Turbo anyone?

[thehelix112]

I would be sorely tempted to do a few things in addition to just bolting on a standard L28ET setup. Those being:

-turbocharger. I believe its a T3 turbo which means you have a huge variety of aftermarket T3 turbine flanged turbos which will go close to bolting straight on - if requiring different intercooler/air filter pipes.

-computer. As Brian said you could investigate the megasquirt ecu. In australia we are rather spoilt in that Autronic/Haltech are almost reasonably priced. I've had a little bit of a play with a base model megasquirt and I wouldn't be running a high-powered car with one. You'll want to be getting the MS-II or atleast one of the user firmware upgrades (MSnS etc) at the very least. Ignition control is absolutely essential on a turbocharged car so don't settle for not having it. This also means you don't need a crappy tiny AFM as most aftermarket computers are MAP sensed.

-intercooler. OEM intercoolers with very rare execption (namely the GTR) are horrid baby things designed for stuff all boost/flow. Get a proper one.

-exhaust. Obviously go as big as you can. I can't stress the importance of this enough. Especially the dumppipe (the bit directly off the back of the turbo). On my setup using the old 2.5" exhaust after a 3" dump pipe I couldnt' get more than 11psi. I pulled it off and went for a drive with the wastegate still unplugged: 25psi+

Enjoy,

Dave

[thehelix112]

Ok heres a little speel about what I've done.

I purchased a F54/P90 engine a while back with a supercharger setup. After becoming extremely frustrated at the poor drivability a sideways mounted (not my work!) holley provides I started collecting bits for a turbo conversion.

I found by far the hardest piece of the puzzle to put together was the exhaust manifold. I didn't want a standard L28ET job (as they are hard to find over here) and not adequate for the power I wanted from the engine. A friend of mine put me onto a local TIG wedler who had built a manifold for his turbo-L and was no longer using it. Went and picked it up for a bargain (AUD250) and that was that. Here it is:

I was talked into a 640hp GT35R garrett turbocharger by a mate running one on a circuit car as being ultra-reliable and nicely responsive. Good enough for me. That is it sitting on the manifold above. Obviously this manifold is a bit crazy and definitely no good for a LHD car.

I decided to use a basic L28E intake manifold as the larger plenum L28ET version isn't overly common here and I just wanted to get the damn thing going. I will be upgrading to a proper alu manifold shortly. Next problem was a fuel rail and injectors. I brought some alu fuel stock and 11mm denso o-ring top-feed injectors and drilled some 11mm holes at appropriate spacing in the rail and voila. I tapped the ends to fit 1/2 BSPT speedflow fittings. After that it looked like this:

Next problem was the fuel system. Anyone who has looked under the arse of a 240Z will know what I mean when I say theres not too much room in there. Fortunately I managed to squeeze in a carter lift pump, 1.5L surge tank, and a bosch 044 ``motorsport'' fuel pump and a fuel filter. The 044 is clamped to the side of the surge tank using some basic plumbing circle clamps (with rubber for vibration insulation of course). The carter and the surge are mounted to the floor. The carter being a DAMN noisy pump. Far noiser than the 044. The whole lot was connected using speedflow stuff:

The standard fuel feed line is adequate I have been told for quite a bit of horse power but I figured while I was there. I routed -8 (1/2") speedflow steel conduit pipe along the left hand side of the top of transmission tunnel and then across and up next to the right hand side of the bonnet catch. You can see it here coming up on the left then angling around into the fuel rail:

I used the standard feed line as the return line after of course going to the fuel pressure regulator (a bosch item). See previous engine bay pic.

Next I spent a while wiring up the Autronic computer. I was lucky in that when I brought the computer it came with a hall-effect sensed dizzy built by a Melbourne company that provides the autronic with a pulse every cylinder revolution. In order to tell the computer when the engine is at #1 TDC a reluctor interface thingo is put over the #1 plug lead. Dodgey if you ask me but it seems to be working ok and it once again, a temporary measure until I sort out some proper crank sensing.

Then I did all the lines on the turbo. The water feed is taken from the rear of the block on the left hand side and returns by going around the engine to the water pump. The oil feed is from the oil-pressure sender and returns back to the sump:

Next I mounted the intercooler and I decided to put an oil cooler on it as well just in case (debating whether to pull it off or not, anyone know of a proper high volume oil pump I can get?). Mounting this cooler was a dream, fits beautifully in the front of the radiator and the oil cooler was then mounted in front of that:

Oil cooler is thermostated and speedflow lines.

Next I did the intake plumbing, I adapted a Ford Falcon XF 65mm throttle body to the manifold using a spacer. This spacer angles the T/B towards the left-hand side of the car to clear the dizzy. I then tacked together stainless mandrel bends and got a local welding place to tig them all together. They were joined using black silicon hose as appropriate.

Thats about it really. After fitting everything described as well as the thermo fans, fabricating up a 3" mandrel dump pipe, external wastegate screamer pipe and mounting misc stuff like the boost control solenoid and ignition module it looks something like this:

I've also put a proper oil catch can a mate made for me on the right hand side strut tower and added some lovely ACL heatshield stuff between the intake and exhaust manifolds, but don't have any pics of that.

I dont' think I've forgotten anything.

Dave

[halz]

And the result?! What was the setup and tuning like? How much power have you got? Whats it like to drive?

[thehelix112]

I'm happy with the results. Its only tuned for 10psi as I had exhaust issues. 2.5" press bent exhausts are crap, don't muck around with a turbo's exhaust system was my lesson.

I went to the drags and pulled said offending exhaust off and ran it with a 3" dumppipe and went 12.83 @ 115MPH with said 10psi, an open diff and 195 Pirelli P400s ( about as far from semi-slick as you can get ). MPH was a lot higher than I was expecting. I went exactly the same MPH as a friend with a 300rwkw 1600kg domestic. Which leads me to believe I'm making around 200rwkw in this thing.

Don't get me wrong, its a fun car, but its not what I'd call fast. Getting there, but it needs strengthening. I went to tune it for some more boost and the gearbox spat the dummy so no more fun for me.

Its a breeze to drive but I've only done so with the crap exhaust. Even with that choking the living hell out of the turbo I still have positive manifold pressure at 3000rpm and its well and truly cooking by 4500. Haven't had it on the track yet so I won't comment on what its like to drive around corners, I don't think i'll have any troubles though. The corners to my parents place were fun. Spinning up the inside at 150+.

Dave

[bemmerguy714]

thanks, that helped a great deal. excellent write up.

[thehelix112]

No worries. Lemme know if there are any other questions you have or anything.

Dave

[bemmerguy714]

No worries. Lemme know if there are any other questions you have or anything.

Dave

i'll definattily let u know. I should really be worrieing about getting the car to run right before turboing it actually. :stupid: But the thought of turbo is still floating around in my head. i'll keep in touch.