GTurbo install Dan from Okinawa's experience

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

mudgudgeon said:
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
Click to expand...

My whole point to this thread is to try and accurately explain my install hiccups and their fixes. Graeme has a good product, is still working on the install/tuning instructions and if I can prevent another low experienced guy having a simple mistake then I'll be happy. If any one else has tricks or experience to add they are more than welcome.

Cheers

Dan
 
The problem with catch cans is virtually all are designed for petrol engines with a fraction of the blowby. This means they are a significant flow restriction on a diesel breather and cause crankcase pressure to rise.

If you want to run a catch-can, you need one with 1" lines. There are also many commercial products out there which are complete poo. I need to rebuild my engine due to one of them.

Like Graeme, I recommend you throw them away.
 
mudgudgeon said:
Did you lose the clay doll dougal?
Click to expand...

Worse than that. I trusted a commercial enterprise to produce a quality product and installed it despite the doubts I had.
Unfortunately the doubts I had about the design proved true and far worse besides.
It sucked oil out of the sump and fed it into my engine in sufficient quantities for the engine to run on it's own oil on multiple occasions. I initially didn't beleive it could be the air/oil seperator so I did silly things like rebuild turbos.

I replaced the blown head-gasket (blown on all cylinders) a few weeks back and found a chunk missing from a cylinder liner. I'm guessing broken rings on that cylinder (#3 cylinder that gets the majority of anything coming through the intake) have worn the chunk from the liner.

I have enough blowby now that the engine whistles at idle.
 
Douglas,

Help us understand how the catch can caused catastrophic damage. How did it result in the chip in the liner? I am in the process of working through some issues on my engine and think that too much crank case pressure may have blown a seal that is now resulting in rapid oil loss. So, from bad to worse but due to my issue. What's the story?

Dan
 
dshock said:
Douglas,

Help us understand how the catch can caused catastrophic damage. How did it result in the chip in the liner? I am in the process of working through some issues on my engine and think that too much crank case pressure may have blown a seal that is now resulting in rapid oil loss. So, from bad to worse but due to my issue. What's the story?

Dan
Click to expand...

This particular air/oil seperator had a drain plumbed into the sump. It also had a valve on the outlet (to my turbo and intake) which closes further the harder the turbo sucks.
It also has the outlet to the engine intake very low.

The situation which the designers never considered was a turbo sucking hard enough to start the valve closing under high engine load. This is also when the engine produces the most blowby.
The result is the crankcase pressure rising and raising the oil height in the drain tube.

This led to flooding of the lower chamber and signficant amounts of oil entering the outlet chamber.
The design of this outlet chamber meant it caught oil and the only way out for this oil was down the breather pipes to my turbo and intake.

The oil volumes sent this way was around 8 litres over 1800km. It was sufficient for the engine to run on the intake oil alone at ~2,500rpm accompanied by loud hammering noises. This occured many times before I found the cause of the problem. I removed and modified the seperator to prevent the problem ever recurring. By removing the vacuum valve and moving the inlet and outlet so the flow direction now made sense and oil pickup from flooding was impossible.

Because oil is essentially incompressible the oil fed into the cylinders blew the head-gaskset on all cyilnders, but worst on #3 due to the intake manifold design.
The chunk on the cylinder of #3 is what you'd expect from broken rings and the large amounts of blowby suggest this also. I haven't yet stripped the engine to find out. I've changed the head-gakset and am still using the vehicle.
At a minimum I need to change all piston/liner kits so further piston/liner damage doesn't concern me much.
 
Thank you very much for the detailed reply. I have noticed that many of the kits for diesel engines include a check valve for the oil/sump line. I suppose this is why. Did you blow any seals with that level of crankcase pressurization?

Dan
 
dshock said:
Thank you very much for the detailed reply. I have noticed that many of the kits for diesel engines include a check valve for the oil/sump line. I suppose this is why. Did you blow any seals with that level of crankcase pressurization?

Dan
Click to expand...

The check valve with the provent was only to be used when draining above the oil level in the sump (mine was below). The idea being to stop a draught of air coming up the drain and disrupting flow.

But with the flow through it reversed (so it actually makes sense and takes clean filtered air from the highest point) and the suction valve removed there is no need for a check valve. Gravity drains it property.

I didn't blow any seals nor have any turbo drain issues and I'm really surprised. Though the crank nose seal has been weeping I think it's only due to smooth 1" lines that I've got away with that.
 
wrongway around said:
Redrilling the holes shouldn't be an issue, I've had to do the exact same thing with the Chinese turbos ,easy peasy with no side effects.
Click to expand...

So far no leaks! I still need to get to the tuning part...

all in due time.

Dan
 
wrongway around said:
I'm not sure but at one time he wanted your ct26 core, this I'm guessing is no longer the case then.
Click to expand...

I believe Graeme does this on a case by case basis now. My turbo was puking oil down the intake and shipping it overseas wasn't cost effective. In essence it was cheaper for Graeme to source a local core than for me to ship him my crappy core.

I would assume that if you are local to him it would be more cost effective to do the core swap.

Dan
 
No biggy ,sounds kind of like the same core source anyway. Ateb just did another gturbo upgrade with a couple fuel tweeks, and apparantly it pulls harder than mine, with no where near the fuel capabilities that my pump pumps. The truck is also a 5spd. Jealous what who me ha not. :mad:
 
Sorry to jump in here on a slight tangent, I've had some similar issues with one addition. I used this thread as a resource and ground off the tube for the water piping as was suggested. I also have a new OEM flex air intake so I'll take a heat gun to that when I'm ready to install it. My one additional issue though, is the manifold that Graeme supplied. None of the bolts he provided, nor any that I have on hand, seem to match the threaded square flange on the right manifold section. It kind of looks like the threads might all have a defect, which makes more sense as all of the other bolts associated with the manifold and turbo elbow seem to match. Can anyone confirm this?

As far as instructions, I agree that would've been nice to have. If you're OCD like me though, you end up gathering all of the pertinent OEM parts and then laying everything out and studying everything for a while, it all makes sense eventually. Until Graeme fixes some of the above items, this thread will be a great resource.
 
Leitrum,

It sounds like to me you got the 1HZ upgrade kit. I had the 1HDT already, so didn't need the manifold. I suggest giving Greame a call and see what he can do about it. He has been very helpful when I get him on the phone.

Pix would be awesome as well.

Good luck!

Dan
 
Dan_J-spec_fj62 said:
Leitrum,

It sounds like to me you got the 1HZ upgrade kit. I had the 1HDT already, so didn't need the manifold. I suggest giving Greame a call and see what he can do about it. He has been very helpful when I get him on the phone.

Pix would be awesome as well.

Good luck!

Dan
Click to expand...


Yeah, I got the 1HZ kit, although there was a lot that wasn't included I had to source separately. I'm thankful for a good parts guy to help with that since I have only even seen a 1HD-T once! I took the manifold to the store and managed to match threads to it since I didn't get an email back from Graeme. For the record, the flange bolts are 10mm x 1.50 thread pitch- pretty common stuff. I found a good shop the other day for all sorts of fasteners so I was even able to get the correct stud type with lock nuts.

As for pics, lots here in my build thread, though I only just installed the turbo today! https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/excessively-underpowered-1hz-poor-fuel-economy.613272/page-6

Cheers,
Leit
 
Guys I've recently started working in the GTurbo office trying to help Graeme keep on top of the ever growing demand. I'm flat out all day answering emails, taking phone calls, arranging postage etc etc etc. Frankly I have no idea how he did it all before. Me being there allows him to spend more time designing, building and tuning. We're never 'ahead', and may never be, but we're giving it a go.

I can assure you this thread has been discussed over the boardroom table, as our waiters serve tea and cake, where we spend hours chatting aimlessly about the finer things in life.... as if :-)

We're taking this feedback on board most definitely and aiming to develop a fitment sheet with tips if that is what you're telling us would be useful. Regarding the bolts, clearly an mistake has been made and I'm sorry about that. If you ever do have any questions once you've got your unit, please email us, and I can assure you we are getting better at responding to all of them that come in.

I know Graeme appreciates the patience and understanding of his customers on the odd occasion when something isn't up to expectations.

Cheers
Tim
 
Glad your helping out tim it's definetly on my to do list. My 12 ht is totally stock engine wise I gather going from7-8 psi to higher is a bit of a change in performance. I have certainly noticed in perth 4x4.net there is a good reputation going around about Graeme's turbo know how.

Mark
 
Just finished installing a GTurbo bad boy in my HDJ81. Everything bolted right back in the same way it came out with zero modification or additional parts required. The coolant pipe bolted on without cutting or drilling and I was able to get the stock air intake back on with no heating just a little force and wiggling for about 30 seconds. Also I was very pleased to have received it at my door in British Columbia only 3 days after placing the order. I'm looking forward to testing out the new power after I get it back at the end of next week after getting a front mount intercooler, power rod, and tuning done at ATEB.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom