Water-cooled turbo question

[Superhatch]

I'm curious about something: Ok, I have an LS motor. Say I wanted to get a factory turbo....maybe off of a Volvo or perhaps a t25 off of an sr20 to use on my LS motor. Most factory turbos are at least partially water cooled. If I got a turbo that was water/oil cooled how would I run the water cooling lines for a turbo such as this?

I mean, I've had a couple Turbonetics turbos....but they were just oil cooled. Easy enough. I've just been wondering how people who dont have factory turbos use turbos that involve water cooling.

[Big J]

Tee into the heater lines, or if the car has coolant that runs through the throttle body and is fed by external lines use those.

[RandomGuy]

whatever you do make sure you don't just block it off, i've seen a lot of dumbasses do that, they're there for a reason :)

[miro_gt]

best would be additional radiator and electric pump ...


but most tee/cut the TB coolant line and return it either back to the TB, or back to the radiator.

[Superhatch]

Interesting... I guess that wouldnt be too hard to do.

[SPOOLIN]

its no big deal to block them off, ball bearing turbos from precision and garrett have the coolant holes and you need to run it on them to keep them regulated, and to validate the warranty with precision. turbonetics bb turbos DONT have water cooling. Its just added feature. Run it if you want, its not gonna make a difference if you dont. your turbo gets hot as shit, 200 degree water wont aid that much.

[Big J]

If I were going to hand over the extra money for a water cooled turbo, I'd run the water, even if it was 200*, but I sure wouldn't go through the trouble of making a seperate cooling system just for the turbo.

[SoLJames95]

Its not that big of a deal, I think its better personally.Water/oil.

[superboost]

I've run my water cooled turbo without the water cooling lines hooked up in the past. Also have run oil cooled turbos in the past on my volvo and have had to block the water lines off You can run it, and it will last, but your idle down time will become ESSENTIAL! Also, do not forget to let the turbo warm up before you go for a drive. While it is doable, its just not too smart.

Just do the right thing and tee off your heater hose like everyone else is saying. If it is closer to your expansion tank, you can tee that off as well (thats how my volvo is setup). The few extra minutes or hours that it takes to tee the hose will save you much time in the longrun spent idling your car down, to go run into a store etc.

Not to mention, if you neglect the idling procedure, especially on a turbo sans watercooled bearings, you WILL (not can) cook the bearings. Its just safer.

[SPOOLIN]

Its not that big of a deal, I think its better personally.Water/oil.


what do you know, your TURDbo owner.

[SoLJames95]

That hurts, and its water/oil, Oh yeah, well your mom goes to college.