP you would have to install bigger turbocharger - again with or without wastegate according to manufacturer specification.

Answer 3

Waste gate opens keeps the turbo from spining to fast and limits horsepower. Waste gate will not make more power. Installing power adders on any engine means you already know how much more wear and tear it will do.