TurboClunker (a.k.a. cheap-ass slaps a turbo on his LX)

[half k cruiser]

@Heckraiser that was awefully nice of you to take the time to post up that shopping list. That will certainly help future members like myself.

 

[OGBeno]

Now I went through a lot of trial and error, so I would be lying if I told you that’s all I spent, but if you use my thread as a guideline, you should be able to git’r done for about that much. That price factors in some shipping costs, but not all. The parts listed above are not necessarily what I purchased, but what I would purchase if I were to do it all over again. Particularly, the exhaust nuts and the turbo oil feed/drain lines I could have saved a lot of time and money on.

Also depending on your collection of tools, you might have to do a little shopping to stock up the garage. If you’re not removing the upper pan to drill your drain line hole, you’ll need to get your hands on a right angle drill that will accept a ½” chuck, you’ll need a ½” NPT tap. Otherwise, your basic shop tools should get you through.

Also if you don’t have a tire step, do yourself a favor and get one now.

I figure I'm in the project for about 20-25 hours of wrench time, and I easily spent four times that sitting around scratching my head, shopping, driving to the store, cursing, crying, etc. I think this could be done in one weekend, but the key is planning. Be organized. Test fit every little part together before you try to install anything. Make sure all your ducks are in a row. My own lack of planning and test-fitting ended up costing me more time and money in the long run.

Very nicely said.

Now get us some dyno times!!

 

[Heckraiser]

Forgot to mention the welding. I suck at welding, but I managed to make a downpipe. If you don't own a welder, factor in a tow to your local hot rod or exhaust shop. Better yet, make friends with someone who owns a welder, or best: buy a welder and practice up. At the beginning of this project I was a total novice... by the end of the project, I think my welding is now pretty passable.

 

[scottryana]

Funny, I am going to do the blinker duct mod. I am going to route cold air to my intake using that blinker hole. It's about 2.75x11.5" so it's a big hole and should flow more air than a 5" pipe. Not to mention the marker lights look like they should be the blinkers anyways lol

I chose top mount for two reasons:

1) I got in a wreck a couple months ago and need to replace my front bumper--bumper is currently pushed in taking up IC space in front of the truck. I didn't want to limit my bumper options by putting the IC up front.
2) because it's less plumbing and therefore cheaper, less opportunity for leaks and a shorter intake tract should result in marginally improved throttle response

My TMIC location behind the passenger headlight is superior to the more common top mount (subaru style) because the centered TMIC places the IC right on top of the engine and downpipe, basically right in the hottest part of the engine bay. My IC location is forward of the turbo, exhaust manifold and dowpipe, so presumably in a cooler location, also plenty of room to add a heat shield on the exhaust manifold or around the IC itself. The only drawback in my mind is the aesthetics of an off-centered scoop.

I have also considered drawing cool air from behind the bumper (or even removing the passenger-side blinker) and drawing it through a duct up to the IC, then placing a vent in the hood above the IC for air to exit (less ugly than a scoop, IMO). Kind of a ram-air duct so the air moves through the IC from bottom to top. This is a cool idea, and I think pretty feasible, but would require the relocation of my airbox (which I am quite happy with). Something to consider.

And FMIC, for obvious reasons would be the coldest location, but longer pipes, more potential leaks, more installation challenges.

Lots and lots of options depending on your priorities. I'll probably just make a scoop like I originally intended because I don't want to put much more time into this project.

A/W was never a consideration for me because I want mechanical simplicity, but there are certainly some advantages/disadvantages to consider there.

 

[scottryana]

Great list! And at $2000 quite a bit cheaper than a TRD setup . And if once you get a stable setup to compare apples to apples you could lose the gauges so like $1700.

Shopping list:


BASIC NON-INTERCOOLED SETUP:

Borg Warner s300sx .91a/r T4 turbo Borg Warner Turbo S300SX3-60 .91A/R T4 Airwerks 177272 $588 shipped

Bosch 110 diverter valve (OEM for audi/VW/Saab, lots of aftermarket options that fit up the same way) $35

Tial Sport 38mm F38 Wastegate with small blue 8.7psi spring ebay$159 shipped

Tial Small red 5.8 psi spring ebay$28

Treadstone Manifold $419 (needs to be clearance in a few spots, and may need to be re-tapped)

Treadstone 3.5” Vband clamp and flange $45

TURBO DRAIN:

Turbo drain line adapter ebay Turbo Oil Drain / Return Pipe Kit HITACHI HT12 5/8" Hose barb $13

½” NPT brass tap with hose barb $3 Home Depot

2’ of half-inch high-temp rubber hose $3 local parts store

TURBO FEED:

2x 1/8” NPT male to -3AN male adapter (oil feed into top of turbo) JEGS Performance Products 100752 | Buy JEGS Brake Line Fitting Adapters at JEGS $12

2’ -3AN oil feed line JEGS Performance Products 635008 | Buy JEGS Pre-Assembled Brake, Hydraulic Clutch, and Mechanical Gauge Hose at JEGS $14

1/8” BSPT Tee for oil feed at pressure sender Amazon.com: Squirrelly Oil Pressure Sending Unit Adapter 1/8" BSPT Port Male Female T: Automotive $30


GENERAL PARTS:
OEM exhaust manifold gasket set $38 friendly MUD parts vendor

Exhaust nuts (OEM nuts are too large to fit in several locations, these are smaller, use a washer wherever you can make one fit) https://www.summitracing.com/parts/arp-200-8663?seid=srese1&gclid=CJ6w9aiy6cwCFQUIaQod6dcOiA $10.27

Studs/Nuts for manifold-turbo connection $6 Rockauto.com or local parts store


INTAKE/CHARGE PIPES (allpurposepipes.com)

3.25” to 3” silicone reducer (MAF to intake pipe) $11

3.25” silicone coupler (MAF to air filter) $7

3” to 4” silicone reducer (intake pipe to turbo inlet) $13

90* 3” to 2.5” silicone coupler $20

90* aluminum 2.5” bend $12

2.5” bulge/bendy silicone coupler $13

2.5” aluminum BOV adapter pipe $25

1.25” silicone coupler $5

2.5” to 3” silicone reducer (charge pipe to TB) $10



EXHAUST:

3” stainless steel 45*mandrel bend $16 (all purpose pipes)

Schoenfeld headers 2530 reducer @ Summit Racing $8

Schoenfeld headers 3530 reducer @ Summit Racing $9

3.5” 90* steel mandrel bend $30 amazon.com

Wastegate dump tube 35MM/38MM UNIVERSAL TURBO/CHARGER MANIFOLD WASTEGATE STAINLESS DUMP PIPE PIPING $25

Acura Integra (’94-’01 )air filter & Box $40 junkyard



Subtotal: $1654 This does not include hose clamps, vacuum hose, general nuts and bolts, so figure in a 50lb sack of nickels as well, so that should bring us up to $1700



Optional Stuff, but good to have:

Hiwowsport T4 Titanium turbo blanket Amazon.com $42

AEM UEGO Wideband Gauge Amazon.com $166 shipped

Boost Gauge: $10-150 depending on how spendy you want to get

Exhaust heat wrap: $15 allpurposepipes.com



Subtotal: $240




INTERCOOLED SETUP:

CX Racing intercooler CXRacing Intercooler Turbo 16.5x11x3 Inlets on One Side $120

Remove 90* 3” to 2.5” silicone coupler listed above (-$20)

Add 2.5” aluminum pipe $12

Add 2.5” 45* silicone coupler $17

Add 2.5” straight silicone coupler $6



Subtotal $135



Basic Setup $1700

Plus intercooler extras: $135

Plus “good to have” extras: $240

GRAND TOTAL $2075



Now I went through a lot of trial and error, so I would be lying if I told you that’s all I spent, but if you use my thread as a guideline, you should be able to git’r done for about that much. That price factors in some shipping costs, but not all. The parts listed above are not necessarily what I purchased, but what I would purchase if I were to do it all over again. Particularly, the exhaust nuts and the turbo oil feed/drain lines I could have saved a lot of time and money on.

Also depending on your collection of tools, you might have to do a little shopping to stock up the garage. If you’re not removing the upper pan to drill your drain line hole, you’ll need to get your hands on a right angle drill that will accept a ½” chuck, you’ll need a ½” NPT tap. Otherwise, your basic shop tools should get you through.

Also if you don’t have a tire step, do yourself a favor and get one now.

I figure I'm in the project for about 20-25 hours of wrench time, and I easily spent four times that sitting around scratching my head, shopping, driving to the store, cursing, crying, etc. I think this could be done in one weekend, but the key is planning. Be organized. Test fit every little part together before you try to install anything. Make sure all your ducks are in a row. My own lack of planning and test-fitting ended up costing me more time and money in the long run.

 

[DARKNESS]

Great list! And at $2000 quite a bit cheaper than a TRD setup . And if once you get a stable setup to compare apples to apples you could lose the gauges so like $1700.

Plus that gets you an intercooler unlike the SC setup

 

[warezdog]

So really no other manifold options in your opinion? For the price and the hassle you went thru would you now consider fabbing up your own knowing what you know now?

 

[Heckraiser]

So really no other manifold options in your opinion? For the price and the hassle you went thru would you now consider fabbing up your own knowing what you know now?

The treadstone manifold really is a pretty low-quality piece in terms of fit and finish. Clearly not much R&D went into it. But it is super beefy, so once you get it fitted, I see pretty much zero potential for failure. CX Racing manifold costs $100 more and in my estimation, seems more likely to fail. At a minimum, you would still want to weld up some bracketry to support the weight, so it's not without it's own "fix it at home" issues. I will say that the high placement of the turbo with the treadstone manifold did lead to some packaging challenges, CX might be better in that regard.

I honestly still don't think I have the fab skills quite yet to make a y-pipe out of the stock manifolds, but for someone more skilled than me, this would absolutely be the way to go. Twin scroll setup would spool the turbo up faster and make more ponies overall than either the treadstone or the CX. And you don't have to unbolt the manifolds, which although it sounds like a pretty basic job is actually a bit of a knucke-grinder around cyl #6. The other benefit would be you could place the turbo wherever the heck you want to ease in intake/exhaust/charge pipe routing. If I could put the turbo anywhere, I would place it about 2-3 inches lower, at least an inch closer to the passenger side fender and maybe 3-4 inches further forward in the engine bay.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

Thanks for your time in providing all the details, pictures, and thinking outside of the box

 

[Heckraiser]

Funny, I am going to do the blinker duct mod. I am going to route cold air to my intake using that blinker hole. It's about 2.75x11.5" so it's a big hole and should flow more air than a 5" pipe. Not to mention the marker lights look like they should be the blinkers anyways lol

Yeah, you mentioned that earlier in the thread. Back before I started working on this, I had kind of wrapped my head around the IC location and thought the blinker duct would be cool. Or with a tube bumper that lets a lot of air by, just cut out the piece of body work than hangs down below the front valence and have your duct start there. I wonder how that would compare to a traditional hood scoop in terms of air flow.

 

[scottryana]

I think it would likely flow more, if you ducted it and vented the hood. The air flowing over the hood would act to extract the heat and the air from the front of the truck would pressurize the air going in the duct.

Where as the hood scoop you are trying to push air into the engine compartment fighting against the engine fan and the air flow and you have to push the air out under the truck.

 

[Heckraiser]

Hmmm... I'll run the idea by my buddy who has gotten pretty good at making composite parts and see what he thinks. He's probably the one that would be helping me with my hood scoop anyway (unless I go JC Whitney + Bondo )

 

[scottryana]

If you do go the route of the turn signal, let me know, I would gladly pay for his time and materials if he makes yours and an extra, ducting from the signal back through the apron and into the space at the wheel well.

 

[Heckraiser]

Just bought a 2-gauge pod for A/F and boost gauges for $7 and an oil catch can kit for $15, so you can add that to the "nice to have" tally Both items are on ebay.

I think I'm going to put the gauges right on top of the dash (in the center of the dash just to the right of the driver's side hump) and secure with 3M double sided foam tape, and then once I get the tuning/tinkering sorted out, I will remove them both or think about a less intrusive location for gauges. My preference is for the truck to look as stock as possible, and if the boost and AFR remains consistent for a while after I install, I'd rather not even bother to monitor.

 

[Toyotamech]

Hahaha does Ryan have a build thread... That's kind of funny because many on here have been lusting after his turbo setup for quite some time.

Ya I'm a noob to the forum lol

 

[mechanist]

I am too, really. This thread has inspired me! Thanks @Heckraiser for doing this!

 

[General Grant]

Great thread. A NACA duct could help your cooling requirements

NACA Brake Ducts for Bumper, Spoiler or Headlight

 

[canman]

I think it would likely flow more, if you ducted it and vented the hood. The air flowing over the hood would act to extract the heat and the air from the front of the truck would pressurize the air going in the duct.

Where as the hood scoop you are trying to push air into the engine compartment fighting against the engine fan and the air flow and you have to push the air out under the truck.

No expert here, but my Sheby Charger had a turbo with a screened opening just above the turbo. At stop lights you could "see" the heat rising from hood. Venting a hood to release some heat from turbo should be a good thing IMHO. Also, I have a 05 Subaru Legacy GT with horizontal mounted IC above the engine. Like all Subarus' with this setup, the hood scoop is ducted directly to the IC and sealed from the rest of the engine compartment. Suspect you would have to do the same to optimize cooling effect.

 

[scottryana]

If it helps you feel a little better about the treadstone manifold, my $2000 custom manifold will also need to have some of the nuts ground down and even one of the studs. lol.

 

[retrofive]

If it helps you feel a little better about the treadstone manifold, my $2000 custom manifold will also need to have some of the nuts ground down and even one of the studs. lol.

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Ouch!