Q: can i put a turbo on my 4.2L V8? and if i can what would it take to do it?

I’ve never put a turbocharger on a Mercedes V8, but I suppose with enough time and money, anything is possible. There are kits out there for turbocharging just about anything, including the Mercedes V8, but as with anything some are better than others, so you need to do a lot of homework. You might consider a belt driven supercharger instead of a turbocharger. There are some kits available, and installing a supercharger would mean you don’t have to mess around with the exhaust which is in very tight quarters. Installing the hardware can go pretty quickly, but as with any engineering project, the devil is in the details. If the engine is not in top condition, installing a turbo or a supercharger will bring out any faults very quickly. Boosting the intake puts a great deal of stress on the engine internals and with just a little too much boost, or if the fuel mixture is just a little too lean, you can trash a perfectly good engine in the blink of an eye. cars that were manufactured with turbos or superchargers have a lot of safety controls built in to keep this from happening, but they ruined a lot of engines in research and development coming up with these controls. You may find yourself in uncharted territory and toast an engine before you realize you have a problem. So good luck with your project! I would guess that it will cost more than the car you want to buy, But it sounds like a lot of fun!