Not my car, but a friend of mine.
He called me and told me his car was acting up and stuff.
He came over and right when he opened the hood it smelled like something was fried.
According to him, he punched it to 6k on 2-3 after that everything went down.
He said that he was going like 20mph at the most and his turbo(stock) was spooling like crazy(on stock gauge up to 3/4 up) but the engine was not revving hard or anything.
I checked his oil and he had a little under the bottom line.
When he turns on the car it struggles and makes a harsh noise near the timing side and doesn't turn on only after a couple tries. When he free revved the engine a pretty loud tick noise started behind the or around the intake manifold but once he let off the gas the noise went away.
I have no clue what could be wrong.
He said the SRS light came on for a little and then disappeared.
Any help please.

P.S. The engine is bone stock except for a K&N filter.

I call BS on the 20mph. 6K on 2nd gear is about 40~50mph or so.
The stock guage doesn't mean you have boost. The guage doesn't actually read pressure (boost) it reads air going through the MAF sensor. You can take the hose off the throttle body and rev it up and the turbo will suck air through the sensor, and the gauge will go up, but there wont be any pressure in the the hose/intercooler/intake manifold (no boost). So the stock gauge is useless.
Describe the harsh noise, to some a loud bang scares people and they think that's harsh, my car goes BOOM when things work right so to me, BOOM or BANG! is normal.

Several things will make the car hard to start, jumped timing will. Also a BIG boost leak will also. Check the obvious first, DO A BOOST LEAK TEST!, don't just check the clamps and hoses, and "it all LOOKS ok", that is not a boost leak test, do an actual test.

That tick can be lifter tick or normal injector tick, most people don't notice its there till they are looking for a problem and they hear it and think its something when it was always there the whole time. Makes sense that it ticks while reving up and stops when letting off, injectors shut off on decel.

The SRS coming on for a quick bit sounds like alternator either over volting or under volting at high RPM, signs of a failing alternator. The SRS, Brake, and one other light comes on at high RPM.

What I meant by 20mph, I didn't mean he did the pull on 2nd and he was only going 20pmh.
He was cruising AFTER he did the pull at about 20mph when he started to hear his turbo spool.
He said it was spooling as if he were to be punching it but the engine was barely around 2-3k???
The noise you might be right about the injectors making noise, my car has never had the noises (knock on wood) so that's why they seem off to me.
It was pretty late at night when he came last, but I'll do a boost leak whenever we get a chance to meet up.
Btw, it might not make a difference but he has a pretty darn new alternator.

Just because its a new alternator that doesn't mean its going to work. Couple of guys here bought "new" alts just for them to start acting up. My 2 cents

Hmm i see.
We still have to do a boost leak.

Unable to do a boost leak do to the car not starting for shit, he decided to toe it to a mechanic to get a diagnosis and they told him he jumped timing and bent a couple valves.
Looks like hes gonna drop some serious cash.