Drew's MegaCheap homebrew 3b turbo thread (1 Viewer)

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Ahhhhh running out of time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pic #1: My wee-NC is back in action making me a cheapy oil drain flange. I have no idea why they don't include those with the turbo :rolleyes:.

Pic #2: Drain flange installed, with a brass pipe nipple modified with the lathe into a cheapy hose barb. My drain has an ID of a bit over 3/8" which I'm hoping will be sufficient (1/2" would have been better, but would have been awful to tap).

Pic #3: My flange alignment fixture in action!

:flipoff2:
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More work.

Pic #1: Hacked up mandrel-bent J tube being positioned.

Pic #2: Tacked in place with the booger-spitter. Have a date with the MIG tomorrow on my lunch hour. Tempting fate a bit - I have a presentation in the afternoon, going to have to try hard not to burn a hole in my nice shirt.

Pic #3: Let me say it before you jokers do: this bend is less than ideal, I realize that. Still, its not THAT bad, its roughly 45deg - I was worried it'd be worse. Of course, coupled with the stock 2" exhaust this is definitely not a race setup! :flipoff2:


:banana:
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Lets see, what else do I have pictures of??

Pic #1: 30" -4AN braid steel oil line. 30" is a bit long, 24" would have been better, but I didn't want to come up short. Also shown is a -4AN to 1/8" BSPT fitting - I don't want to use any Tee's because I think they stick out too far; I'm going to pull one of the unused plugs below the side cover.

Pic #2: Nice big flow-y double banjo bolt for the turbo drain - I'm going to share the drain with the vacuum pump. Also another "custom" pipe nipple hose barb. You cant see it, but that banjo fitting is 1/4" NPT but tapered to a small (~3/16") hole - I drilled it out to 1/2".

Pic #3: Silicone elbows. I have some scrap 2" Al tubing for the crossover pipe. I'm worried black isn't blingy enough, shoulda gotten RED for extra HP. :hillbilly:

:popcorn:
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The great build continues........... sweeet!

Nice milling of the flange. I too am on the hunt for a drain flange. I am a qualified toolmaker (a distant past life) but my current works has no machining facilities - a bit of a pain, TBH.
 
Lets see, what else do I have pictures of??

Pic #1: 30" -4AN braid steel oil line. 30" is a bit long, 24" would have been better, but I didn't want to come up short. Also shown is a -4AN to 1/8" BSPT fitting - I don't want to use any Tee's because I think they stick out too far; I'm going to pull one of the unused plugs below the side cover.

Pic #2: Nice big flow-y double banjo bolt for the turbo drain - I'm going to share the drain with the vacuum pump. Also another "custom" pipe nipple hose barb. You cant see it, but that banjo fitting is 1/4" NPT but tapered to a small (~3/16") hole - I drilled it out to 1/2".

Pic #3: Silicone elbows. I have some scrap 2" Al tubing for the crossover pipe. I'm worried black isn't blingy enough, shoulda gotten RED for extra HP. :hillbilly:

:popcorn:

If you built the banjo bolt to "stack" the turbo drain onto the vacuum pump our projects really have happened in parallel worlds! There is an anthropological theory about "the hundredth monkey" that says as a population size increases ideas occur simultaneously at different places. Must be right!

I used a 14 mm bolt that had the right length of unthreaded shank and bored it out on a lathe, maxed out the drain holes with plenty of bevel and installed the turbo drain closest the the filter mount and never looked back. My drain line was also 3/8" and no problems there.
 
Oh... did I mention the move got moved up?

... to TODAY!!! :frown::crybaby::eek::frown::crybaby::eek:

Its 12:34am my time, but I am officially DONE! (except for all the s*** I still have to do, doh)

Pic #1: Turbo oil drain added to the vacuum pump return with the 14mm double banjo bolt. Turbo feed also added in place of the stock oil pressure sender, which I relocated to the block.

Pic #2: I had designed the manifold planning to use socket cap screws, however no one, and I mean NO ONE in the Bay Area stocks a M10x1.25 socket cap screw. A standard M10x1.25 hex bolt will fit (barely) but you can't get a socket on it because its too close to the manifold tube. These flange bolts are perfect - with a little grinding to ensure the welds don't extend past the edge of the tube the flange bolts fit just fine and have plenty of room for a socket.

Pic #3: Tada, manifold installed!
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Pic #1: Turbo in place, showing feed, drain, alternator clearance, etc.

Pic #2: Downpipe installed, showing heater line and clutch master cyl clearance. (plenty)

Pic #3: Please ignore the bad weld on the downpipe that I didn't bother to clean up. I used two donuts because I wanted this joint to be as squishy as possible - I don't have a flex pipe in my stock exhaust. The thickness of the two donuts caused the flanges to not line up as perfect as hoped, but everything still slid right together.
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Pic #1: Crossover tube from a scrap piece of 2" aluminum. Really nice how this lines up, its like its made to be!

Pic #2: Through this whole project I hadn't bothered to think about the intake duct, figure "eh, I'll figure something out". Well, at midnight this is the best I came up with - one stock elbow from the original intake duct plus some scrap universal ducting equals one goofy intake tube. But it works for now.

Pic #3: A moment of silence please for all the 3B's who perished (cough cough Roberto's cough cough) so that mudders everywhere could learn the importance of clamping their venturi tubes... which I nearly forgot to do.

And thats it!

So I'll bet you're wondering how it works...

eh? eh? are ya?

Well, it sounds cool is about all I can say. Two very minor things went wrong when installing, and unfortunately they're enough to make me not want to go out and stomp on it: a) the bung for the pyro broke when I tried to unscrew it from the old manifold; thus, no pyro at the moment b) no boost gauge.

I'll try to sneak some free time and try to kludge something up for both of those tomorrow. sigh.

That said, I did take it for a spin around the block and the turbo is definitely there - for one I can hear it whistling (awesome) but the truck feels much less labored. No leaks noticed after said trip!
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Good stuff man. :beer:
 
Great job mate, it looks neat and simple. Don't ya just love the sound of a turbo spooling up?!! :lol: :clap:
 
Move complete!

So far I've put about 200 miles on the turbo and the verdict is: fantastic! Got the pyro hooked up plus a boost gauge made out of a tire pressure dial gauge and some vacuum hose. :hillbilly: Even on the longest, hardest pulls up 17, even when pulling my 22' boat, EGTs don't exceed 1050 preturbo. Boost comes on at about 1800 rpm and peaks at 8psi - I might bump that up a bit, the wastegate was supposed to be set at 14psi, but who knows how that scales from the tiny gasser the turbo was intended for.

I don't think I plan to turn up the fuel, even now the improvement is so dramatic that I'm not sure I need any more out of it.
 

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