Good factory turbo for LS-T

I was wondering if anyone on here has had good experience with reuse of factory turbo’s. What are you using and what it was from like i know some saabs have T3 along with 15g 16g eclipses and even Tbirds have a decent turbo. The reason im asking is hoping this could save me some money to rebuild a factory turb and use it on my setup.

I am running a .42/.48 off a mercedes diesel. It is a straight T3 50 trim. I really like it, full 10 lbs. by 3000 or so RPM, and holds till redline. Perfect for the street in my opinion. Probably will go bigger later, but I would recommend it! I got mine brand new for suoer cheap, and I believe it is about the same as a Saab T3, just different flanges.

Jeff

does it have a coolant hook up this is another thing i think would be good about a factory turbo

I am planning on running a T3 off a Volvo 240, it’s a .42/.48, weird T3 flange though, you need a small adapter, or some welding skills, it bolts up normally but has a round cutout that would cause it to leak a little. They have oil and water cooling.

Or there is this adapter for $49 I found,
http://www.atpturbo.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=ATP-FLS-051&Category_Code=FLG

Mine is just oil cooled, no water hook ups. As long as you let the car cool down after driving, it will be just fine only oil cooled. Water cooled is nice, but not that many older cars have it. Some do, some don’t. That is kinda weird about that flange, I wonder why they made it like that or what benefit it has over a normal one. Mine is just a straight T3 flange. Are you going to run internal or external gate?

I have a related question…sorry. Do you guys know where I can get new stock turbos or rebuild ones?

I want to do external but i know most are internal maybe i could use a block off plate if I use a factory turbo

you will need to weld the flapper shut

If you look at all the T3s I’ve seen, the Internal gate is built into a bolt on housing on the exhaust side, you just remove it and put a flat plate in it’s place.

You remove this part that has the flapper valve.

And this is the plate you put on, then your downpipe is welded to this.

You can get the flange for $10 for regular steel or $40 for stainless from this guy, he is awesome and best deals. He advertises on HMT.

http://www.homemadeturbo.com/forum/index.php?topic=83018.0

^^ thats not entirely true. the hole for the internal wastegate is at least 1/2-1" inside the housing. that flange you posted is only to connect the downpipe and will not block the hole. you’ll need to weld the flap.

^ So can you use the flange pictured for your DP if you are intending on keeping an internal wastegate, since it does not really block the flow? Or are there distinct flanges for when keeping the IW?

For the type of turbo that flange is intended for, it will indeed block off the internal wastegate. I have a turbo that had an internal wastegate, and used a flange similar to that (different bolt pattern) which blocks off the internal wastegate. Here is what the factory turbos off of many factory cars look like:

This is the flange I used to make my downpipe and block off the internal gate:

The way the internal gate works on these is that there is actually an additional housing that bolts onto the turbine (edit: the first picture of Rob91DA’s post is what I am talking about). The housing has a kind of “pocket” that merges the wastegate gasses and the gasses exiting the turbo through the exhaust housing. There is a 3-bolt flange on the outside of the housing with a 2-2.5" hole, and that is where you connect the downpipe.

I hope that helps, it really depends on the turbo whether you can just block off the gate with a flange or if you have to weld the flapper. The one redtegra posted would have to be welded as he said.

oh shit didn’t know about most stock turbo’s being like that ive always had/seen aftermarket. thanks for correcting that.:read:

Yup, what Jett said. :werd:

No problem, that’s what these forums are for! You learn something new everyday, or at least I know I do! I have seen quite a few stock turbos off many different makes and models, and the majority are setup like mine. I am sure there are some oddballs that are like what you posted as well. I have had VERY little experience with aftermarket turbos using internal wastegates, but from what I have seen, they look like what redtegra posted. The aftermarket ones I have seen/used are all of the external gate variety.

? is there a place/ site to get new factory turbos ?

its not really worth buying a new one since most of the good ones were made in the 80’s. your better off getting a used one and rebuilding.

Honestly there are a lot of people I have known that have been running Ebay Turbo’s, they are cheap and if you are looking at moderate boost levels, they work awesome, most of the guys I know start off with those until they move onto something bigger like GT35Rs and such. might wanna consider one.

plus it would be cheap to replacei was thinking about doing that thinking if it failed there wouldnt be any damage like over boost

I plan on using a turbo off an manual t-bird. Dunno how well it’ll run but i heard it should be fine.