Water feed line for turbo

[rmcdaniels]

I tried using my IACV/TB heater line, but when I pipe it around front to the turbo it only delivers a trickle of water. So while I'm waiting for my toasted turbo to get rebuilt I'd like to find a nice high pressure water feed line for my turbo. I want a LOT of water this time, as I am running out of money and can't afford to fuck this up too many more times. Any ideas? Maybe later I'll go home, put a hose in my radiator, and start taking hoses off then running the engine to see which one has a lot of pressure. I would also like to bypass the thermostat.

[discopotato03]

Rog , one thing you need to be careful with your turbo's waterlines is NOT bypassing the thermostat . I tried this once and the engine ran too cool and took forever to warm up , this is bad particularly in cold climates as the engine oil never reaches the correct temperature . These BB turbos only use 5/16 (8mm) water lines in production cars and it works for me . The critical part is finding water supply at or below turbo height and sending it (the post turbo water) away to a higher position in the cooling system , RULE 1 : Do not make the turbo a high point in its cooling lines .
If you ever get to look at a Nissan SR20DET the water inlet and outlet are quite close together (one slightly higher than the other) and almost certainly are in the same section of water jacket . As long as enough water can find the turbo and there is a higher outlet so that hot water/bubbles can flow up and out to be replaced by cooler water this will work . My system of running the high side back to the head side of the thermostat was an attempt to make it thermosyphon whether the engine was running or not . This also works . Incidently if you do do this try to use an independant line to the head as "T ing" into other lines could have unusual effects depending on what they are and how they flow .
Gotta go let's know how you went with your turbo . Got a note from another site posting that agpturbo.com rebuild Garrett BB turbos .
Chow for now A .

[Weston]

I used the heater hoses for mine. I just added two T's... one on each of the heater hoses, then ran a hose from each of them to the turbo. I don't know how good the flow rate is, but it is definitely filling up with water.

[rmcdaniels]

So if my turbo water line doesn't bypass the thermostat, will my turbo not have coolant until after the engine warms up? That can take quite a while.

[discopotato03]

No it dosen't work like that . Virtually ALL production engines have a radiator by-pass pipe or hose to allow water to circulate in the system when the thermostat is shut . This allows water to flow evenly in the system from cold and stops the mechanically driven water pump from cavitating . I would not worry too much over trying to get lots of water flow or pressure through the turbo , after all when the engine is shut down the pump stops and the only flow will be if it thermosyphons properly . What this means is that very hot or boiling water is lighter (less dense) than cooler (heavier and more dense) water . The heavy water will sink to the lowest point (hopefully the waterjacket in the turbo) to be boiled off and rise towards the cylinder head and on the cycle goes . On my engine this will go on for about 3-5 minutes untill the turbo is down under 100C (212F) and then the engine cools down as per normal . My turbo (GT28RS) uses the same bearing section as yours and has been in use now for about ten weeks , daily driven with no dramas and I see no reason why it would fail now .
Chow for now A .

[rmcdaniels]

ATP got the turbo Monday. They called me back and asked me a lot of questions about my oil feed. Mostly they just wanted to make very sure I used the restrictor nozzle on the oil inlet and that I didn't route my crankcase breather back into my intake.

They didn't like that the oil return flange on my oil pan was below the engine oil level, but I put it as near the top of the pan as I could and they said it's not a deal killer.

They said they couldn't figure out why oil would just leak out the compressor side, if the seals go it leaks out both sides, so they were RMA'ing it to Garrett and should have word back from Garret by next week.

I also called AGP. They were pretty helpful. The guy there had never seen one fail so fast. He said even if I don't run water to it at all it will last for a long time as long as it has oil. He had only seen one fail by leaking oil out the compressor and that was one that Garrett had forgotten to install a sealing ring in at the time of manufacture. He said that for it to fail in a few days looked like some kind of defect in the turbo and that I should get it to Garrett for disassembly/inspection. He said it usually costs about $400 to rebuild it if I wanted him to do it, but that as long as it was at Garrett I should have them fix it.

Damn my car is slow. 8.4:1 compression sucks for N/A. Some guy in a Mustang GT was messing with me a few days ago and I just had to smile, wave, and say "nice car".

[discopotato03]

Roger , has any progress been made yet . I am curious to know what the turbo's problem was and what Garrett plan to do about it .
Chow A .

[rmcdaniels]

I called Monday and they had no word from Garrett yet. I'll try again later today and again on Friday if there's no word today.

[hoffman]

Tap the water line directly after the pump.

[rmcdaniels]

Tap the water line directly after the pump.

The pump on a Honda B16 isn't accessible. It's bolted to the block behind the timing belt. It looks like it feeds directly into the block or head and comes out the head in several places. The return pipe is just below the level of the head. I've been thinking of using the heater lines, but making a T with a restrictor in the heater line so the turbo is the easier path. Either that or a T in the upper radiator hose.

[discopotato03]

Roger , any news from Garrett about your turbo yet ?
Cheers A .

[rmcdaniels]

I called Friday and they told me to try again Wednesday, so I'll give them a call tomorrow.

[rmcdaniels]

I finally got word yesterday. Garrett says there is nothing wrong with my turbo. They disassembled it and couldn't find anything the matter with it, so they reassembled it and are sending it back to me. The only reason they could think of that oil would come out of the compressor is that my oil return line is plumbed into my oil pan so low that it is submerged. They said it could have created back pressure and caused some oil to leak by the seal. I'll redo my oil return and try it again.

[discopotato03]

This is good news , you are lucky that in the US these BB turbos are servicable as in Australia its buy a new cartrige .
My engine is a factory turbo job that had an old style T3 standard . The engine block has a boss on it low down but above the sump pan rail which is drilled and tapped for the oil return fitting . Aparently old bush bearing turbos whipped their oil into a foam like substance and were critical on their oil return pipe . The Nissan SR20 brigade usually remove the sump pan with the engine in the car and carefully drill and tap the hole (removing ALL swarf) and get a usable oil return . From an engineering viewpoint this is the correct way to do it .
An important point to remember is that if oil vapours get into the inlet system and mix with the fuel and air it drops the octane value of the fuel quite markedly . This is bad and can promote an earlier detonation threshold which if left unchecked will damage your pistons and cost lots of money to replace . Its best to copy the manufacturers with things like this and water cooling as well .
Have fun and keep us posted A .

[rmcdaniels]

That sounds like a good idea. I don't remember what the inside of the block looks like above the oil pan, I'll have to look up there when I get the turbo. I know the block is clear of fittings below the exhaust manifold, so if I can find a clear spot just above the oil pan, I'll put the return there.

[rmcdaniels]

They also had the .63 AR turbine housing in stock, so they are sending it with the turbo.

[discopotato03]

I hate to be a pain Rog but would it be possible to see some pics of your turbos turbine and the exhaust housing from the inside , ie 6 bolts out and it slips apart . The reason I'm asking is ATP say that the housing is a custom job that is GT30 on the inside and T3 shape on the outside . If I can see it inside I'll soon know if its a con job or not ! Your last exhaust housing was a .82AR from memory so the .63AR should get you better response due to higher gas speed through the turbine blades .
Best of luck , bye for now A .

[rmcdaniels]

No problem, will do. I should have it back any time now, they shipped it via 3-day shipping last Thursday, so I'm hoping to see it tomorrow. They're sending back both turbine housings, so I'll get you pictures of both.

[rmcdaniels]

Finally got it, here's pics of the .63 and the .82

[rmcdaniels]

more pics

[rmcdaniels]

even more pics

[rmcdaniels]

I reworked the oil and water feeds and made a CAI. The turbo is back on with the new turbine housing. Everything works great, running 18 lbs boost. I can't tell any difference in the spool time, seems the same as with the .82 AR. It definitely sounds different now, more of a high pitched whine to it.

[12seccivy]

I reworked the oil and water feeds and made a CAI. The turbo is back on with the new turbine housing. Everything works great, running 18 lbs boost. I can't tell any difference in the spool time, seems the same as with the .82 AR. It definitely sounds different now, more of a high pitched whine to it.

But does it haul ASS?
'burnout: 'burnout:

[rmcdaniels]

But does it haul ASS?
'burnout: 'burnout:

Holy crap does it haul ass, when I hit 18 lbs of boost in 3rd gear, the car flies, it's even better than my 3rd gen RX-7. I've got to get the J&S Safeguard installed and make one more trip to the tuner, then I'll put it on the dyno and see how much boost I can run it up to safely. After that I'll take it to the track and see what it does. Maybe I'll get some new wheels/tires too, gotta review my budget and see how much more money I can spend without my wife finding out.

[12seccivy]

That's what I like to hear!:Beer:
Let us know what kind of timeslip you put in.