xosis

Sorry to interject, I just joined this forum. Anyway, an important point you are missing, is that turbos are oil lubricated, not oil cooled. The oil is used to lubricate the bearins, not cool the turbo. The water lines are used to cool the turbo, usually in turbo production cars, where a turbo timer is not installed for proper cool down. For instance, my friends Greddy turbo for his Si doesn't even come with water cooling. Anyway, just some more info.

scientifik

I would have to say though, that if there's no water jacket built into the bearing house then the oil is probably doing most of the cooling (as well as lubing.) :P

I have one of each turbo as I said before (a water/oil and an oil only). It's not that I'm concerned with the extra hookups for a water cooled turbo, that'd be easy to plumb. It's just that I'm not as confident about the condition of the water cooled blower. The oil only turbo is pristine for a J/Y find.

Anyways, the responses to this post have helped answer the questions I had. Thanks.

-Icarus

stretch-d

The oil is there to lubricate, but also to cool.

The circulation of oil through the turbo carries away the heat generated in the turbo.

The turbo operates at a much higher temp. than the engine. The oil exiting the engine is reletively cool compared to the temp. of the turbo thereby creating a cooling situation.

If the oil was only there to lube, why not have a closed lubing system (which some turbos do have but not the ones were discussing here).

scientifik

Say I go with the oil cooled turbo...
Would it be a good idea to run an oil cooler as well?
I read the post on 'Oil lines' which mentioned oil coolers as detrimental to performance due to 'operating' temperatures for oil.
Could I run the outflow line of an oil cooler to the turbo for maximum cooling effect instead of tapping off the block?

-Icarus

stretch-d

Yes. You can use an oil cooler in your system but most likely it's not nessesary. I'm not sure if it would be ok to use it in the way that you've described. There may be some oil pressure issues.

Also, an additional item (like an oil cooler) placed into a system can be one more thing that can fail.


Oil does have a specified operating temp range. If the oil cooler drops the temp of the oil too much, it could have detrimental results.

So just be sure that you need it.