My 3B turbo build. Keeping it cheap without cutting corners.

[KingSpence]

Howdy folks, I know there are plenty build threads for DIY turbo setups, so I figure I'll join the bandwagon and make one too! Basically, my goal for this build is to keep it cheap, but at the same time I won't be cutting corners. If anyone has any input or suggestions, I'm more than open to hear them. I'm going to provide as much information as possible, which will include all part numbers and the price paid. This should give everyone a good idea on how much it'll cost them to build a similar setup, while at the same time making it easy to source the parts necessarily.

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Parts and Prices:

Mercedes 300TD turbocharger - $70
-AN fittings & hose (feed, drain). T3 flange/gasket - $162
3 in mandrel exhaust. Flowmaster 40. - $180
Autometer boose gauge - $75
Volvo 740 Intercooler - $FREE
1/2 MS 3B waterjet flange - $100
Manifold materials - $10
TOTAL = $597

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First off, the truck. She's a 1984 Canadian spec Toyota Land Cruiser BJ60. It's just broken in at 350,000kms on the body and original engine. It's Sprung-Over, running 37'' Interco TrXus M/T's and geared to 4.88's with ARB's in the thirds. I've owned this truck for almost two years, and have put almost 50,000kms on it to date. I have yet to compression test it, but it starts in -20, uses no oil, and has great oil pressure. I see 70psi cold idle, 60psi on the highway, and 25psi when I pull off the highway and idle. Usually in the city I see a 35psi idle and ~60psi driving. I'll leave a link to the build thread for it if anyone is interested.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/60-series-wagons/399698-my-84-bj60-nipperwagon-soa-35s-locked.html

Let's start things off with the turbo. Originally, I was going to go with a CT26 MR2/Supra hybrid. I kept my eye out for quite a while, without too much luck; within my budget that is. I got word of a few Mercedes' and Volvo's in our local PnP, when I got back from vacation I made a B-line from the airport to PnP. Lucky for me, the car I was looking for still had the turbo, and being in the first row it also saved me a long walk from the entrance. The car was a 1981 Mercedes 300TD. These cars are equipped with a 3.0L 5 cyl turbo diesel, I'm confident this turbo will mate to my 3.4L 3B nicely. It's a T3 flange T25 with a small exhaust a/r of .48, should spool up nice and quick. These turbo's have a popular flange, 10psi stock wastegate, and a 2.5in v-band exhaust outlet, so no dealing with rare stupid flanges. I also managed to snag the downpipe, it's got a large flex pipe, and if I don't utilize the downpipe I can always use the exhaust flange to the turbo.

$70.

 

[jzilla]

Good score Spence, should be perfect! Look forward to seeing what you do. Will be driving up your way again in the summer with the new truck!

 

[gerg]

That is a T3 .48exh with a 50 trim compressor I think. It maps really well on a 3B. Room for lots of boost and should spool in the teens for you. The arrow points to 1900, 2050, 2200, 2600 and 3000rpm. Its probably the best of the old school turbos for our engines.

 

[sityslkrbj70]

Subscribed..

 

[me_tu05]

Those turbos also come with adjustable wastegates.

 

[KingSpence]

I'll start off by saying I plan to pretty much copy the manifold design as seen in "Drew's MegaCheap homebrew 3b turbo thread" started by Amaurer. His manifold design seems to be very simplistic, cheap, while still proving to be more than strong enough. I'm still on the hunt for mild steel short radius SCH 10/40 "90's" and "T" bends. I've been without luck, and I don't feel the need to dish out the extra cash for stainless. That would involve me needed a new spool of wire for the Miller as well. I'll keep looking though.

I've decided to run -AN fittings throughout. I've already dealt with rubber and hose clamps when I slapped the t25 on the 4age a few years ago; my god does it leak everywhere. Like I said before, I want to do this right; this truck sees a lot of miles and a lot of bush, I don't need a failure in the middle of nowhere. These parts are not cheap, but I've seen eBay and Chinese -AN fittings before, as well as air line fittings; they crack.

I'm running -4 to the feed, -10 for the drain. I'll be welding a bung on the oil pan for the drain. Some people choose to drain to the vacuum pump drain near the oil filter, but I see restriction in draining through there. Toyota designed that drain for the vac pump, not a turbo as well. Am I correct? The quicker and more efficiently you can get oil in and out of a turbo the better.

On the far left I have the -10 drain that's going the thread to the bung welded to pan. Beside that is the bung that will be welded to the bung. Next over is the drain, and beside that is the feed, pretty self explanatory I hope. Lastly is what will be coming off the block. 1/8 in fitting into the block, from there I can attach my stainless braided line that feeds to oil pressure gauge, and the other fitting is the -4 to the turbo oil feed.

Total came out to $161.49. Not bad when you really think about it, for that amount I got all my fittings, hose, t3 flange, gasket, and billet -AN feed and drain fittings for the turbocharger.

 

[jzilla]

Yep go to the oilpan, I just redid all my lines with AN fittings will try to post pics tomorrow.
I went 10AN for drain and 4AN for feed as well (with some 3AN parts in there too).
Looks awesome!!!! While you have the pan off get it rhino lined! I did this and it is so worth it...
I should just mail you those pipes you need...do you have a metal supermarket up there? They are not cheap but they should have that stuff...
I got my pipes for the manifold from a place near my house, only 3-5 bucks each or less.

 

[KingSpence]

Jzilla: Yea I'm looking for short radius bends. I need two 90's and two T's both in 1 1/2in SCH 10 or 40, or anything thick enough for use on a manifold for that matter. If there is someone local that has those in mild steel, I would be very interested.

I'm going to take some shots in the day tomorrow my chosen exhaust and a few other things, I'll get those posted up asap.

 

[blis]

Looks like a nice project, any plans on intercooling it as you go?

ps. isnt your car HJ, not BJ?

 

[cody c]

I would intercool it as well, while you are in there.

On my 3B it made quite a bit of difference with a top mount, on the hills I was limited by the pyro, after I intercooled it, it dropped the temps enough that it wasnt a problem. The other bonus is you can crank the fuel up a bit, or enjoy lower engine temps (longevity)

 

[KingSpence]

I definitely want to have an intercooler in the system at some point, but I think I'll pass it up the first time around. I've got about a week off during Christmas, so in that time frame I want to get everything installed and running reliably. I'm still trying to source an intercooler that will fit in front of the radiator nicely, from there all I need to do is fab up my charge piping. The next time I have some time off work, I'll start fabbing, it's only really a full day job.

Cody, did you retain your factory rear heater? If so, how did you run your plumbing? Also, what did your EGT's peak to before and after intercooling, how much boost on which turbo? How much fuel?

Thanks

 

[slowandsteady BJ]

Do you have AC?
If not finding an intercooler is easy. I squeezed my rad, condensor, cold winter shield and an intercooler up there.

Intercooler is really the cats *ss. Running the pipes under the batteries is easy and keeps things uncluttered.

Let me know of you want some pics of my setup, even if yours is different it might give you some ideas.

I've got a small thread somewhere in the 60 section (I think)

Keep up the good work, the fruits of your labour will bring huge smiles to your face for a long time as your turbo whistles away under the hood.

 

[Dbradford04]

Not to hijack the thread, but I'd love to see the inter cooler pics as well.

Subscribed!

 

[cody c]

I definitely want to have an intercooler in the system at some point, but I think I'll pass it up the first time around. I've got about a week off during Christmas, so in that time frame I want to get everything installed and running reliably. I'm still trying to source an intercooler that will fit in front of the radiator nicely, from there all I need to do is fab up my charge piping. The next time I have some time off work, I'll start fabbing, it's only really a full day job.

Cody, did you retain your factory rear heater? If so, how did you run your plumbing? Also, what did your EGT's peak to before and after intercooling, how much boost on which turbo? How much fuel?

Thanks

Factory rear heater: yes, just bent the lines out of the way.

EGT's would hit 1400f a bit quickly on the highway hills before the IC, dropped about 200f or more on the hills after the IC, actually I almost couldnt get it to 1300 on the hills after. Worth it for the peace of mind, and the percieved longevity of the engine for sure.

Boost, its been a long time since I drove it but I think I was hitting 15-18 psi with a merkur turbo (xr4ti)

The IC was top mount, across the top of the motor, I had a 1" body lift which helped clear the ebay IC, and used a subaru hood scoop to bring cool air through the hood. Th idea was to keep the IC out of the mud when wheeling, though in hindsight I think I woulda looked at front mounting it. The top mount wont move the air through it on the trails, but that wasnt usually where EGT's were a problem. Hood scoop does look good though.

Havent adjusted the fuel yet, though that might happen.

I havent driven my 60 in two years actually. Im parting out the body and interior and keeping the drivetrain to swap into a near-rustless rig this winter/spring.

Need any spare doors or parts? Also got some parabolic front leaf springs to go as well.

 

[KingSpence]

If anyone has photos of a front mount system, and how they modified their coolant lines for the rear heater cleanly, post em' up. I'm more than open to suggestions for my build, because without the hundreds of threads I've read, I wouldn't be doing any of this.

The only charge piping I've ever done was for the SR in the Corolla. What do you think?

The KingSpence Corolla Build. - Page 14

 

[cody c]

I think Ian G may have some pics of when we turbo'd his 60 here some where in the diesel section.

He's running a 13bt manifold and a garret, I think we replaced a section of the lines, and moved the T on the firewall.

Your charge piping looks decent.

If you do the IC later, you will probably appreciate it more and be able to quantify the difference.

BTW, just ordered a bunch of SS exhaust parts from these guys: Intercooler Pipe Fabrication - Silicone Intake Systems Auto Parts
the were decent price to the door, though based on your car you probably already have sourced some decent vendors.

Edit: heres his thread, hard to see the T in the one pic: https://forum.ih8mud.com/diesel-tech-24-volts-systems/454677-another-turbo-bj60.html

 

[blis]

If anyone has photos of a front mount system, and how they modified their coolant lines for the rear heater cleanly, post em' up. I'm more than open to suggestions for my build, because without the hundreds of threads I've read, I wouldn't be doing any of this.

The only charge piping I've ever done was for the SR in the Corolla. What do you think?

The KingSpence Corolla Build. - Page 14

Looks quite nice, bit rough on the welds but otherwise looks real neat (yes, i know not everyone has TIG at garage)

 

[slowandsteady BJ]

Not to hijack the thread, but I'd love to see the inter cooler pics as well.

Subscribed!

If anyone has photos of a front mount system, and how they modified their coolant lines for the rear heater cleanly, post em' up. I'm more than open to suggestions for my build, because without the hundreds of threads I've read, I wouldn't be doing any of this.

The only charge piping I've ever done was for the SR in the Corolla. What do you think?

The KingSpence Corolla Build. - Page 14

Here is my little link.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/diesel-tech-24-volts-systems/468069-front-mount-intercooler-bj-60-ac.html

Remember to use vibration dampers when mounting your intercooler so the 'B' doesnt shake it around too much.

 

[KingSpence]

Slowandsteady, I'm jelly. Intercooling is definitely on the agenda now. I've thought about how I would run the pipe a while ago, your setup is exactly what I had in mind.

Exhaust. I'm running a 3 inch from the header, I've got it flowing through a Flowmaster 40 and from there I've got 4 inch until it exits under the driver rear door. Why driver rear door, I want to hear the sound. BJ's are silly in a way, you can't run the exaust on the inside of the frame rail without interfering with the t-case. I ran mine as far back as possible before I crossed to the instide of the frame to prevent high centering. I have yet to high center anywhere. I've heard of guys running under the oil pan and across the passenger side that way. I fabbed the downpipe to clear 35''s stuffed hard at full lock, I have yet to check the 37''s though . It's not an issue anyways, I've gotta fab up a new elbow and downpipe for the turbo, so it's going to get modified. The exhaust is deep, very deep, but at the same time it's nothing close to straightpipe ignorant; I've never been bugged for the exhaust by the police. It should sound prime with a turbo whistle.

The piping came from mandrel-bends.com. I used the ultimate builder kit, it's always good to have some left over. I payed $120 for the piping, and $60 for the muffler. So $180.

These picks look pretty bad, the exhaust is covered in burnt mud and salt. Meh.

 

[KingSpence]

Good news everybody, I'll be running an intercooler. I don't think I could have found an intercooler that fit so perfectly in front of the radiator. I found it in a buddy's shed, it's off an old Volvo I guess. I mocked it up on his newly acquired BJ60, it was much easier than dealing with my jacked up rig and an ARB to work around. I'll get some photos up in a bit.