3B turbo install with DIY manifold (1 Viewer)

[robmobile73]

Mostly finished my turbo install today. I'm happy with the result so far. Nice increase in power with no real problems. Only a couple minor issues to square away. I can keep up with traffic now, hold speed on hills, it feels like a normal utility vehicle now, not a underpowered vehicle.
I"m going to try to post up pics now but I have to use my phone for that we'll see how this works out. I intend to comment and post the progress throughout.
I decided to make my own "log style manifold" out of a piece of rectangular steel somewhat copying what others have done. If It had been as simple as I had thought and I did it right the first time without screwing up or buying extra items I could have welded up the manifold for less than $100 and less than 3 hours of work.........Due to mistakes etc.. It probably cost me $200 and 10 hours of time. If I were to do it over again I would have spent $399+ shipping and bought a manifold.
Turbo used was a new tD04l-13T-6. $99 free shipping off Ebay. Goal was to do a simple, inexpensive turbo install limited by tools and skills that I have. I wanted it durable and "good enough". I certainly could have spent more time making it more "pretty", but I didn't.
I'm going to switch over to the phone now and start putting pictures and comments. I'm going to post the finished pictures here now.

First pic you can see the Turbo installed from the front. I was able to cut and re-utilize the original intake plumbing with only the addition of a 1.5" to 2" rubber fitting.

Second pic you can see a good shot of the turbo and manifold from the side. No wastegate. Downpipe flange holds wastegate arm shut. The exhaust wrap does a good job of keeping down heat to nearby components.

Third pic you can see where I relocated the power steering reservoir (rear end of valve cover on firewall)and fuel filter(next to left side battery). I just found some unused mounting holes with threads and bolted them up with one bolt each. Will reinforce later.

 

[robmobile73]

Originally intended to use a 2 x 4 x 3/16 piece of steel bolted through the tubing to the Head. I started off using the old exhaust gasket as a pattern. I center punched every bolt hole and began to drill. Clearance between the top of the block in the edge of bolt holes is tight. I had to drill on the curved corner to get it tight enough. Due to the limitations of my equipment this did not work out very well and was not going to seal. not only that but 2 center punch each hole and drill them all at once is the wrong method they don't line up.

 

[robmobile73]

Many different ideas on how to fix the first attempt I decided to scrap it and try again. Second attempt would be a 2x3x1/8 inch piece of box tube on end so the bolts will not be going through the tube.
Lucky for me I have the old cracked head to build off of. So I can base weed Mark drill weld on to the old head and then when I transfer it to the vehicle I know it will fit.
I use better method this time and transferred good location for all bolt holes and quarts to a piece of plexiglass using a marker, soldering iron, and Dremel.

 

[robmobile73]

Here's the pattern.

 

[Nz Nath]

Is your rocker cover breather still hooked up like in the top photos?

 

[robmobile73]

Transfer the pattern to a new piece of box steel. I chose 1/8 inch box steel because I wanted to cut the portholes out with a hole saw. I have a plasma cutter but was concerned about warping the steel from the heat. I did not want to have to go to a machine shop and have them surface grind it to make it flat. I transferred the same pattern to a piece of 3 ” x 1/8" bar stock. This was sistered to the steel rectangle tube and welded in place. this gives me an exhaust flange of 1/4 inch thick.

at this point I realized there was not enough clearance between the side of the box tube for my bolt heads to rotate. I would not be able to clamp the manifold to the Head from the flange. Since I was not going to be able to clamp from the flange I decided to notch it out instead of wasting time drilling holes through it for the bolts...wasn't sure how to proceed here so I went to sleep on it came up with a better idea the next day.

 

[robmobile73]

Laying in bed I came up with the idea that I would make small metal tabs of 3/16 inch steel. Drill a hole for the bolt through each tab. I would then put all 8 bolts in the head with my partial manifold centered up amongst them I would pull out one bolt at a time insert the tab onto the bolt thread the bolt back in and then tack weld the tab into place. watch they were all tack welded I returned and fully welded each one. I was welding the bolt hole tabs in position while the bolts were threaded in on the head............. This method worked I was sort of building a manifold onto a head welding it as I went. it kind of reminded me of seeing a guy in Afghanistan holding a piece of steel between his bare feet and using hand files, hand drill, calibrated hand and eyeballs to turn it into an AK-47 receiver.

 

[robmobile73]

I cut a turbo flange out of 3/8 inch steel using a gasket as a pattern and the new $165 eBay "cut 50" plasma cutter. I was going to weld this directly to the manifold but head bolts were interfering with turbo flange bolts. I had to weld a rectangular extension onto the side of the manifold and then weld a turbo flange to that. My extension was about 2". I could have and should have made it a little bit tighter and shorter.

I cut a downpipe flange out of quarter inch plate using the same plasma cutter. I used a 2 inch iron pipe elbow weld it to my downpipe flange to make the turn for my downpipe........... I know they call it iron pipe & iron pipe fittings, but in the smaller fittings smaller pipes there's enough steel in it that I've never had any trouble welding it with flux core wire welder or had any problem with it breaking or cracking.

Mr. Gasket steel core exhaust gasket material what's used to make a new exhaust gasket. Pattern was transferred to the material with yellow spray paint stamped by the manifold. I use this material for an exhaust gasket because I wanted a thick gasket that would compress in the event that my manifold was not perfectly flat as it was also thinner than stock and may warp a bit on tightening.

I didn't waste time trying to grind all the welds down perfectly smooth. I wanted the strength of the extra bead. All of this welding was done with a always hot "ready welder" spool gun type welder using flux core wire with 24 volt battery Bank the only adjustment for wire speed.

I stopped taking a lot of pictures at this point so I'm just going to post what I have from now on.

 

[robmobile73]

This is a picture of the mr. Gasket gasket material part number.

 

[robmobile73]

Reading other post and other threats most people seem to say that there is no point in a wastegate on a 3B turbo. With stock pump and injectors people just aren't getting enough fuel to Build too much boost. So I removed the wastegate actuator and the wastegate arm is held shut by the downpipe flange. You can see this up first pic.

The second picture is of my oil supply line to the block. I remove the plug underneath and behind the alternator toward the front of the engine from the oil pressure sensor. The plug is a tapered thread not a standard metric thread. tapered threads get tighter as you tighten them together that's how they seal. 1/8 inch national pipe thread brass fittings screw into these holes firmly and seal. I use a 1/8" not elbow in a couple couplings to a 3/8 inch Barb. Hose clamp to rubber oil line supplying oil to the turbo.

Third and fourth picture are my oil drain into the pan. I used to step drill to drill a hole just in front of the third bolt from the rear end on the right hand side of the engine. Add real slow and made whole just big enough so I can thread a 1/2 inch nipple into the hole. I didn't used to national pipe thread nuts to bolt the nipple securely to the pan there are o-rings between the bolts and epoxy on the threads. I decided not too weld to the pan as it is two pieces of sheet metal with a layer of plastic in between stamped together. My 24 volt battery Bank welder probably would not adjust low enough to weld this material very well.

 

[robmobile73]

In the picture below you can see my power steering reservoir. I had to move the power steering reservoir as it was too close to the exhaust for my liking. I had to bend the mounting wings as well as the tubing coming out of the reservoir to make it work. There is an unused mounting hole on the firewall directly behind the engine that I was able to bolt it to it's only one bolt and not as strong as it was originally but it works for now. It's not pretty and I'll probably try to find a way to reinforce it later, there is however no real stress on this item.

Figuring out how and where to move the power steering pump reservoir was actually one of the more time and consuming parts of the install.

 

[robmobile73]

In the first pic you can see the exhaust wrap on the turbo. I put self-adhesive foil backed duct insulation on the side of the battery and the firewall. Some of the lines are zip tied and bent away from the downpipe. It really was not necessary though as the exhaust wrap works very well. I was concerned about my two air conditioner lines and their close proximity to the turbo. They do not get hot to the touch so I think it's good enough.
In the second pick you can see the plumbing from the turbo to the intake. I was pretty much able to plumb it using the parts for the original intake just cut and piece together differently.
in the last picture you can see where the fuel filter mounts next to the left side battery. There was an empty 12 bolt hole and enough room for the mounting bracket. So there it went. A 4-inch piece of 3/8 inch fuel line is used on the right side of the vehicle to jumper the metal lines together in absence of the original position of fuel filter.

 

[KiwiDingo]

Is your rocker cover breather still hooked up like in the top photos?

Yes I see that too, did you get a confirmation from him about this? I've seen this happen quite a lot when guys turbo their 1HZ.

 

[robmobile73]

Issues

I have too much oil pressure going to the turbo. Some oil is weeping around the bearing seals and going into the intake. I'm going to put some type of pinhole restrictor in the line. I remember someone else posting something about 1/16 in restrictor hole in their oil line.

Original intake metal tube is not perfectly round the wire Toyota hose clamp is not sealing it tight and some of the boost is leaking. I'm easy going to change the hose clamp or go out and get a piece of aluminum tubing to substitute.

After driving it for an hour and standing back looking at the engine admiring my work I noticed the crankcase breather line going from the valve cover to the intake. Originally slight vacuum from the intake will scavenge oil fumes from the crank case. Vacum also helps keep oil from weeping out engine seals. I forgot to disconnect this line so I drove it around for an hour pressuring my crankcase valve cover area with boost pressure. I have to cap this off to the intake and figure out what to do with that breather line.

I still don't have my EGT gauge yet. I am not going to touch the fuel screw until it comes in. I did not buy boost gauge, not really sure if I need one. I think I can tune the fuel screw for EGT and performance...... But this has to wait for now.

I have air in my power steering lines. refill the reservoir work the wheel back and forth and drove for quite a while. Still a bit noisy. Never had a power steering pump take so long to work the air out.

How it drives-
Drives like a normal vehicle now not underpowered. I can keep up with traffic leaving the stoplight. it takes much less push on the pedal to maintain highway speed. It runs smoother and is amazingly quieter at idle. Not quite as peppy as my 71 Chevy truck with 4bt. Better than a naturally aspirated Ford ranger diesel. Very similar to my old mitsu. Delica turbodiesel van, but more peppy at lower speed. Almost as quick as a unloaded hmmwv.

 

[robmobile73]

Is your rocker cover breather still hooked up like in the top photos?

Yes, I noticed that after driving for a hour this evening.......Something I overlooked. I'll fix it tomorrow. Cut the hose and plug it off to the intake. Not sure If I'll just route the breather line down the side of the engine like a old 60's car or try to pipe it over to the air filter or something. No real good vacum source that I know of. It's nice to keep a vacum on the crank case to cut down on oil weeps.

 

[Nz Nath]

Disconnecting that breather might solve your leaking turbo oil seals.

 

[robmobile73]

Disconnecting that breather might solve your leaking turbo oil seals.

Thankyou for that. I hope you are right. It makes sense- pressurized oil coming in, and a pressurized crankcase is pushing it back from the drain line not letting it drain out properly. The ambient pressure on the exterior side of the turboshaft bearing seals is likely less than the boost pressure. So maybe 30PSI oil going in forced against 8-15psi on the drain with 0 PSI outside the seals.

 

[gerg]

Creative work. Your turbo oil drain looks to be on an angle. Reclocking your turbo and putting the drain straight might help with oil pooling and leaking past the seals. Might want to change out your boost couplers as they aren't reinforced and will eventually fail and leak. Did you get the turbo rebalanced? I'd check it for play frequently.
Cherrs

 

[robmobile73]

Creative work. Your turbo oil drain looks to be on an angle. Reclocking your turbo and putting the drain straight might help with oil pooling and leaking past the seals. Might want to change out your boost couplers as they aren't reinforced and will eventually fail and leak. Did you get the turbo rebalanced? I'd check it for play frequently.
Cherrs

Turbo drain is almost straight down from the bottom of the turbo. I think the picture is taken at a strange angle maybe. I believe NZ nath is right on how "my boost pressurized crankcase may be pushing the oil out". If fixing that crankcase breather line doesn't help I'll make a restrictor to reduce flow in the oil line.

I wanted to get this thing done so I can go turkey hunting before the season is over. Reinforced silicone turbo plumbing fittings are $10-15 a piece online at numerous stores. I went to my local parts stores expecting them to have them, or be able to get them quickly but no joy and over $50 a piece.....So I used what I had...I will order some silicone reinforced turbo fittings online...........

On the Rebalancing of the turbo, It is a new turbo and the hot and cold side blades have never been unbolted/removed from the turboshaft or CHRA . The shaft and blade is still in it's factory balanced position. (assuming the factory balanced or inspected them). The hot cold side housing was reindexed a bit, but that should not effect turboshaft balance.

 

[robmobile73]

UPDATE-When I first installed the turbo the downpipe flange was pushing against the wastegate arm solid and I believed shutting it completely. I had a performance increase after install, but not a phenomenal increase. AFter installing a boost and EGT guages I was only showing a max of about 4PSI regardless of fuel screw adjustment. My EGT's were also high..........................I was blaming it on my square boxy DIY manifold I welded and had little hope that it would get better.......... Recently my performance seemed to drop a bit......I finally decided to unwrap the heat wrap around the turbo, unbolt the downpipe, and check the wastegate.
The wastegate arm was no longer pressed against the downpipe flange and nothing was holding the wastegate shut. I have been running it without a properly sealed wastegate for a month now. I hooked up a spring to hold the wastegate shut................
What a difference it has made. I have over 12lb of boost and it comes on quickly. EGT's have dropped 150degrees Celsius It is difficult to get it over 600C now. With cooler EGT's I have the ability to enrich fuel for even more boost, but I'm running into the problem of my turbo plumbing fittings popping loose due to the boost pressure......I have legit silicone turbo plumbing connectors on order and will try to get some of the turbo hose clamps with bolts on them at the parts store tomorrow.
Right now it seems to have as much power as my 4BTA 120 in my old 1/2 ton chevy 4wd. It if very difficult to get EGT's over 600C. I have room for more fuel, but I have to redo my intake plumbing to handle the boost.
I have some blowby and have a "catch can" waiting to install to collect the oil instead of blowing it back into my air filter housing.

I am not happy with my Oil supply plumbing. I have a series of brass fittings screwed together with teflon tape leading to a barb and hose clamp to feed oil to the turbo. It leaks... I screwed a 1/8NPT brass fitting into the oil supply port on the block. I don't think it is the correct thread, but because it is a taper thread and brass I can screw it in and tighten it down mostly sealing the hole. Still it leaks a bit. Does anyone know what thread/size I really need for the hole?