Lowboy

Hey guys, another quick couple questions... How can you tell if a turbo needs to be rebuilt?? I scoped out the junkyard and got a turbo off of a Mistubishi something or other (conquest I think.. I forgot already LOL) and the turbo has some slight shaft play, maybe 1 or 2 mm, but how freely should it spin?? It doesnt appear that the fins (?) have had contact with the housing.. and no apparent nicks on them. I only paid 40 bucks for the thing, so if it turns out to be junk, its no big loss.

Also, as far as water/oil cooling for the turbo, how is that fed into the turbo?? What I mean is, is it sucked into the turbo by vaccuum built up within the turbo, or is it basically pushed into and through the turbo by pressure from the motor/pump??

And lastly, I have a weird concept/idea of turbo placement that i wanted to get input on. Keeping in mind 1) Im not building a racecar, and 2) I drive a truck. Instead of cutting up my nice chrome header, why cant I add a bend and a flange to my exhaust, and have the turbo mounted in the bed of my truck?? From there I could have an intercooler mounted in the bed as well, and run a pipe under the truck back into the engine. is the exhaust pressure that much greater straight at the exhaust manifold as opposed to 3 to 4 feet down the pipe (Im runnin without a cat converter)? Would it just spool up a hair slower?? With the turbo in the bed, then I could run a downpipe straight into the remaining exhaust system. I don't claim to be a genious, so please fell free to point out the glaringly obvious (to you) reasons why there is no way in hell that that wouldn't work. Thanks for your input guys.

And Jeff, thanks for the info and that additional fuel injector setup.. I think that is the way to go for me..

HMT-Admin

Interesting thoughts you have their

Well if the turbo has alot of shaft play, (in and out) and looks to be leaking oil from either side of the shaft you might want to get a rebuild. Lots of junkyard turbos are just a gamble anyways. I've had ones I thought were perfect, with little shaft play and throw them on and they turned into being smokers! So its really your call. Up and down play doesnt matter as much as in and out (as long as the fins arnt hitting the compressor)

Coolant, is basically, you tap anywhere off your cooling system Intake manifold/whatever and that gets cycled through the turbo charger (either direction, you just make a loop) The water pump feeds that.

Oil, again, the oil pressure/Pump feeds that, off the back of the block or wherever you have a "GOOD" source of oil pressure is the best place to go, near the pump/pressure sender etc. Oil return is gravity fed, its very slow and needs to have a large diamter hose for the return, you dont want the oil getting backed up into the center section, (this will cause smoke) blowing through the exhaust shaft seal.

The location you have picked, would probably be tougher than ---- to do, you would have a crazy looking oil feed/return system and I honestly dont know how well the turbo will work that far downstream in the exhaust.

Good luck,
Jeff

ZexRex

umm.. thats alot of extra weight and pipe and stuff for a turbo kit.. you would get mad pressure drop through all that pipe and how would you get air to the ic.. it would lag pretty bad having to build pressure through all of that pipe, it could be done, my guess is that it would work like ---- and cost way too much to do with all the extra pipe, vaccume lines, oil lines, water lines, charge pipe. but it would be funny to see it done.

shortyz

also. a turbo relies on being hot to produce its power. your idea isnt practical.

Sikocivic

Most trucks have a ton of room under the hood. Sell the header and put your stock manifold back on. You should be able to fit the turbo alot easier that way.

shortyz

yeah. use the old manifolds, swap sides and turn them upside down, then get some piping done. turboing a v8 is way easier then a honda, the piping is so much easier because u have a ton of room to work.

but figuring out fuel can be a bitch also.