JP, you're gonna want the oil drain coming from the bottom of the turbo to be a MINIMUM of 1/2" pipe. If that drain is any smaller than that it will back the oil up in the turbo and blow it out the seals.......ask me how I know.

 

I do remember that leak of yours, bill. I thought you had traced it back to some other source, though? I guess not...

Right now I'm set up for 3/8 pipe and tube from the turbo to the block. Seeing as the turbo oil supply from the block is 1/4", I figured an unrestricted 3/8 run from drain back to block would be ok. I guess not.

What did fitting did you wind up using on the adapter plate to the turbo drain? It looked like 3/8 not would barely fit there...

 

Lookn Good, great info! Hope to follow suit here in a month or two.

 

What you did is make your setup worse. I'll leave you with one more thing to think about before I go back to my leave of absence...

Every single leak that I have ever fixed on my truck has been an O-RING or rubber fuel lines... Think about all the o-rings and stuff in the factory fuel system... What starts to leak first? Those o-rings or the NPT fittings in the heads? I'll answer that for you... The o-rings will leak several times over before the NPT/JIC fittings in the heads. Now think about those turbo pedistal o-rings. How many times do we find those leaking? Pretty often... How often do we find the NPT fittings on the side of the block leaking oil? Pretty much never unless you messed with one and didn't snug it back down.

Anyways... There's your thing to think about for the day.. How often you've had to fix o-rings vs how often you've had to fix leaks at NPT fittings. I'm out folks. Hope the truck does everything you want it to do...

 

JP, iirc the drain on my kit from Jake is 5/8 inch. I for sure wouldn't go any less than 1/2 like Bill said.

 

I had to weld a threaded block to the top of the piece I made to drain in the engine block. I used some brass 45*s, a couple 1/2" compression fittings, and a piece of 1/2" copper pipe. DO NOT use 3/8"! I can tell you from experience it is NOT big enough! LOL! I thought the same thing you did about the unrestricted 3/8" being big enough, but it's not. Oil backed up in the turbo and pushed it through the seals. Luckily I caught it pretty quick and made the drain bigger before it did any damage to the turbo. I'll try to get some pics today of what I did on mine and post them up this evening. I know it was tricky getting that piece to fit in there straight and get it just the right length so it wouldn't be in a bind and seal up.

 

This is the best pic I could get. With your turbo sitting angled like the stock turbo, it may be difficult to get the drain run into the hole that the fuel pump was in.

 

Wait so Bill you have the return oil line from the turbo drain through the hole the OEM fuel pump was in?

 

 

Dude!!! Where's your trans???

 

That pic was back when I was installing my turbo and dual disc clutch. Lol

 

Holy crap, that's alot of hose diameter there! thanks for the pics, guys - i had no idea that oil return was such a big issue on this setup. glad i'm finding out now rather than later (after startup).

my question on pipe size was related to the output drain flange of the turbo itself though. i took a rubbing of the gasket the kit came with and was going to make up the plate today at work. by my figuring, 1/4" NPT is the biggest fitting that will it up through an adapter plate, through the gasket and up into the turbo body.

having been convinced by the above pictures that 1/2"+ pipe/tube size is required, i guess my adapter plate for this turbo oil drain will involve a welded 1/2" pipe nipple onto the outside of this plate followed by surface milling the back side to cure the warpage.

Bill, i think i should be OK in aiming toward the OEM fuel pump hole with a slight bend in the tube run. worse, case, i'll go the hose route, but would like to avoid that cost if i can. and hopefully the adapter i've made so far can be modified to take a 1/2" connection instead of the current 3/8" thread. i may have to go with male threads on this piece and a female fitting attaching to it...

Alex, yep - that old OEM fuel hole winds up being the most logical place to send the turbo lube return - obviously, requiring an e-fuel conversion - which i'd think is also a requirement to feed the bigger injectors this sort of setup needs.

Travis - i completely agree with the o-ring vs. NPT leak argument. had i torn my block down completely, i'd have tapped 1/4" pipe threads into that turbo feed hole and done away with the o-rings altogether! ...next build, i guess. for now, i'll hope for the best with my triple-o-ring seal setup. if it doesnt work out, i'll tear it all down again and do it the way everyone else does! at this point, whats an extra couple weeks of the truck being down and another $500 for a new turbo!?!?!

 

follow-up question for Bill and Tyler:

looking through tube and pipe fitting charts - 1/2" AN (37 degree flare) fittings have an effective pass-through diamter of .39" in the fitting itself. compression fittings (as Bill used) have a nominal .400 pass-though diamter. i guess that's why the kits use 5/8" fittings, which have a nominal pass-through diamter of 0.48 in AN fittings.

So, Tyler, do you recall what the thread size/fitting connection at the turbo drain itself was? it seems like it'd be really tough to fit anythign much above 1/2" pipe thread in that space.

edit: after some searching, looks like i may go with one of these two into a welded pipe fitting on my DIY turbo drain plate... http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-si...ttings/=tu1vwj or, if space dictates, a much pricier elbow version http://www.mcmaster.com/#52215k465/=tu1upt

 

I'd try and avoid a 90* fitting to drain the turbo JP. I wouldn't go any more than a 45.

 

I did find a 45 compression fitting that will work, I think. I'm going to tig it to a plate. Just gotta make sure I can still get the screws in!

Pics to come...