One Stop Safari Turbo Thread! - Repairs, Upgrades, Challenges (1 Viewer)

[yoda-g3]

Hi all,

After starting on my second round of Safari repairs over the last 6 years I decided to compile all of the threads into one place to help other Safari owners if they get into the same boat as me.

In a nut shell, my rig had the turbo installed professionally by a dealership around 50k, still on original HG. At that time there was a Unichip installed.

Years later at 144k I discovered cracks in the turbo housing caused most like by running excessively lean.

Here is a post with Dyno results / Parts info that led up to that discovery: SAFARI Turbo Dyno Results - AFR Questions

That turned into quite the saga in finding "current" replacement parts that kept me from re-working the entire system. That can be found here: Help sourcing Safari Turbo Exhaust Housing - .82AR

With a little follow up on the post "upgrade" tweaks here: Help ASAP! - Safari Turbo Rebuild - Too Much Boost - Heading on camping trip!

The summary of my repair was I had the manifold welded, turbo rebuilt / turbine housing converted to a 5 bolt Ford style flange, then mated a flapper gate to the turbo (allowed me to retain the internal wastegate), and had my shop custom build a new down pipe. I also removed the Unichip to get AFR's back to non-insane levels.

Now 6 years later and 26k on the "refreshed" unit, I have discovered more issues. You can track that saga here: Need turbo gasket advice - Copper vs SS vs V-band?


Summary take away so far:

- Flex pipe by the down pipe was added 2015 after discovering stripped studs off turbo housing. It was a cheaper flex pipe I realize now and has failed. Flex pipe is a must! But don't go cheap, next one will be a Vibrant TurboFlex Coupling with Interlock Liner

- Don't skimp on exhaust hangers.... I think it caused some of my issues. Make sure to double up where you can to take that weight off of the manifold / turbo.

- Ceramic coating on everything has essentially worn off of the turbo and down-pipe. (Waste of time and money.)

- HG is still solid (knock on wood) at 170k, with 100k of 7lbs of boost / running LEAN, plus another 24k of 7-9lbs of boost running right. (Not saying to now change it, just giving a data point for those worried about it.)

More to come...

 

[yoda-g3]

UPDATED 3/19/2021

Finally getting around to filling these reserved sections in. Sorry for the delay. Seeing this thread get some new attention years later made me realize it could help other peeps if they ran into my hell.

For a short recap, these pics are after my FIRST rebuild attempt. I had the Safari unit rebuilt by GPop Shop and they helped me get compressor rebuilt / pick a housing that "mostly fit" to the Safari setup. This consisted of putting a "flapper plate" in between housing and downpipe. As you'll see below, that solution didn't allow enough flow and most likely caused over heating / poor spooling.

I take FULL blame on it not being the best solution, not them. I was trying to keep it under 3k to re-engineer and probably went cheaper than I should have. You'll see below that the manifold crack I had re-welded, cracked again, and that flapper / spacer practically melted to the housing. Or the copper gaskets I used just flat melted.

 

[yoda-g3]

UPDATED 3/19/2021

Here are the bits I upgraded with. Turbo Glide in Aussyland made the original manifolds, and have since REALLY beefed them up. Look at the side by sides. Outlet and orientation seemed to match original Safari.

I then found a better housing option that had the exhaust outlet integrated, removing one more point of failure while adding better flow. Then I bought an adapter to convert the outlet to V-Band to allow better flow / easier "clocking" of the downpipe. I also added a beefier / longer flex pipe to the down pipe to help take stress off the studs. Two years and thousands of miles of heavy boat hauling later, its holding up VERY well. Performs close to what the Safari did originally if not better.

The end take away of the story if I had to do ALL OVER again.

- Buy the Turbo-Glide manifold ($1,200 ish shipped I think) - Turbo Glide Turbochargers & Dyno Tuning. 4WD experts - http://www.turboglide.com.au/
- Immediately send the whole thing to G Pop Shop for rebuild advice. (They also rebuilt the actuator on round 2.) - G-Pop Shop - https://gpopshop.com/
- Source your housing bits at ATP Turbo as you discuss option with G Pop, I found that "5 bolt housing" gave me the best search results to look over options - ATP TURBO - The Premiere Provider of Turbocharging Components - https://www.atpturbo.com/
- Add flex pipe - https://vibrantperformance.com/cata..._1114&osCsid=922abc0d3a204062db3c34e834f6c6f3
- DITCH the mother f'ing unichip if you have one!!! It it what caused alll of this headache from running too lean.
- Add a manual click boost controller inline between manifold port / actuator. It will let you crank it up to 7 PSI easily. I have Grimmspeed - Manual Boost Controller - https://www.grimmspeed.com/manual-boost-controller

 

[yoda-g3]

UPDATED 3/19/2021

Final Install Pics

 

[yoda-g3]

Reserved.

 

[subzali]

Link to the photo thread:
Safari Turbo pictures

 

[subzali]

Intercooler bushing replacement threads:
Safari intercooler pics and bushing dimensions

Replacement bushing for Safari intercooler

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Just found this thread having just breaking the ice on mine after having stored for 2 years since my purchase.

Inter cooler bushing were first on the list having only one good one to work with I took the ghetto approach by using 2 different size hose. Im super happy with the results of a tight fit.

 

[yoda-g3]

Just found this thread having just breaking the ice on mine after having stored for 2 years since my purchase.

Inter cooler bushing were first on the list having only one good one to work with I took the ghetto approach by using 2 different size hose. Im super happy with the results of a tight fit.

Nice! I used some poly bushing from an old shock kit, they have worked ok, but this seems like a better solution. Mine are too rigid and I'm worried it will wear too quickly.

 

[subzali]

A while back I discovered that I no longer had boost control. It used to be that the turbo would spool to 4 psi and stay there rock solid. Now with it on the floor it would peak at a little over 10 psi and would go anywhere in between depending on load. I wasn't sure what the problem was but after removing the assembly and applying air to the actuator hose I could hear and feel air leaking past the diaphragm. So off I went to find a replacement actuator, as this one does not appear to be rebuildable. The original actuator is a Garrett 430099-032 and I found it is set at 0.3 bar, which is 4.3 psi. It is no longer available and I could not find any current Garrett actuators with this setting. A table I found showed that actuators ending in -041 and -062 are set at 0.41 bar (5.9 psi), which would have been fine. However searching online for a source of these did not turn any up. What came up in ebay etc. was the -018 which is also set to 0.41 bar (6.1 psi). Instead of buying online I decided to call my local turbo supplier and they came up with a -030 which is a 0.47 bar (6.8 psi) actuator. A couple days later they had it in and after trimming the threads to length I mounted it up. So it is not an exact match because the actuating rod is slightly longer than the -032 but I am now boosting at just shy of 7 psi on the gauge so I am happy.

 

[subzali]

Another issue I had recently was that my PCV hose from the turbo inlet to the valve cover cracked from brittleness due to age and heat. It is a custom formed hose something like a shepherd's crook, and it's pretty long. My short-term, but what may turn into a long-term, solution was to go to NAPA to match it up. I found that by using a 9801 hose, a 9923 90 degree plastic elbow, and a 9802 hose I could recreate the shape close enough to get me rolling. There was a little material that needed to be trimmed off either end of the hoses but it's okay and the hoses are readily available. The 9801 is 1/2" ID and about 10" long with a 90 degree bend, and the 9802 is 1/2" ID and about 16" long also with a 90 degree bend. I used the 9801 to go up and over from the valve cover, then the 90 degree elbow turned down, then the 9802 went down and over from the elbow to the turbo inlet pipe. I may keep an eye out for an OEM application that follows a similar enough routing that it could be used, but am not hopeful of that. I also contacted Safari but I doubt I will hear back from them or I expect their response to be that the hoses were custom formed and no longer available.

 

[jertiffauk]

Yoda, thanks for taking the time to help us out and document your turbo saga here. Your thread was what prompted me to remove my unichip a few years back... I replaced my cracked safari turbo that was likely caused from the unichip and everything has been running great since.

I'd like to put a gauge on my boost and bump it up to 10 PSI as Turbocruiser has talked about on his. I need to put a boost gauge on, where have you found is the best place to tap in? Also would love to see where you mounted your gauges? I might get an AFR just to be safe also, even though it sounds like it's pretty safe with stock mapping from what I've read. If you have any pics that would be awesome! Also if anyone else has ideas, I'm all ears!

 

[subzali]

Mine has been running with the boost connected here for almost 20 years:

Goes through the firewall grommet and up to a dual-gauge pod (I think from an Acura, and may not be available to find any more):

Here is the current gauge thread:

80 Series Aftermarket Gauge Choices & Mounting Options

With many of us going the @NLXTACY turbo route and many others with superchargers wanting to monitor their motors further it seems like a good time to start a discussion on gauges and options. WARNING: I WILL BE PUKING RANDOM THOUGHTS ALL OVER THE PLACE SO I CAN REMEMBER LATER. This is from...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[jertiffauk]

Thanks for that info. After testing my waste gate actuator I found air blowing right through it... Any recommendations on an actuator source? I imagine there are some pretty universal units but if someone knows where to find one that would be great?

 

[subzali]

Thanks for that info. After testing my waste gate actuator I found air blowing right through it... Any recommendations on an actuator source? I imagine there are some pretty universal units but if someone knows where to find one that would be great?

Diesel Forward in Denver is where I got my replacement. You can look up tables for Garrett wastegates to find one with the set pressure you want and you can check dimensions I think to make sure the one you want will fit. And then you could order it from those guys. I came up with a 430099-030 which is a 0.47 bar (6.8 psi) actuator as a replacement.

 

[jertiffauk]

Thanks for the info Sublazi. Got the new actuator in and did a boost leak test just to check and found I have a hole in my upper intercooler hose where it has rubbed on the ARB bumper. Where on earth would I find a rubber hose like this with the 90' bends? I was able to patch it for now but not sure how long it will last...

 

[asuddendeath]

Can you guys get pics of the intercooler mounting and how they moved the oil cooler?

 

[subzali]

Thanks for the info Sublazi. Got the new actuator in and did a boost leak test just to check and found I have a hole in my upper intercooler hose where it has rubbed on the ARB bumper. Where on earth would I find a rubber hose like this with the 90' bends? I was able to patch it for now but not sure how long it will last...

Most of the intercooler piping is 3" ID, but measure the specific piece you need to verify. I just did a Google search for "3" intercooler hose" and came up with a bunch of hits for silicone couplers and elbows. I'm sure you could find one to match what you need.

 

[subzali]

Can you guys get pics of the intercooler mounting and how they moved the oil cooler?

Safari provided new brackets that mount the intercooler in front of the radiator:

The bracket provides a new support for the hood lock assembly, and you have to move the horns a bit. You also have to eliminate the stock transmission oil cooler.

For the transmission cooler, the Safari system came with an all-new transmission cooler that mounted low between the frame rails:

If you are interested in A-A, I always thought it would be interesting to contact Safari to see if you could order their diesel A-A intercooler kit. They still make it, and I bet it's the same as this intercooler, except for some of the charge hoses that would come with it. There are probably cheaper/better ways to come up with an A-A though.

 

[8cam]

Didn't know about this thread, excellent info here. Interesting to see the differences, and issues others have had. So far I'm doing well with Phil's old turbo. Data point for you guys, mine has been turbocharged for almost all of its 176k miles and the transmission finally gave up about a thousand miles ago. Had to do a full rebuild. While that kinda sucks, the fact the transmission lasted for that long under boost means it's pretty damn stout. And it's definitely quicker now, which tells me the transmission was on the way out for a while.