Turbo Fun

[de_stanny]

Hi All,

This week my turbo decided to stop producing boost after 76K miles ....

was driving on the highway in 5th , pushed her a bit an the boost came up , a bit later i did the same no more boost ....

got home and listend to the engine sound ,,,, i heard some metal to metal high pitched sound .... not a good sign ....

came home took of the inlet pipe to the turbo and yes rotor contact ......

just spend 3 hours to get the hole exhaust , turbo assembly out .... part one of the job done ...

i have a used thunderbird turbo that bought on line with no play on the shaft , should that be a good swap or should i go for a step bigger now i am at it ???

going to bring the whole rusty thing to the machine shop on saturday to have it taken appart and new taps placed and the wastegate drilled now its out...

hoping to hear some input from experianced users... pro contra's

thx , Tom

[de_stanny]

Hi All,

Finally she is running again .... some additional info for those interested ...

i decided to go for the tunderbird upgrade . when i was taking appart the broken turbo to use the turbobody, as that piece is not the same as on our cars , and started to replace the seals and other bits , i found while reassembling that the turbo wheel was locked sollid ... not good .
After some investigation it seemed that the trustplate was a bit to tick and pushed on to the shaft, so i had to machined it ... that beeing done , it all fitted and all worked as it should , spinning freely...

then the reasembly started , i followed the instruction thats availlable on the forum and have a extra point of attention, before you take the turbo of the exhaust housing make sure you mark it , so you can reassemble as it was ... i had to take the whole thing back of as the oil return tube was no where where it needs to be ... grrrrrr and getting this part back off is a pain.....

the holes in the waste gate actuator need to be redrilled so you can mount it properly as the bigger housing holes dont match up , the new hole goes about halfway between the original holes of the actuater bracket .

when putting all back into the tight space i had to assemble the wastegate actuater seperatly , a little fiddly but no biggy ....

she started wright up and the turbine wheel spins nicely , the exhaust pipe of the turbine is bigger as the original one and had to order a 2 inch 90tie and had to cut a piece of 2 inch pipe to connect to the cutted original pipe( only a 90 tie was left, connecting to the intercooler.

test drive is planned for tonight , i will let you now the diff i feel in the car

Also took the time to set my timing again and its was ... a few degrees of .... so thats fixed aswell ...

greetz

Tom

[HJ2]

Job well done Tom!

Please post the results of the testdrive as well!
For the rest of the post: Pictures please!

What injectors, FPR, MAP sensor did you go for?

[de_stanny]

hI hj2,

the next steps to be taken are bigger injecters and a 3bar map sensor , i am just taking her gently around Houston for a couple of hundred miles before bringing the boost to the 1 bar level , now running around 0.7 bar and she feels a bit bit more responsive or it might be my imagination not driving her for a couple of weeks lol
then after the new injecters and map sensor we can turn it up.

is an other FPR needed ? with bigger injecters ?

thx ,

Tom

[de_stanny]

Hi All,

after driving it normal for about a week i needed to feel the difference couldn't resist the temptation anymore , so turned up my boost valve a bit , and ..... spinning the wheels in 2nd gear .... and not while shifting .... just around 5500 rpm they break loose for a moment .... running around 1 bar now ,,, cant exactly tell how much boost i am running as i still have the original gauge not really clear, and i can't see it on elanscan as i have a voltage clamp on the MAP sensor , but it isn't running lean at all lol.

the boost comes on as it did before , i cant notice a difference on turbo lag as i dont feel any, but on top rpms she keeps the boost with the bigger turbine wheel .

it was a fun install to do and not to difficult or expensive if you are a bit mechanical .

so the next step ??? any sugestions ,

i was planning to get bigger injecters and an other map sensor ... would it be compattible with one of the Mountain Chips ?

cheers Tom

[dapinky]

it was a fun install to do and not to difficult or expensive if you are a bit mechanical .

It's something I'd love to do, but finding the parts from an 87-89 Thunderbird in the UK is fairly impossible - and the occassional one I see on eBay USA never seems suitable (i'd ideally need the seller to be prepared to dismantle it a bit and just send me the bits i need - otherwise the shipping would be ridiculous)

Ah, well - maybe one day.

[de_stanny]

Hi Dapinky,

if you find one in the us , maybe you can send it to me, and i can sent it to you ....

let me know .

[dapinky]

Hi Dapinky,

if you find one in the us , maybe you can send it to me, and i can sent it to you ....

let me know .

Hi de_stanny,

That's a very kind offer, thank you.

I'll keep looking, and if one comes up, I may well take you up on the offer