5L-T build with a TD04L turbo in an 85 Pickup (1 Viewer)

[advlars]

Hey guys.
A bunch of you have helped me a ton picking out the right turbo, figuring out the injection system and providing a general wealth of diesel knowledge I needed to swap out my blown up 2LT and drop in a 5L with an upgraded turbo. Just want to share my progress so far and hopefully put some pictures and info out there that will help others in the future.

To start with, heres a link to some back-reading on how I chose the TD04L-13t. Many thanks to @gerg and @dare for helping with the math on that thread and @GTSSportCoupe for being a general L-series wizard.

Best turbo/ turbo specs for turboed 5l?

And heres my parts list:
TD04L-13t off of a Subaru Wrx. (Used on ebay, with supposedly 15k miles) ($200ish)
SPA turbo exhaust manifold #TMTY01 for Toyota 3l or 5l engines and t25 flanged turbos ($280ish)
Custom adapter flange for TD04L flange to t25 flange, 5/8" thick (6 bucks in material, 15 hours on my friends mill).
Custom downpipe flange. ($6 1/4" plate and $30 3" Summit Racing mandrel U-bend)
Ebay special intercooler (leftover from 2lt build)
2.5 inch aluminizied exhaust for charge pipes and intake (leftovers from 2LT exhaust build)
Silicone elbows: 2x 2"-2.5" reducer 90s, 2x 2.5" 45s, 2x 2.5" 90s, 1x 2"-2.5" straight reducer. (7-15 each)
1/4x4x4 aluminum plate for intake neck adapter. (leftover from 2lt build)
Xenon brand rear quarter window scoop off an 05-11 Ford mustang. (100ish, leftover from 2LT)
Oil feed line for turbo (30ish)
5/8 Npt barb and 1/2 npt steel bung. 15ish
K&N air filter (spare parts bin)
A bunch of new coolant and oil hose.
Lots of assorted hoseclamps, nuts and bolts and beer.


Heres the truck. The hoodscoop feeds my weird intercooler. See pictures below.







Heres the top view of the engine so you can see the final product:


Heres the adapter plate to affix a TD04L-13t to the t25 manifold. You could make one at home on a drill press, but I just happen to have a friend with a CNC mill in his garage. Cutting 5/8 steel on a mill is slow work though and after completing my first adapter, we accidentally counterbored the wrong side of the plate. Measure twice! This one is after I finished porting it out to fit the exhaust manifold (which was not particularly rectangular, as the t25 should be)





Moved the oil pressure sending unit to the back end of the engine near the bellhousing and used its hole to tap an oil source for the turbo (stainless line). For some reason the heat shield mounting hole closest to the header outlet was drilled all the way though. Decided to drill it out and tap to 1/8npt for my EGT probe.



Heres the downpipe:
I took a 3" mandrel U-bend and cut it in half. But closer to one leg so that the cross section of the cut created an oval-ed end. Then I pinched it down to the width of the turbo outlet with a vice and flared it out out lengthwise with some vice grips and ended up with a roughly 2.75x4.5 inch dump opening.





I tapped an oil return into the oil pan. Others have tapped the return into the alternator oil return, but have had bad results trying to push that much oil through a small hole. This one is a 5/8 barb and should flow plenty of oil.



When I clocked the turbo I had to put the compressor housing at a bit of a funky angle. A 45 would have been nice, but would have necessitated a bracket to keep the wastegate aligned. Easier to find reducer elbows in 90 degree angles anyway.



As it is the wastegate location required a BFH mod. Admittedly, I could have been a bit less agressive with the hammer...



Heres a photo showing the clearance I had around the dump pipe


Intercooler charge pipes routed under the master cylinder. These used to go over the top on the 2lt build, which worked fine with the 4cyl MC but couldnt fit a v6 MC which Im upgrading to now that my truck will be moving a little faster. The stock intake neck from my 2lt was rotated to point straight towards the left fender using a 1/4 inch aluminum plate




I will post up some updates as I make more progress. My to do list includes finishing the 3" mandrel bent exhaust, adding the boost compensator from my 2lt injection pump to the 5l injection pump, and tuning the pump to match the new turbo. Still deciding on whether I care about my A/C enough to re-install it and re-route the A/C lines.

Anyway, hopefully this info helps somebody down the road

 

[hiluxjeremy]

Cool build, I've wondered about replacing my tired ct20'd/intercooled 3L with a 5L in the past. Quite curious to see how things turn out, keep at it!

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Great work advlars! Really nice to see pictures of how it came together. I look forward to hearing how it turns out too.

 

[gerg]

Yes indeed. Header wrapping your down pipe and exhaust manifold will really help with Underhood temps and your air intake as I see your running a cone in the bay. You've done a great job of nesting everything. I know how long they takes. Well done.
g

 

[advlars]

Thanks for the compliments guys. Glad you all approve.

I definitely plan to wrap the headers. My firewall clearance is ok, but a little closer than it could be, so some added insulation would be nice.

I might actually swipe an airbox from a 3rd gen 4runner. It looks like it would sit nicely in the battery tray and the connect straight to the turbo with a short straight hose. The airbox inlet goes through the inner fender wall, so it would be easy to modify and add a snorkel for cooler temps

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1670/26675572331_e98c668f86_z.jpg

Another option might be adding the same hood scoop I used for my intercooler on the other side, and stuffing the K&N underneath it in the battery tray behind a shroud or something. Basically a Ram air kind of setup. Doesnt help as much for water crossings though...

Edit to add: For anyone interested in the intercooler setup both batteries are relocated to the pickup bed, the coolant reservoir was moved to the opposite battery tray and the window washer reservoir was removed (for now). Running the intercooler plumbing was a lot easier than a traditional FMIC but it does require significant rearranging of your other bits and pieces.

 

[advlars]

Heres the exhaust dump/downpipe so far. I fudged the angle with a short 10* wedge cut out of some straight pipe to keep the downpipe closer to the engine and away from the frame where it would bang around as the engine flexes on the mounts. I used 2 45* mandrel bends to follow the general shape of the firewall and keep things out of the way of the diveshaft etc. The flexpipe sits just inside the transfercase crossmember.

The bracket on the left side bolts to the lowest bellhousing-to-engine bolt, and isolates all the vibration and flex down below that point. I figure this will prevent the flex of the exhaust system from braking any of the welds above the last 45* bend. If anything up there brakes off I figure there is pretty significant risk of setting something on fire or melting all the wires and seals on my front diff. Furthermore, this should act as a support for the turbo and manifold. The whole assembly sticks quite a distance off the side of the engine and its combined weight is pretty heavy.

The downside of this design might be heat transfer to the bellhousing and transmission. The mount location is pretty far from any seals or fluid or clutch parts though, so I imagine this wont do any real damage. Open to feedback about this though!

 

[advlars]

By the way, anybody got any thoughts on a good muffler choice for a 3 liter diesel? Something like a Cherry bomb glasspack would fit really nicely on the end of that flexpipe and I could dump straight down or out the side. Not sure it would actually muffle the sound significantly though?

I ran my 2lt straight piped, which was ok, but got to be a bit tiring after 100+ miles

What are you guys running?

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Nice work!

I really like my Aeroturbine 2525XL. It has stood up very well the past five years also.

 

[advlars]

Hmm... that style might be perfect! I was really hesitant about dealing with glasspacks. The packing in my supertrap moto muffler claps out super fast, and repacking it with fiberglass is the worst project ever. I usually just pick my worst pair of clothes and throw them out when im done.

How is the noise? Have you ever run yours straight piped or tried a non-resonated version to compare?

 

[gerg]

I literally just bolted up my at3030 to my 3b yesterday and haven't finished the last half of the piping so it exits underneath my truck but even still it is extremely quiet. It's the second aeroturbine I've used on a system and I honestly would use anything else. Can't say enough about them. Compact, affordable, stainless....as in not 409 stainless either, straight through and freakishly quiet. There is some serious mojo in their design.

I wouldn't worry about transferring heat. If you are though just put a bushing to isolate it. It has such small surface area I doubt it would affect it much.

Have room underneath the intercooler for a couple small fans? All intercoolers should have a fan of some sort.


I don't know if you realized, but one of your silicone elbows is a different colour. Just saying. Hah! I'm kidding actually, but my wife will say stuff like that to me after I finished a cool project and feel like I just invented a rounder wheel or made society better In a signifigant way. She will say..."yeah it looks really neat honey, but you should still match the colours up. Just sayn".

Nice job....Just sayn.
g

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Hmm... that style might be perfect! I was really hesitant about dealing with glasspacks. The packing in my supertrap moto muffler claps out super fast, and repacking it with fiberglass is the worst project ever. I usually just pick my worst pair of clothes and throw them out when im done.

How is the noise? Have you ever run yours straight piped or tried a non-resonated version to compare?

It's totally quiet enough to make long trips comfortable. Just a little bit more growl to it than the factory system. My piping follows the factory routing though, so is fairly long and that probably helps too. Never ran a straight pipe no.

I forget what magic is in the Aeroturbines, but it sure works well. No degradation over time at all, no buzzy-ness or rattles. It's a great piece of hardware.

 

[advlars]

Damnit!!!! I knew I was gonna get flak for the red elbow. Hahahaha. I was one fitting short of a complete system and picked whatever amazon could ship the fastest. Now that its on there Im probably too cheap and lazy to bother changing it....

Hard to argue with "serious mojo" and "magic" design. Looks like the aeroturbine is a seriously good option to consider. Are you rocking the 3030 or the 3030xl @gerg ?

Any thoughts on resonator vs. no resonator?

 

[gerg]

Im running the at3030 cus its 6 inches shorter than the xl....so no resonator for me. I don't get any weird resonance anyhow though.

Aero Turbine Performance Exhaust AT3030 Muffler | eBay

I had to fit mine inside my slider so length was an issue for my set up.

Nice work.

 

[advlars]

Cool, well if youre happy with the non-resonated version, ill just pick whichever one fits the space better. Probably gonna be the plain 3030 unless i commit to a bunch of extra piping. I do have some annoying resonance with the half-length straight pipes right now.



By the way, Ive started reading up on adjusting the injector pump to match the new build and could use a bit of advice with that.
Obviously the turbo will be adding heat and pressure to the combustion chamber. How significantly do I need to adjust my timing to protect the engine from thermal advancing?

If Im reading the FSM correctly the 2l-t is retarded by about .10mm compared to the 2l. Should my 5l-t be retarded about the same amount vs 5l timing? Or do I need to consider the fact that my compression ratio is higher 22.2:1 vs 20:1 and retard the timing a bit further?

 

[hiluxjeremy]

IMHO, a swap like this is more of a try it and see kind of situation with respect to injection timing, when I slapped a turbo on my 3L in original ignorance I left the pump right where it was. Later on a friend of mine who is a HD mechannic by trade and fellow Toyota guy told me about the affects of clocking the pump i ended up just loosening the pump so I could gently pry it in either direction and setting it by ear at idle in combination with initially cautious test drives with an eye on temps and boost. My engine definitely rattles a bunch more than it did when cold and a bit more at operating temp compared to the sewing machine sound it had bone stock. For me, the significant reduction in egts and seat of the pants feel is worth it. That being said its been working like a champ for a good 100 000km, now at 330 something thousand kms including a trip to California and one to Utah, let alone a bunch of wide open snow flogging days. Truck was daily driven for years. Not scienitific, but it works for me. Greater minds than mine may recoil in terror and disgust, but the proof is sitting in my driveway.

For what its worth, I'd leave it alone until you get a chance to drive it.

 

[hiluxjeremy]

As far as exhaust goes, I went with 3 inch stainless dumping up high just behind the rear bumper. Personally I love it, long trips and all, but I also don't notice it on the highway, probably a case of long term conditioning. The throaty growl off the line and going through the gears in town always makes me grin. Personal preferance.

 

[advlars]

Jeremy,
Thanks for weighing in on that. I set mine basically back to to its original location for now. I was changing too many things at once and struggling to figure out what was causing my problems. Seems to run fine in its original location for me at the moment. Im curious what kind of boost youre running in your 3l?

Also, it sounds like you advanced the timing to drop egts and increase power? Or am I misreading that? Id be curious to see a picture of how your timing mark lines match up if you havent measured the actual plunger depth.

Interesting too that you say you are getting more rattle than stock. I definitely feel some more vibration that I did originally. Ive been a bit worried about that but havent been sure what to do about it.

Lars

 

[gerg]

Your vibration at lower RPMs? Try not to think that advancing timing is creating more power. It's only shifting peak torque up the rpm range. I like peak torque a few hundred rpms before cruise rpm that way I gain extra torque for shifting light to light and it's easier on the crankshaft and bottom end. I tend to lug my engines a bit and almost never rev them up. I try and match my timing to the majority of my actual driving style....not what my ego wants. I really like your instal. It's clean with nice flowing bends. That red silicone elbow is cool too now that I think of it. Reminds me of those VWs that had every body panel painted a different colour. Very Metrosexual. I mean.....ahh yeah.....ahh shoot that got weird.

 

[gerg]

Advance timing will lower egts but that is witchcraft my friend. I mean it is decieving you into thinking your in cylinder temps are lower than reality. Advancing timing allows more time for heat to soak into the cylinder head leaving less for the exhaust stream. This is due to peak cylinder pressure occurring before ideal 18 degrees atdc if I remember correctly. In short it's a dangerous tune. Be safe and retard your timing until you get some fans on your intercooler. At slow speeds your intercooler isn't really doing much but your turbo still feeds your engine hot air which thermally advances timing. You need to retard to compensate for that. It's not a step back as you gain lower rpm torque.

 

[gerg]

Ok so I just went back and looked over your intercooler and your core and plumbing looks well done. Good sized core and not a bad design core either. It will net you low pressure drop across it, but your hood scoop is definately on the small side and unless your sealed tight to the core air will not want to flow through It. I think a taller scoop will grab more air because as the air curves over the front of your hood the air stream will separate a bit and not follow the curve of your hood perfectly and will Separate. This means the main air stream could be a few inches higher than the actual hood. Given your scoop is fairly low it's not going to be placed in a good spot to grab a lot of air. Taller or further forward would help. Cource a couple small fans makes this so much easier as you just shove air through the core and you really only need to be concerned with giving it cold air.

Just some thoughts.