me and a guy i know have been thinking over the last few weeks and are wondering if anyone has ever tried putting a variable geometry turbocharger on an obs. sounds like a good idea except the computer programming part. wondering if anyone has tried it and how they got it to work. twin vgt's sound cool, right

 

A few people over on the org have done it. Like you said, getting the turbo in is the easy part, figuring out a controller to run it is the hard part.

 

I don't think it would be worth all the hassle. You'd be better off building a good twin turbo setup instead and probably cost less in the long run.

 

VGT turbos would not be worth the hassle. The VGT will spool quick, but will it be worth the hassle of getting it set up then having sticky turbo vanes in the future? get you a good traditional turbo set up for the reliability. If you properly size your turbo then you do not need a VGT to spool fast. There are other tricks out there to get a quick spooling turbo, even on the bigger chargers..

 

Travis, please advise some of these quick spooling tricks for a D66. Mine will not light up until 2,500 rpm's, my stock turbo with the 1" housing was so much better. Granted, until I get my bellows on (elimate up pipe leak) and new intakes you were talking about, I would be much better off now. I just ordered a new MAP, be here in the next few days. Low end is no boost, just black smoke. Very high EGT's also. Same subject, different day, LOL

 

Glenn, there are several things that can be done to help with spool up. Think for a second about what it is that is actually spooling your turbo..

The exhaust housing is the restriction in your exhaust. It is designed to be a restriction and build up heat right? Since heat expands then the heat helps to spin the turbine wheel up faster right? So one thing that could be done to help spool up is to keep as much of the heat in your uppipes as possible. That can be done by ceramic coating your manifolds, uppipes, and turbine housing. Also a turbo sock will help keep heat in the turbine housing as well. Another thing is exhaust velocity. Headers help get more flow into the uppipes so you get more velocity going into the turbine housing to help spool up a little again.

There are a couple other things that can be done to help spool up, but nothing you need to worry about on your D66. If you get your uppipe leaks fixed, plenums fixed, and move your MAP line to the cold side of your IC piping that would help your spool up a lot.

 

I don't think I want to pull the manifolds (how hard is it?) and now wish I had bought the bellows ceramic coated. I never heard of coating the turbine housing? Who does this sort of thing? I have a new MAP coming and I'm connected in the cold side now. As always, thanks again!

 

The ceramic coating will help a little bit, but it might be like a 100 RPM difference. I don't know since I haven't done it yet myself, but my T4 mount is ceramic coated and I might send the turbine housing out to be ceramic coated, haven't decided yet. Might just get a turbo sock for it and call it done. There are several people on PSN who have ceramic coated their turbine housings. If nothing else it makes them look good, no rust to look at.

 

I've never driven a ford with a vgt, but I have driven a '07 duramax a few times, and I regularly drive a Jeep Liberty with the CRD. With those experiences I cannot believe that a vgt setup would be a waste.

I especially like the CRD. That thing literally has zero lag, its incredible.

 

I'm sure the VGT would work well, I'm not doubting that. I just think that for less money you could build a traditional turbo setup that will meet your needs just as well and be more reliable/less complicated.

I'm a big fan of "Simple" engineering.

 

VGT works great... with the proper computer to control it. That's the caveat of a 6.0 turbo on an OBS... figuring out a controller that can effectively run the VGT.

 

could the 6.0 cumputer be used? with some tuning?

 

Nope. The 6.0 is a whole different creature than the 7.3.

 

Phil, have you ever driven a PSD with stage 1 or 2 injectors and the stock turbo??? Very very minimal lag there as well. VGT would spool very quickly, but for the added complexity, less reliability, and the actual gain it would never be worth the money. If your already going to have bigger injectors than stock then get a properly sized turbo to suit your needs and it will surprise you.. It's a good thought, but IMHO it's just not worth messing with on these trucks for what you actually get.