GTurbo install Dan from Okinawa's experience

[Dan_J-spec_fj62]

My experience so far installing a GTurbo... I have met with some frustrations and some WTF's that in hindsight would have had some pretty straightforward fixes had I known about them beforehand. I will attempt to document accurately my experience so that other folks can avoid the same ass-pain I have run into.

My set up. I have an December 1992 HDJ-81 with a 1HD-T and the A442F. the previous owner put a front mount inter-cooler on it and has "perhaps" "fiddled" with the injection pump.

Prior to my install my old turbo was sending oil down the intake enough that is it was leaking out the intake runners where is bolts to the block.

I thought if I am going to fix the turbo might as well do it right once... I ordered a Grunter Extreme set to 20psi.

Started Jan 11

First Photo... sunrise!

Intake side... and intercooler piping.

My exhaust manifold with all the penetrating oil and piping removed.

next photo is a the first big ass pain I ran into... my water cooling inlet pipes were buried under all the intake piping all rusted... run to the parts store... only available on the main land... 3~5 days to get here.... s***.

last photo... all my manifold studs came out pretty easy and just a few of the nuts came off. none stuck or broke off ... small wonder happy dance!

 

[Dan_J-spec_fj62]

last part of day one...

manifold and old turbo out... the oil on the exhaust runner is from the turbo inlet pipe... It burped as I pulled it out...

last 2 pix is the manifold drilled and tapped or the EGT probe ... pre turbo...

Dan

 

[Dan_J-spec_fj62]

First big issue... the water inlet pipe bolt holes weren't even close to lining up. I don't have photos, but the old rusty pipe and the brand new one from Toyota had the same issue they wouldn't bolt up to the new GTurbo. I ended up drilling out the bolt holes till I could get the bolts in. eventually i was able to get in contact with Graeme and I turns out this was a know issue... his fix is to remove the tube that sticks into the turbo. If mine ends up leaking I'll order another pipe and do this instead of oversizing the bolt holes. this will be a pain it ass because the whole turbo has to come out to do it...

ok on to install...

Dan

 

[Dan_J-spec_fj62]

And the intake... here was my biggest frustration and ass pain... I got no instructions with my turbo... just a turbo in a box... and the assurance it was "bolt in". Essentially it is, but only if you know how. Graeme says he is working on this issue and I'm going to put the advice he gave me out there so others can hopefully benefit from it.

The factory turbo intake is about 2 3/4" Gturbo is 3". apparently you can heat up the factory tubing and get it to stretch over. I didn't know about heating it up .. mine was original and stiff as hell I cut 2 slits in it and was still unable to get it on the new turbo.

I ended up ordering a holy crap ton of parts from http://www.siliconeintakes.com/ (guessing what I needed) end result is you need

5x T-Bolt Clamp for 3.0" Silicone Parts
1 x T-Bolt Clamp for 3.25" Silicone Parts
1 x Silicone Reducer, 3.25" to 3.0"
1 x 3.0" Silicone 90° Elbow, Blue
1 x 3.0" Silicone 45° Elbow, Blue
2 x Stainless Steel Joiner, 3.0"

and you can build your own intake from air box to turbo. I had to cut about 2" off each end of the 45* elbow to make it all fit.

I went 90 out of the turbo into 3" joiner into a cut down 45 into a 3" joiner into the 3" to 3.25" reducer onto the airbox.


or you could order a new factory intake tube and heat it up to be more pliable. Graeme says this works and had I known about it before I cut my intake up I would have tried it.

Dan

 

[Dan_J-spec_fj62]

lastly i have a major issue, but I am waiting on contact from Graeme before i post it up here.

Dan

 

[Wheelingnoob]

Is your PCV tank normally mounted there? If so its all but useless with the lines kinked like that.

Also no need to spend the money on T bolt clamps for pre turbo pipes. They are not under pressure so a normal worm gear clamp will work fine.

Good write up so far!

Its surprising how much you can stretch the stock rubber intake when its heated, I find boiling water works best,

 

[Dan_J-spec_fj62]

Is your PCV tank normally mounted there? If so its all but useless with the lines kinked like that. Also no need to spend the money on T bolt clamps for pre turbo pipes. They are not under pressure so a normal worm gear clamp will work fine. Good write up so far! Its surprising how much you can stretch the stock rubber intake when its heated, I find boiling water works best,

No the tank is a new install and I've only run the truck for about 10 min so far after the turbo install. They are the crap-tastic lines that came with the tank I'll be replacing them.

As far as the t bolt clamps... I needed clamps and was ordering, so just added them to the cart. No sense replacing them again. But I'll keep it in mind for future reference!

If only I had known about stretching rubber intake I could have saved myself a whole crap ton of wasted time and frustration.

Unfortunately I now need to wait again. I don't want to run the turbo in its current condition.

Dan

 

[mudbludger]

Mine is a badboy 2, only real issue was I had to cut off a section of threaded boss on bottom of turbo, then slot the holes for the turbo mounting bracket where they bolt onto block. As far as intake to turbo goes, I only had to purchase one adapter elbow.

Here is pic of threaded boss just behind oil return line that was trimmed.

 

[mudbludger]

Slotted holes for turbo mounting bracket, probably had to make them 1/2 inch longer

 

[mudbludger]

Adapter elbow for intake, not the best shot but you get the idea.

Pretty straight forward install, mods easy enough to do with a couple of files if you had to, the end results of spool up speed certainly makes it worth the effort.

O.P. does have a point though, a small set of instructions with a rough parts list included with turbo would make the job go quicker, and save having vehicle out of action for too long.

Im pretty sure G will sort it out, this thread might even become a sticky with the amount of you foreigners buying these blowers ************

 

[Leitrum3]

I'll be watching the resolution of this thread, just ordered a Grunter for my 1HZ. Excited, but apprehensive about figuring it all out on my own. Good to have someone leading the way through the trials, whether you meant to or not!

 

[ForealBoreal]

With the water lines this is only really an issue if you are going the factory route.
I never had water line issues with my 1hz yet again they are tee d into my heater core lines

 

[Dan_J-spec_fj62]

With the water lines this is only really an issue if you are going the factory route. I never had water line issues with my 1hz yet again they are tee d into my heater core lines

Graeme mentioned that on the HZ conversions they do not always use water cooling just oil and have had no issues. I am referring to the factory metal pipe that bolts into the turbo center section. It has one pipe that sits flush and one that goes into the turbo about 3/4". If I end up pulling it out again I'll replace the pipe and cut them both off flush. The rubber line bits were easy.

Another suggestion would be that if you haven't changed your hoses in the area now would be a great time to do it. Lots of open space once you pull the turbo and manifold out.

Dan

 

[Dan_J-spec_fj62]

Slotted holes for turbo mounting bracket, probably had to make them 1/2 inch longer

Mine bolted up with no clearance issues. I just didn't tighten any of the mounting bolts down till they were all started. Then I torqued them all to spec.

I'm pretty happy with my intake set up, I just wish I had bought it before I started my install. I sat for two weeks waiting on parts. Thankfully I had a friend who's wife is out of town so I could borrow her car. I owe him beer and a detailed car.

Dan

 

[B Point]

Personally Dan....I love the intake. Looks like one of my ski boots...

As I see oil leaking around my turbo... I'm watching yet another one of your threads.

 

[BCR4619]

Personally Dan....I love the intake. Looks like one of my ski boots... As I see oil leaking around my turbo... I'm watching yet another one of your threads.

Just make sure it's not your blow buy getting pressurized post turbo and getting forced out through the coupling. I ended up changing mine for a supra hybrid and my oil consumption has gone waaaay down

 

[B Point]

Just make sure it's not your blow buy getting pressurized post turbo and getting forced out through the coupling. I ended up changing mine for a supra hybrid and my oil consumption has gone waaaay down

Thanks Christian,

I going to have it looked at when I take it in to the shop this week to have some other things done.

 

[Tapage]

interesting read .. I feel so lucky coz I didn't have any of those issues wit my G Turbo .. was " almost " bolt on and all mods I had to perform during my installation were courtesy of my top mounted IC ..

 

[Dan_J-spec_fj62]

So after having several email conversations and then acting on a couple of suggestions by Graeme. I feel comfortable explaining my further issues that I had with my turbo install.

After getting everything hooked it up and running I decided to take a test drive. I looked like a bad James Bond movie remake, The smokescreen device Q invented failing miserably. I thought at first the turbo had barfed on me. But before running off in the wilderness and screaming my head off in rage and agony. I contacted Graeme and said what should I be looking at?

Graeme offered to replace the turbo if anything is broken. Asked that I check the crank vent first. You'll notice in my earlier photos the lines kinked coming off the catch can. I thought they had flow but clearly they did not. After adjusting hoses and allowing the catch can to vent to the atmosphere. My smokescreening issue improved. It took several pretty significant drives to clean out all the oil that I had pushed through the Turbo, but two days later I am not getting any blow by at all.

Graeme suggests not using a catch can at all... I already bought it and its under the hood. It doesn't appear to be contributing to the issue any longer, I'm going to leave it in place.

So now I am going to move on to tuning the vehicle, but first impressions in drivability are vastly improved, which just about everyone has been saying all along with Graeme's turbos.

I gave it one hard up hill run my EGT is peaked at 728° C and I was pushing 20.3 PSI A little bit of a rough beginning but overall I am happy.



Dan

 

[mudgudgeon]

Good read. It has the good, the bad and, the ugly.

Good on you for giving Graeme a chance to help troubleshoot before bitching about the product