My Major Project PrtII - Single turbo Conversion

[leeroy_25]

Well.. It had to be done.. We last left off with the car looking like this:


It was then suggested I needed more power to go with the looks!
Thank you to whoever that was.. It was always in the pipeline I would do a single turbo conversion but I ended up having to do it sooner than I thought due to my stock twins packing up. This thread will focus on the conversion. As with the rest of the project this was to be done on a budget but with the aim of good results!

First decision needed to make was what turbo to run.
I spent a lot of time researching turbo\'s on various forums and after much deliberating I decided to go fairly way off the beaten track and try a Holset unit!


This has been done in the states plenty but not so much here that I could find.. Most people haven\'t even heard of Holset turbo\'s.
For those of you not in the know these turbos are fitted to large Diesel lorries, Buses agricultrural machinery.. That sort of thing! By all accounts though they could spool as quick if not quicker than an equivalent Garret unit and run 30psi boost all day long so barely breaking a sweat at my measley 15psi aim! Only down side I could see would be size as they are a bit bigger than and equivalent Garret and therefore a bit harder to package. More about that later.

Quite a lot to get through so I\'ll try and do a bit each day and there will be plenty of pics!

Hope you all like it.

Lee

[od404]

Very nice!  So which Holset turbo is that one then (since I work for Cummins the parent company).

[leeroy_25]

Blimey! How hard have I tried to get info from Holset and you have been sat here all this time! It\'s a H1E. Got a newer HX40 too but that\'s for another build!
I had a guy I mangaed to contact in tech but he said that it was very frowned upon them giving any info out to Non-Diesel applications? Personnally I think they are missing a trick and a potentially good market but hey! It allows me to be different!!
Seeing as you have said hello. Are you able to find out what size all restrictor I should run? I have gone by threads on the US forums and got a 1.5mm one in now as the 2mm one I tried before seems to be too large and the turbo smoked a bit.. Just want to check what I have is okay now or whether I can go smaller?
What do you actually do at Holset?

Hope you like the thread.

[od404]

I work for the high horsepower engine division of Cummins as a structural analyst.  Unfortunately the issue you are having with getting info out of Holset is something even we experience, it\'s like getting blood out of a stone half the time!  I do know a couple of people so if you PM me the details of what you\'re asking, I will forward it on to them and see what comes of that.

I\'d wondered about using one of our turbos before, but the only ones we have are mahoosive! :rolleyes:

[leeroy_25]

Thanks for the offer.. Can you give me your e-mail address as I don\'t have pm?

Follow the thread and you can see how it all goes together and performs.. Like I mentioned above I also have a nice new HX40 for another project I am doing so we will see how that works too.

No time to do any proper posting today.. Will try to do some in my lunch break tomorrow instead!

Cheers
Lee

[Bob Monkhouse]

I live in huddersfield where holsets is, or a part of it. I tried to get a list of turbos to compare to turbos used on rex\'s but they were as helpful as a winnit!!
   A lad i know works down there and is hoping to get into the R&D development. If you need any other information just ask through your thread and i will ask him and report back promtly.
  What is the the turbo you have got equivallent to by garrett?

[leeroy_25]

Hi there Bob,

That\'s handy as well! Typically when you are desperate for the info it\'s impossible to find someone to help! Still always handy to know..The only thing I need to know at the mo is the recommended oil restrictor size and also where to get a metal gasket and Part number for the exhaust flange/wastegate cover that bolts on. (internal type gate).

More pics and news later.. Promise! work is manic today hnce just stopped for a quick bite to eat!

[Bob Monkhouse]

I can get metal gasket material if you are interested. Its about £15 a sheet and is a metal/composite sandwich. You can cut your own with a decent pair of shears and its a lot cheaper than standard gaskets. Our Grant(thread above is from he) has some on his turbos and they have been there over a year now.
SCM turbos next door to Holsets(now called Cummins Turbo Technologies) deal with them( Holsets) but you need part numbers I\'m afraid as they only deal like for like.
 The lad we know is trying to sort something out for Grant(the ....er had better come up with something as I\'ve recently spent two days porting a head for him for free). We shall see but Holsets aren\'t interested in after market tuning stuff as they make lots of money making turbos for Cummins so anyone dealing with them should be aware that its not a good idea to hold your breath!!! Bob.

[Bob Monkhouse]

OOps, forgot to say that Holset do not make ball bearing turbos(so I am told). Also, just to .... everybody off, they buy a lot of turbos in from China. These turbos cost around $60(thats for one mind)!!!

[leeroy_25]

Interesting stuff there Bob I was aware that the Holsets I am using are journal bearing.. Didn\'t know they only made journal bearing ones though.. Is that an issue? They seem to work and last weell enough. Plus a rebuild kit is about £60 and can be DIY with a bit of careful attention!

I know you can get Holset copies from China dirt cheap. I wouldn\'t be too surprised if most of a genuine one was made in China either! That\'s just the way this country is going.. We have shot ourselves in the foot with all the taxes and crap we get ripped off so it\'s cheaper to get it made elsewhere. That and the cheaper shop rates they have abroad too.. I still cannot believe I can get a new Hoslet cheaper in the US than I can here! Ridiculous!

By the way the gasket I was on about is just a plain thin aluminium gasket.. Not a sandwich type.. I have already got some sandwich material but some sections are very thin and I don\'t think it would hold up on them. Although I gues I could leave a bit of extra thickness to the gasket to hold it? Also that stuff is a cow to cut! I ended up using a small burr on a dremel!

So true what you were saying about part numbers.. Every person I have dealt with or tried to deal wth on the Holset front only can talk part numbers.. Other than that they are stuck! I gather there are a fair few varients on most of the parts though so I guess its understandible to a degree.

Will hopefully post up some pics after dinner!

Cheers
Lee

[leeroy_25]

Okay.. Down to business then..
As it stood the car wasn\'t going anywhere so whilst trying to source all the bits I thought I might as well start stripping it all down and getting it ready to go back together.
Well I didn\'t realise how much crap was under that bonnet that I could throw out!
First out was all the induction kit. None of which would go back in after the conversion!

This reveals some of the turbo and pipe work below:

Removing the Y-pipe is easy enough. The aluminium elbow on the rear turbo however proved to be quite a trick to get out and requires the heatshields removed first ideally. It just won\'t quite squeeze past! I think I might of ended up using brute force and rocking the engine on it\'s mounts to squeeze the pipe out.


Now the fun really starts. getting all the heatshields off around the turbo so you can access all the bolts. Most of them are rusted solid.. So a good dose of WD40 all over it and leave it a day before you start isn\'t a bad idea!
Sadly no pics of this as I ran out of battery. However once you get the heatshields off first job is to remove the downpipe which again there is not much room to do. (remember to unplug the O2 sensor and keep it safe!)Thankfully once you get this off you start getting a bit more space to work.
Once the downpipe is off then it\'s time to remove all the pipework and plumbing attached to the turbo. Beware of the actuators and the pipes connected to them on the underneath! I unbolted all these and removed them first to make sure nothing could hook up.
Once they are off it\'s nice and easy to unbolt and lift off the twin turbo pack!


Voila.. Some space in the engine bay! All that crap that just came off can be junked too! Except maybe the O2 sensor.
There is only one part of the stock turbo setup left to remove now and that\'s the manifold. Some of the bolts are hidden by heatshielding again which was a cow to get off due to siezed bolts in silly places! but once it\'s away another easy job. so you are left with this

At this point I stuffed the ports with a plastic bag and some old socks to make sure no moisture could get in and called it a day!


Next we will be starting on the inlet side!

[Jono FD3]

It is a fun job stripping out the twins the bonus for you is they don\'t have to go back that\'s a real fun job!! Good luck with the conversion matey.
J

[leeroy_25]

Removing the inlet side is generally not as bad as the turbo pack but there are a lot of vac pipes and connections to get off which is a bit of a pain.. I just took my time and made sure to take photo\'s of mark things up if I wasn\'t sure whether or not they would be going back on the car again.

First off is the plastic elbow front the intercooler.

At this point you can also remove the stock intercooler and any remaining associated pipework. I left the AST connected and hanging in the engine bay.

After this the next bit of fun is the Upper Inlet manifold.
Firstly disconnect the throttle cable and unbolt the bracket from the UIM or unbolt the cable from the bracket if you prefer.
Next you need to unplug 2 plugs from the back of the manifold,  1 plug Underneath it towards the back and two water pipes connected to the throttle body! Also there are vac pipes connected to the front and breather pipes and a pipe for the brake servo on the exhasut side. Disconnect these from which ever end moves first! Inccidentally I took off the throttle body off seperately so I could actually see what I was doing better But I think it can come off as one no problem.
There are a couple of wires connected to the back off the UIM by one of the lifting eye bolts. If you take out the bolt these can be left hanging.
There is also a bolt in the middle at the front which keeps the manifold fixed to a support. You need to just slack this off a couple of turns.
Think that covers it.. So now you can unbolt the 5 main fixings and the manifold should lift off.

Take a note of the gasket and see if it needs replacing for when it goes back together. More than likely when you take LIM off like me you will find you have a crusty broken up old gasket that has been leaking nicely for a while and needs replacing anyway so get a pair on order!
To get the LIM off is fairly simple.. Worse bit will be getting the fuel pipe off of the regulator as I found the pipe was pretty firm on there. Give it a twist until you here it crack loose form the metal stub and then you should be able to prise it off with not too much trouble. First I slowly unbolted the other end of the fuel rail which connects the primary and secondary rail together. Put some rag around it incase there is residual fuel pressure in the pipe. You don\'t want a face full!
Then you can unplug all the bits connected to it including some vac lines going to the Rats nest.
Should come away nicely.

You can just about see some of the remnants of the paper gasket in this pic

Now you can set about removing the beloved Rats Nest!
There are 365 plugs and vac pipes on here. One for each day of the year. Okay so I exaggerate! but there are a lot! Also unplug the primary injectors to free the harness up so you can move it out of the way. You will need to take off the solenoids first which in turn means you need to take the oil filler neck off as well! Again remember which plugs go where on the solenoid. Mainly the plug leads as I think everything else is colour coded.
Once all said and done you should be left looking something like this...

...and wondering where the hell your engine has gone!
Looks so small when you get the junk off it!

There will have been some black vacuum chambers that have been removed along the way.. which can all go in the bin. At this point there is one more to remove and its right under the alternator! You need to take the alternator off to get this out which isn\'t that bad a job with nothing else in the engine bay!
No pics of that sorry!
Cover over the oil filler with something to stop any unwanted objects going in! Then you are free to marvel at all the gubbins that came off.
There are only a couple more things you might want to do at this stage before leaving the car to go and sort out all the bits you need to modify and buy! If you are planning on running 850cc primaries either take the rail out and cover over the injector holes. Also be carefull not to loose the plastic spacer under this if there is one. and remember that it needs to go back in after!
You will also want to take off the oil injector lines that are brittle old plastic..

..so you can get some new ones made using the existing ends like this:

If you want to be flash you can always get stainless braided lines! But being that I am on a budget and you can\'t see them when it\'s all built back up I didn\'t bother!

Next installment will start looking at the first few bits of modifications! Should start getting some nicer pics and a bit more interesting read now!

[leeroy_25]

So What can we remove and simplify during the single turbo conversion. Well it seems quite a bit! Plenty of conversion threads to pick info from.

I thought I would start with the easier bits to get my self into it!
Blanking plates: (Also in this shot is the modified stock fuel dampner and regulator.)

The Air pump is going so firstly you will need blanking plates for where the air pipe comes off the back of the LIM to this. I also planned to remove the ACV unit off the LIM so that requires a blanking plate.




There is also a redundant oil return at the rear of the block that can be blanked off. These plate are a fairly easy DIY job from so 1/4" ally plate. You can use the pipe stubs and ACV uit as templates to get the shape and hole positions.

After a test fit I sent the LIM off for a  good old clean up and then set about blanking any air stubs that would no longer be required and fitting the blanking plates with a small amount of RTV sealer.


Job done!
Next part on from this would be the UIM.

You can remove the secondary throttles from this. If I understand correctly they basically prevent you from revving the nuts off the car when it\'s cold which everyone knows is a bad idea! So without them you will need to have a bit of self control!



When you have removed the butterfly assembly you will need to blank the hole the rod has left to keep the UIM air tight. I used an M10 bolt and tapped a thread into the UIM and plugged it with some sealer.

Befroe we start getting ready to put some bits back on there were a couple of other bits to do.
Machine the primary fuel rail to accept some 850cc injectors. Did this myself but unless you can use a mill get someone else to do it for you or a reputable tunner can supply you with one.

I also modified the fuel dampner elbow to remove the dampner and leave a plain pipe stub running in to the rail.


Lastly I wanted to reuse as much of the stock pipework as I could. Just as much as for ease as well as keeping costs down. So I removed all the ratnests pipes from the fuel pipe assembly and bolted the simplified assembly back up ready to fit to the block.



The advantage of this is you can also keep the part of framework from the ratsnest that you need to fix the coil packs to!




So we are about ready to bolt a few bits back on now!
Blimey. This sounds so easy now!

[leeroy_25]

So now we have the LIM Blanked up, injectors sorted and the recycled parts from the ratnests to go back on, so easy enough to bolt that all back up and clear some workshop space. Remember to put your nice metal gasket in the LIM! Be sure both the block and LIM are clean and degreased.


At This point I also when and got some new fuel hose and some silicone hose and checked out what I need to connect up vaccum line wise refering to the single turbo conversion diagram below. I did not want to have to get under the UIM after it was all bolted back up to fit a hose somewhere I had missed!
.
Final bit for today is bolting back up the UIM with the throttle body



You will note the long lengths of silicone vacuum line I trailed out to be sure I had enough to connect up the Oil squirters and FPR and fuel injector atomiser.