Every turbocharged Lotus is now a collector car with a parts problem. Boost Lab, Inc. rebuilds the Garrett hardware across the whole Esprit line: the dry-plumbed T3 on the 1980 to 1987 Turbo Esprit, the integral-wastegate TB0373 on the chargecooled SE and S4 cars, the Sport 300's T4, and the twin TB2531 units on the 1996 to 2004 Esprit V8. Lotus assemblies are long discontinued; your original casting is the part. Nationwide ship-in service.
Four distinct turbo generations across 24 years of Esprit production, plus the 910-powered specials. Boost Lab, Inc. rebuilds all of them.
The original Essex-livery Turbo Esprit ran the 2.2L Type 910 with a dry-plumbed Garrett T3, .63 turbine and .42 compressor, and no intercooler. Barely 100 dry-sump cars exist and every component matters. We rebuild the original T3 to factory spec and document the work for the registry crowd.
The wet-sump Turbo Esprit and the 215 hp High Compression cars carried the same free-floating T3 architecture with external wastegate. Forty years of heat cycles means hardened seals and worn journal bearings on nearly every surviving core. Simple, honest hardware that rebuilds beautifully.
The 264 hp SE moved to a Garrett TB03-series unit with integral wastegate feeding the famous chargecooler. This is the 465133 family: -0001 under Lotus A901E6889F, -0002 under A801E6959F, -0003 under A920E6002F. The chargecooler system's health decides how hard the turbo lives; see the callout below.
The Julian Thomson-styled S4 and the 300 hp S4s continued the chargecooled four-cylinder formula with the same integral-wastegate Garrett architecture. US cars from 1989 to 1995 all share the smaller integral-wastegate unit. Rebuild parts support remains strong even though complete assemblies vanished decades ago.
Only 64 built. The Sport 300 ran a Garrett T4 with an uprated chargecooler for 302 hp, the fastest of the four-cylinder Esprits. These turbos get full concours treatment: photo documentation, preserved original hardware, and factory-spec balancing.
The flat-plane 3.5L V8 runs two Garrett T25s, TB2531 series, Garrett 452218-0001 under Lotus A918E0060F, one per bank. CHRA 443854-0146, service kit 709143-0001. The engine made 500 hp on the dyno and was detuned to 350 to save the Renault transaxle, so the turbos live an easy life when healthy, but 20-plus years of heat soak in that engine bay is another story. Always rebuilt as a matched pair.
On SE, S4 and Sport 300 cars, the chargecooler circuit is self-contained with its own pump, and those pumps fail quietly. A dead chargecooler means charge temperatures spike, the engine pulls timing, owners chase boost, and the turbo runs far hotter than Hethel intended. If your chargecooled Esprit's turbo died young, test the chargecooler pump before installing the rebuilt unit. On the V8, the equivalent silent killer is heat soak in the packed engine bay: idle-down before shutdown matters more on this car than almost anything else we service.
Verified Garrett catalog numbers, model designations, and Lotus OEM numbers. Lotus assemblies are discontinued: your core is the part. Search by any number.
| Turbo PN | Model | OEM PN | Application | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 465133-0001 | Garrett TB0373 | Lotus A901E6889F | 1987 Esprit Turbo 2.2 | First of the 465133 family |
| 465133-0002 | Garrett TB0373 | Lotus A801E6959F | 1988 Esprit Turbo 2.2 | X180-body cars |
| 465133-0003 | Garrett TB0373 | Lotus A920E6002F | 1991 Esprit Turbo SE / S4 era | Chargecooled integral-wastegate unit |
| Tag-specific | Garrett T3 (.63 / .42) | Verify by tag | 1980-1987 Turbo Esprit, Turbo HC | Dry-plumbed early cars; external wastegate |
| Tag-specific | Garrett T4 | Verify by tag | 1993 Esprit Sport 300, 64 cars | Uprated chargecooler; concours documentation |
| 452218-0001 | Garrett TB2531 (T25) | Lotus A918E0060F | 1996-2004 Esprit V8, both banks | Two per car; rebuilt as a matched pair |
| 443854-0146 | TB2531 CHRA | n/a | Esprit V8 center cartridge | Cartridge for the 452218 twins |
| 709143-0001 | TB2531 service kit | n/a | Esprit V8 twins | Garrett bearing and seal kit |
| Tag-specific | Garrett T3/T25 hybrids | n/a (aftermarket) | Upgraded Esprits (T28, GT28RS conversions) | Common period upgrades; send tag and wheel photos |
Mid-engine packaging, long storage, and age: the Esprit failure patterns off the bench.
The Esprit's engine bay traps heat like few cars ever built, and the V8 doubles it. Shutting down hot bakes the oil in the center sections into carbon, and the next start runs the bearings dry. It is the single most common condition on Lotus cores. An idle-down habit and a rebuild with cleaned CHRA passages cure it.
Most Esprits sit far more than they drive. Seals harden during storage, then leak the first season back on the road: blue smoke on startup and oil migrating into the intake plumbing. Every rebuild replaces the full seal set with modern materials that tolerate storage better than the originals.
A failed chargecooler pump on SE and S4 cars sends charge temperatures soaring, and the turbo pays the bill: cooked seals and accelerated bearing wear on a unit that was otherwise healthy. If we see heat distress on a chargecooled car's core, we will tell you to test the pump before reinstalling.
The 1980-1987 free-floating T3s are 40-plus years old and most have never been apart. Shaft play grows until the compressor wheel kisses the housing. Caught at the play stage it is a routine rebuild; the wheels and housings on these simple units usually survive.
External wastegates on early cars and integral units on SE-era cars both suffer worn bushings and tired actuator diaphragms, producing boost creep or low boost that gets blamed on the cartridge. We test and set actuators to spec on every Lotus rebuild.
When one V8 turbo starts seeping oil or losing efficiency, owners often replace just that side. The survivor has lived the same 25 years in the same oven of an engine bay. We inspect and rebuild the twins as a set, and we will tell you honestly if the second unit genuinely only needs seals.
Rebuild the original. Every turbocharged Esprit ran Garrett hardware with strong rebuild parts support: the early T3s, the 465133 TB0373 family on SE and S4 cars, and the 452218-0001 TB2531 twins on the V8. Your casting is the scarce part, and it is almost always serviceable.
We strongly recommend the pair. Both units are Garrett 452218-0001 under Lotus A918E0060F and both have lived the same life in the same hot engine bay. We inspect both and give you a straight answer; sometimes the second unit genuinely only needs seals.
Test the chargecooler pump. When the self-contained chargecooler circuit stops flowing, charge temperatures spike and the turbo runs far hotter than designed. Installing a fresh unit against a dead chargecooler is how the second turbo dies like the first.
Yes, and these get our full collector treatment: photo documentation at every stage, original external hardware preserved, and factory-spec balancing. With 64 Sport 300s and roughly 100 dry-sump Essex cars in existence, we treat these cores accordingly.
Usually it is hardened seals, not a dead unit. Long storage is hard on seal materials, and the classic symptom is startup smoke that clears. A rebuild with modern seal materials fixes it, and the bearings usually check out fine if the car was not driven far in that condition.
Start at repair.theboostlab.com and note the car, year, and any registry or concours context. Drain the oil passages, cap the openings, and double-box. Ship to Boost Lab, Inc., 37833 Pineapple Ave, Unit A, Dade City, FL 33523. We serve Lotus owners nationwide.