turbo build

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

with the oe air filter gone i can store lots of stuff in the fender

tomorow I get to push her a bit as I play in the hills up in canyon city (colorado). a/f ratio, egt, and boost all working
CIMG0456.webp
CIMG0458.webp
CIMG0459.webp
 
That is VERY different, but according to ARBY's, "Different is good!".

Such is the case here.

Mot :eek:
 
Mot, do you actually have Arby's out there?
 
last night my wife and I started a marathon drive from pueblo colorado to orange california. We drove non stop in about a 17 hours. The cruiser was flawless and there were no problems with the turbo. I kept the cruise control at 82mph most of the time. I did most of the driving and got high 13 mpg and low 14mpg. My wife drove most of a tank at just under 75mph (thats as fast as she will go) and got 15.3mpg.
we took the southern route along interstate 40 across new mexico to cali. The cruiser never got hot (not over 203' on grade w ac at 75' outsude) but it wasn't too hot out. the power on grades is just plain fun. we climbed a long grade in new mexico at 80mph with the boost guage reading 7 pounds. we blew by an lx470 and his face was perplexed. On another grade a new xtera tried to pass and the cruiser just blew him away. this is more than I had ever hoped for. 100mph is cake. The torque is impressive-the cruiser did not downshift one time with the cruise engaged on our route- a few times the torque converter would unlock but never downshift. she boosts to 6-8 lbs but only if the rpms are above 2600. so if i have the cruise control set at 70mph in 4th and climb a grade she will only boost about 3 lbs. With my turbo the system is in its element with cruise set at 75-85mph (2700rpm+) in forth gear. just set it and forget it. you can hardly tell the turbo is there and the ride is smoother as there in never a downshift-we didn't get near 4000rpms on the trip so far .
On this trip we will also be heading to fresno and into the sierras for some camping. I hope we have similar fortune. I did get AAA last week just in case.
The egt sits at 1300' cruiseing and has got as high as 1450 on grade. A/f ratio has not run lean-runs ritch (WOT) at 6+pounds
 
Congrats!!!

Wow!!! You the man, In case you have time swing down here in So Cal. I would like to meet the beast (whatever you call it?):) over some Latte or some cool drinks :D.
Your project is really one off did I read somewhere on your post that it was under/around $1K in parts cost?
Thanks for sharing the info, please update us will your experience along the way. :cheers:
 
Great to hear that your set-up seems to be working out super!!:eek:

Next time you'll have to take pics of the drivers' faces when you blow by them. :D

Congrats!

Mot
 
Dusty,

Nice "out of the box" thinking! Thank your wife on our behalf, because we all know, w/o her support, you wouldn't be alive right now!! That one is a keeper.

Now, jump on Word, and put EVERYTHING down on paper before you forget. Please inlcude all tiny, annoying details so the rest of us can copy your work!!

cheers,

Ali
 
If others desire to turbocharge their 1fzfe the following parts are needed

Manifold-
I emailed turbonetics http://www.turboneticsinc.com/pa_manifolds.htm about the 1fzfe manifold they advertise but they never emailed me back. Others have posted pictures of cool manifolds. I wish someone would post links to manifolds that are available. Idealy you would pick up a premade manifold for under $500 and be on your way. I made my manifold from 1.5" weld ells and a 1/2 head flange of mild steel. the turbo flanges (the flange that the turbo bolts to-this is not the head flange that bolts the manifold to the head)) are available premade on ebay or the net for less than 20 bucks but this turbo flange is easy to make. I suggest a 1/2" turbo flange. There is no real short cut to making the manifold-it is slow tedious work. If someone were to supply premade (lazercut, waterjet, etc) head flanges that came with oval exhaust holes in the flange so you didnt need to use a die grinder like I used, this build would be much easier. The import scene offers premade head flanges for most all of the popular ricer motors facilitating easier manifold fabrication. I made a rather complicated log manifold-it would't have been much harder to make individual runners. I would suggest that if others are to make their own manifold they could make a simple log manifold (ie safari and avo) using 1.5" primaries and 2" secondary log without making a complcated pair of 3 into one sub manifolds as I did. A simple log manifold would allow the turbo flange to be welded directly to the secondary log as in the safari and avo manifolds. There are weld el elbow transitions that go from 1.5-2" and their are transition tee's also. I was orriginally going to do such a lsimple log but decided to make this complicated manifold when I found out I would need to special order the transition pieces. I guess you could use all 1.5" piecs (primary and secondary) but it may be too restrictive-but may not. The manifold MAF will be using looks real cool as it is a durrable cast piece but also uses individual runners. The oe toyota exhaust manifold gasket is stainless and layered. so the parts needed to fab your own manifold are
-manifold flange
-turbo flange
-weld el runners
-manifold to head gasket
-turbo flange to turbo gasket

Turbo
I made my selection based on turbo maps. There are lots of turbos that will work. turbo maps allow you to see how effecient (ie is not getting too hot) a turbo COMPRESSOR (the turbine is a different issue-re,member a turbo is comprised of 2 parts--the compressor and the turbine) will run at a particular boost charted against the volume of air the turbo will be seeing due to your engins size and rpms. there is much to know about turbo sizing and I am no expert and have little real world experience-but anyone can tell which turbos are not an option if they can read a turbo map.
I suggest a t04 with a trim from 40-60. I suggest a turbine a/r ratio between .7-1.0. I suggest a compressor a/r >.60. the t3/t4 turbos would probably work but according to turbo maps the t3's are going to be inefficient at higher rpms on the 1fzfe unless high boost pressures are used. this was discussed at length on this thread http://lextreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5127&page=1&pp=20 I used a cheap used oil only turbo but a ball bearing watercooled garrett would be better. after you have the turbo you will need to buy fittings and lines to run the oil. I used a 4an stainless line to the turbo and a 10an drain line. I tapped the upper oil pan with a 3/8npt tap and used a 3/8npt to 5/8 (10an) chrome fitting. I used RED locktight to seal the fitting-no leaks yet. see the safari instructions http://www.yomama.net/Safari Turbo/safari_turbo.htm

wastegate
I used external. internal wategate (safari and avo use internal) would be easier as you dont need to fab wastegate plumbing. I would have used an internal wastegate but they are much harder to find used in a size large enough for the 1fzfe. If you are to buy a new turbo just get a new job with with an internal wastegate and be done. external gates offer better tuning and adjustability but require plumbing fabbing and expose the sytem to more gasket that are potential leaks. There are expensive external gates but you can get a new 35mm wastegate all day on ebay for less than $100. I suggest you spend a little extra cash on good metal wastegate gaskets

downpipe
fabbing the tube is the easy part-just start welding pieces together from the turbo exhaust flange. I connected my downpipe to the flange on the 2nd cat. you could simply cut the flange from the first cat and weld it to your downpipe but then you wrecked your oe downpipe. if you are to fab your own flange use a 2.5 hole saw to cut the hole in the fabbed flange. you also need to connect your downpipe to the turbine exhaust. I suggest using a v-band flange. the pair of flanges (one for turbing and one for downpipe) and the clamp will cost about $75. you could use mild plate fabbed flanges and bolts for <$20 but v-band flanges are so easy to fit and allow for easy fabbing and dont use a gasket. Many turbos come with a vband flange on the exhaust-if they dont (mine didn't) you must weld the flange to the turbo. I used a 4" downpipe that transitions to 3" and then to 2.5" but I would have used a 3" downpipe if my turbo didn't have such a large discharge on the turbine. the downpipe will need a o2 sensor flange to attach the o2 sensor-you could cut the flange from the oe downpipe or fab your own as I did. easy fab. You also need to integrate the wastegate. this is just tricky and slow fabrication-be patient or get help. so you need
-exhaust tube (16g)
-flanges (v-band are great)
-o2 flange

intercooler
The intercooler integration is rather simple. I am surprised the supercharger crowd out there doesn't do this. The safari sytem replaces the support members in front of the radiator and uses a different trany cooler in order to mount the intercooer. this is so not needed. All you need to do is bolt pieces of 1/8" flatbar to various places on all the supports in front of the radiator then fab from there. I attached my intercooer support bracket to the center support, the horizontal support at top across the top front of radiator and to some holes used to attach trany cooler. it is absolutely solid. for ducting I used aluminized exhaust tube (2 1/4 od). silicone ducting is damn expensive. You can get 2.25 to 2.25 couplers on ebay for about $5 each. transition couplers and elbows are more expensive (10-20 bucks each) and depend on what intercooler you use. You can find the exact cooler I used on ebay any day of week for $140 but can find cheaper alternatives. fabbing the ducting itself is cake. the couplers make it easier as they allow for a few degrees of movement. by sure to make brackets to hold the ducting down so it doesn't bounce when you are bouncing around. The MAF meter integrates easily as shown in the posted pics. I painted the ducting with aluminum paint and cooked them in the oven as directed for a hard finish. just use cheap stainless hose clamps do hold couplers. see the safari instructions on intercooler ducting route-you cant route all the ducting like I did under the the ps headlight unless you get rid of the turn signal lamps-my bumper does just this. The safari system forces the intercooler ducting to a vulnerable loci. so you need
-intercooler
-ducting
-couplers
-hose clamps

other
-I had to have a new a/c hose made. you could fab around the oe ac line from the firewall to compressor but this would be silly as getting a new one made is cheap and easy.
-heat shielding-a turbo wrap kit is avail for $91. see my pics. it isn't much hotter than oe when I open my hood. I have the downpipe wraped in heat wrap and then covered with aluminum heat mat. the same covering is on the turbo. I also made an aluminum heat shield for the manifold. I also wrapped any wire or hose that was vulnerable. underhood temps are real. as a test before I built my turbo I removed the oe heat shield from the oe manifold to see how much hotter it would get under the hood. I drove like this for 2 weeks and was amazed how much hotter it got under the hood without the shielding. try it
-air filter-I could have used the oe filter-it fits similar to the MAF job under my hood but would require painfull ducting routing to get it in. A lot of ducting turns are required to get the oe filter in. The oe filter would sit within inches of the hot turbo so any cold air affect of the oe filter are not to be realized. The oe filter is the best filter out there hands down for this motor if filtering is your goal. But I dont drive in Saudi or Australia so air flow is even more important to me with forced induction. If I start seeing silicone in my oil analysis I will change my tune but I doubt the K&N will be a problem. A custom turbo build will be much harder if you choose to use the oe filter-I mocked this problem up for hours. If you want cold air for your k&N you could punch a 4" hole saw through the inner fender where your current wiper bottle sits and make some ducting to the k&N. I may do this if I find my system runs hot.
-wiper fluid bottle. I used a small overflow bottle avail at autozone. I could stuff my oe wiper bottle in with much work but I dont use it much. I got rid of that facia piece that holds the turn signals so I now get cold air from below the pass side headlight. one more reason to eliminate the ugly facia
-heater hose. you may want to get rid the metal tube. If you dont it will be trickier getting the charge pipe into the throttle body. I made a new flange to bolt onto the thermostat
-vacume hoses and other hose routing. see the safari instructions. the only modification is for the charcoal canister (need a one way valve in the canister so it doesn't see boost-I just used a pvc valve) and the pvc hose must go from the head to the intake before the turbo vs the oe location (head to throttle body). you must plug the throttle body hole
 
Thanks a ton for pioneering this Dusty. You da' man!

That 800hp cruiser in the first link you have there is just plain sick!!! How does the intake on that work?
 
This thing would be a perfect candidate for Megasquirt engine management and a wideband controller. The combination would allow you to tune for 12.5:1 at WOT and around stoich (maybe even a little leaner) for decent mileage during cruising.
 
Nice Work

Very nice fabrication, especially your weld beads. I turbo'd my old `90 3VZE V6 a while back and have recently aquired an `88 FJ62. Of course I am already dreaming up ideas again. I actually fabbed off of the factory cast manifold, but this time I think I will go from scratch like you did. You can check it out my old setup at http://www.cardomain.com/id/akarilo

If and when I crank up this new project, I'll hollar at you.

P.S. Have you seen this before?
http://www.me.umn.edu/~vandeven/turbo2f.htm
 
Last edited:
Dusty said:
I have read about the megasquirt. I like the reasonable price most of all

Yeah, it's priced very well. A wideband controller sets you back around $200 but allows you to autotune on the fly or data log to automatically generate new fuel tables. I just got my VW Corrado project car going w/ Megasquirt 'n Spark- Extra, T03/T04e, JE 83mm 9.0:1 forged pistons, short-runner intake mani, scat rods, limited slip, p&p 16v head, wideband, etc. The Megasquirt part of it has actually been a lot of fun. It's pretty amazing what you can do with it (i.e. lots of growing room).

I was thinking about how much power you could get w/ low-compression pistons (or stacked HG) and 1 bar of boost. Then I thought about how easy it would be to leave the engine alone, but have a two-stage boost controller -- one stage at ~7 psi, and one at around 12 psi -- plus water injection, activated at high boost only (preferably progressively). A switch in the cockpit would activate the high boost solenoid and energize the water injection for detonation control. You'd definitely want to upgrade your fueling, and standalone would probably make things a lot easier. BTW, Megasquirt has water injection control.

Jason
 
So when are you going to do your head gasket? What year is your truck? What parts are required to keep this engine running like a champ long-term? What's in the future plans here??

Thanks for the cool story!
 
Just got back to hanford after camping up at Shaver Lake. No problems at all-she pulls hard and seems to run cooler than before the turbo if such is possible. I used to get light pinging under load but that is gone too.

akirilo
that link to the turbod 2f is way cool. This should be a viable option for the 3fe. The 3fe is the motor that someone realy should blow-make it drive like a 1fzfe.

Concerning the future: I wish you guys could drive this thing and see what a joy it is. I immagine others with forced induction feel similar. I truly got more than I hoped for with this turbo-it does everything I hoped for and hasn't had any side affects. I do not need any more power as I am now content. The turbo has made me totally rethink the 100 series question-there is less desire for a 100 series knowing I have more power with my 80 series. (what is possible with a blown 4.7---hmmmm)
But few on this forum are content for long. A new fuel pump will follow soon as well as a rising rate fuel pressure regulaor. ECU modification or tuning will naturally come next-I like the megasquirt and the smt6 but the simplicity of the unichip has its merrits-just set it and forget it. The motor is pulling harder at 4000 rpms and wants to go higher and harder but I dont want to lean her out.
What I have really been thinking of lately is lift and tires-Im not afraid to turn 35's anymore for worry of lethargic response. And there is no more dismay at all the heavy body armour my 96 is lugging around.
 
Turbo

Dusty,
I was running a Pierburg auxillary fuel pump and a BEGI rising rate regulator on the 3VZE. I kept it at a conservative 5lbs and that really woke the engine up. How many PSI are you running currently and did you leave the timing stock?
Turbo.jpg
 
The boost gauge is reading as high as 7 pounds when Im climbing hard and fast. My narrow band a/f ratio reads solid "green" (rich) on such climbs suggesting WOT. But this is in 4th or occasionally 3rd and not in the higher rpms. (the highest grade climb up to shaver on the 168 required third gear at 70mph) I havnt ran for more than a few seconds above 4000 rpms. I wonder if a better fuel pump and a rising regulator would allow the engins to spend less time in WOT-or in other words WHAT TELLS THE MOTOR TO GO TO WOT? is WOT simply a matter of throttle position, or is WOT triggered when a certain % of max injector pulse durration is achieved, or something else. It goes without saying that more power is possible when fuel can be metered at ideal stoic ratios instead of the rich condition imposed by open loop (WOT). I wonder how and if fuel pressure modified with bigger pumps and boost controlled regulators affects WOT. And I did not change the timing
 
Fuel

I don't know what your end goal is, but 7 psi on the stock fuel system sounds really good. If it's anything like what I experienced it should be a total transformation. A rising rate regulator and high pressure pump are not going to be of much benefit to you. I would look into an Apexi Safc or even a Megasquirt. That would enable you to lean the mixture at cruise and richen it up a little under load. The FPR and pump are really just an inexpensive way of controlling higher fuel output.
I've had 4 different turbo projects, and the ones that controlled the fuel with electronics were far superior to any mechanical means.
If you've got a laptop, I would probably try the Megasquirt.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom