Jake Sherbrooke‘s Temu Turbo Raptor project is all about seeing if a cheap turbo can actually beat an expensive, engineered supercharger. His latest attempt to prove his theory was a chaotic day of broken parts, failed races, and tuning on the fly in the middle of a field, but it ended with a surprising victory nobody saw coming.

A Rough Start And A Surprising Loss

The day started with immediate problems. A new tonneau cover for the truck’s bed was the wrong size, and the crew had to build a custom fitting for the boost gauge out of random hardware store parts. When they finally got to racing, the first pull was a disaster. The supposedly fast turbo Raptor was beaten soundly by a Ram EcoDiesel. “We’re talking about racing supercharged Raptors and we just lost to an EcoDiesel,” Jake said, summing up the crew’s disbelief. The new gauge showed why: the truck was making almost no boost.

Dialing in the Temu Turbo

“It’s got a six pound spring in it and it’s roughly making 1 to 2 pounds of boost. Why? I just don’t know,” Jake said, trying to figure out the issue. With no clear answer, the plan became beautifully simple: just keep stacking more springs into the wastegate and hope for the best. This backyard approach led to another loss against a supercharged Raptor and the realization that they had forgotten the rest of the springs back at the shop, forcing yet another delay.

The Final Pull And A Huge Upset

With a handful of new springs and three now crammed into the wastegate, Jake lined up against the supercharged maroon Raptor for the final showdown. This time, the cheap turbo finally woke up. The Temu Raptor hooked up and pulled away for a clear win, making only about six pounds of boost to do it. The victory was the ultimate proof of the entire budget-build concept. “We just beat the Roush kit,” Jake celebrated. 

The Verdict on the Temu Turbo

So, what’s the final word on the Temu Turbo? It’s a chaotic, probably unreliable setup that absolutely proved its point. After beating the much more expensive truck, Jake wisely called it a day before the engine could scatter itself across the pavement. The project showed that with a few key parts and a good tune, you don’t always need to spend thousands of dollars to be fast, but you might need a little bit of luck.