Ian Turgeon
Cascading Inspiration
was gearing up to go to the track and push the stock turbo, stock injectors limit, but stumbled upon my new turbo.
thanks to maxtor, the turbo combo ive been looking for became availible... with everything I needed. the 20g td06H with a 12cm housing.
for those that dont know they typically come with a 14, and the 12 is very difficult to find.... and expensive when you do.
Welp I went to the garage the night the turbo arrived, and port matched the exhaust housing... polishing as much as possible. Then some work on cleaning up the inlet and outlet of the compressor housing.
A coat of Steel-it paint was applied (thanks darron) and the wastegate rod was tacked shut after a quick trip to midas.
Waited till fri, and installed the turbo.
Things to be aware of:
the backing plate on the comp side of the turbo is weak, do not hit it with anything in an attempt to remove the center section from the exhaust housing. :evil:
the 4 bolts holding the turbo to the manifold will struggle, and struggle well. the hardest by far is the rear top one, its behind the wastegate pocket on the turbo, and theres no where to get there. we used the cheater wrench method to break the bolts ( 2 open/closed wrenches interlinked). Well we fumbled for a long time with the last one untill we finally realized we had knocked it loose somehow ( gotta love that ). we pulled the downpipe out a bit to get some room here.
the studs in the turbo housing can be difficult to remove. I had an old housing sitting around, of which I snapped one stud, and gave up on the 2nd after it started doing the same. to remove studs, you have to use two nuts tighted down on one another, then loosen the lower one and it should take the stud with it. For this process I would reccommend having a low mile truck
... it makes a huge difference. I think this is where we spent the most wasted time.
when your finally getting things going again, you will do something bad. I dropped a stud nut into the downpipe. Its a far worse sound then dropping a screw in the engine bay and not hearing it hit the ground. I remved the saudi res and was astonished not to find it in the dp ( we were sure it had made it down and got stuck in the dip in the pipe) well, we quickly decided it hadnt gone into the dp, rather that it had made it into the turbo and down into the xover pipe. After some thought.. I moved the resonator around to find the nut had gone down the dp, uphill past the dip, and rested in the saudi res. more wasted time here lining up the exhaust again.
there rest of the process went as easy as it should. everything bolted together and all was happy.
I turned the truck over a few times with the coil wire off to get some oil and coolant flowing.
And the results?:
first more reading, a little background.
my first time to the track... 14.30's thats no good, truck has bad boost control and im have a hard time launching with boost. I decide to install and external gate to elliminate boost control issues. I find the key to launcing... time. My truck is taking 5 sec or so to build up to 5psi. Now, 5psi is a slow launch, no grip loss... were looking at 1.9-2.0 60' im sitting in the 13.5's now. well I figured out after going for broke, I can build 11-13psi at the line if I wait long enough. Im now getting 1.72 60's and its noticably faster... rip off a 12.98.
well 12cm 20g installed. lag is more appearent as expected. ( boy im glad I didnt do the 14cm) however, Im positive my torque converter has been wrong all this time. I can now only build 2 psi at launch... pedal on the floor (look down... rpms at !!! 1500 :evil: !!! and not budgin. Theres no hope of it rising like it did before.. were just not spinning the turbo enough.
Well... let go of the brake and, woohoo theres me 2.0 60' launches back. lags noticably up to about 6psi, then its all over. Boom, hitting the boost limit on my sbcid and staying solid at 16lbs ( still conservitive on the fueling here) Feels strong and mighty nice. (steel-its smells of toxid gas too).
driving around a bit, noting the new characterisitcs, its noticably lagier.. the stock unit wanted to build boost like it was waiting for me to catch up to it. However, a downshift can cause supprising left-turn characteristics... First time I've ever slammed the pedal to the floor from 20mph or so, and had the truck take a quick step to the left. Theres definately more power hiding in there...
Now I just gotta get it to build boost at the line.
With the lag and all, I'm still very excited to see where this goes.
Picked up an SMC kit thanks to mom n dad... will be adding that to the equation soon too.
Cant wait to hear her scream with 20psi and a good 2500rpm launch
thanks to maxtor, the turbo combo ive been looking for became availible... with everything I needed. the 20g td06H with a 12cm housing.
for those that dont know they typically come with a 14, and the 12 is very difficult to find.... and expensive when you do.
Welp I went to the garage the night the turbo arrived, and port matched the exhaust housing... polishing as much as possible. Then some work on cleaning up the inlet and outlet of the compressor housing.
A coat of Steel-it paint was applied (thanks darron) and the wastegate rod was tacked shut after a quick trip to midas.
Waited till fri, and installed the turbo.
Things to be aware of:
the backing plate on the comp side of the turbo is weak, do not hit it with anything in an attempt to remove the center section from the exhaust housing. :evil:
the 4 bolts holding the turbo to the manifold will struggle, and struggle well. the hardest by far is the rear top one, its behind the wastegate pocket on the turbo, and theres no where to get there. we used the cheater wrench method to break the bolts ( 2 open/closed wrenches interlinked). Well we fumbled for a long time with the last one untill we finally realized we had knocked it loose somehow ( gotta love that ). we pulled the downpipe out a bit to get some room here.
the studs in the turbo housing can be difficult to remove. I had an old housing sitting around, of which I snapped one stud, and gave up on the 2nd after it started doing the same. to remove studs, you have to use two nuts tighted down on one another, then loosen the lower one and it should take the stud with it. For this process I would reccommend having a low mile truck
... it makes a huge difference. I think this is where we spent the most wasted time.when your finally getting things going again, you will do something bad. I dropped a stud nut into the downpipe. Its a far worse sound then dropping a screw in the engine bay and not hearing it hit the ground. I remved the saudi res and was astonished not to find it in the dp ( we were sure it had made it down and got stuck in the dip in the pipe) well, we quickly decided it hadnt gone into the dp, rather that it had made it into the turbo and down into the xover pipe. After some thought.. I moved the resonator around to find the nut had gone down the dp, uphill past the dip, and rested in the saudi res. more wasted time here lining up the exhaust again.
there rest of the process went as easy as it should. everything bolted together and all was happy.
I turned the truck over a few times with the coil wire off to get some oil and coolant flowing.
And the results?:
first more reading, a little background.
my first time to the track... 14.30's thats no good, truck has bad boost control and im have a hard time launching with boost. I decide to install and external gate to elliminate boost control issues. I find the key to launcing... time. My truck is taking 5 sec or so to build up to 5psi. Now, 5psi is a slow launch, no grip loss... were looking at 1.9-2.0 60' im sitting in the 13.5's now. well I figured out after going for broke, I can build 11-13psi at the line if I wait long enough. Im now getting 1.72 60's and its noticably faster... rip off a 12.98.
well 12cm 20g installed. lag is more appearent as expected. ( boy im glad I didnt do the 14cm) however, Im positive my torque converter has been wrong all this time. I can now only build 2 psi at launch... pedal on the floor (look down... rpms at !!! 1500 :evil: !!! and not budgin. Theres no hope of it rising like it did before.. were just not spinning the turbo enough.
Well... let go of the brake and, woohoo theres me 2.0 60' launches back. lags noticably up to about 6psi, then its all over. Boom, hitting the boost limit on my sbcid and staying solid at 16lbs ( still conservitive on the fueling here) Feels strong and mighty nice. (steel-its smells of toxid gas too).
driving around a bit, noting the new characterisitcs, its noticably lagier.. the stock unit wanted to build boost like it was waiting for me to catch up to it. However, a downshift can cause supprising left-turn characteristics... First time I've ever slammed the pedal to the floor from 20mph or so, and had the truck take a quick step to the left. Theres definately more power hiding in there...
Now I just gotta get it to build boost at the line.
With the lag and all, I'm still very excited to see where this goes.
Picked up an SMC kit thanks to mom n dad... will be adding that to the equation soon too.
Cant wait to hear her scream with 20psi and a good 2500rpm launch
