Hi all, I'm new to the forum but not to Fords.

I've been looking through the forum for answers but the only things close are from many years ago and might not be relevant anymore. I heard putting a turbo kit on the IDI will help with efficiency. Hypermax is the only company I could find selling a kit for the vans. I heard Banks and ATS sell kits but I couldn't find them. Hypermax claims comparable mpg over NA and 50% power increase. I don't care so much for power as I don't tow heavy things. But I was wondering what the mpg gain would be. I saw someone said 1-2 mpg and I saw someone else say over 5+ mpg. I want to know if it is actually financially worth getting a turbo kit.

So you know I own a '92 E350 7.3 IDI ambulance. It's been turned into an RV. Mods include 6" lift all new suspension from WeldTec, I cut my intake bowl thing for more airflow. And a bunch of weight from RV things. I will be putting 35" tires and a diff locker. I just want better mpg. Thanks.
Hans and The Vanbulance.

 

Hans,
Awesome stuff. I always love hearing about more IDI Vans.

If you want a bunch of info on turbos with these vans, check out my site: https://www.nickpisca.com/diesel/category/turbo/

I've been fortunate enough to own 2 IDI vans with turbos (Banks and Hypermax) and fortunate enough to meet a guy who had an ATS van kit so I have examined all the types. Here's a comparison with pros and cons: https://www.nickpisca.com/diesel/tur...an-turbo-kits/

Her'es my hypermax install thread: https://www.nickpisca.com/diesel/tur...ord-clubwagon/
It's pretty easy to install their kit, especially since it's bolt on and new. Converting a used kit is a pita, but doable.

Any turbo will wake up your van's engine. I would NEVER go back to NA. As for mpg, technically yes, a turbo kit will add 1-2 mpg to your IDI. HOWEVER, and this is one largely overlooked caveat, you won't get better or worse MPG with a turbo over NA. Here's why. Once you put that turbo on, and realize how nice it is to accelerate, drive at highway speeds, keep up with traffic, pull up the hill at 75mph, etc, you'll lose the efficiency you gained. Your van will drive like all the other cars on the road, and you'll never go back to creeping up the right lane letting traffic pass you by. It's so much more fun to drive, it's a shame to not drive it like you stole it. And the best part is, you really don't need a lot of boost to wake up the beast. 5-8psi will be a night and day difference between NA and turbo. So I recommend putting on the kit (it's worth the money) and do other things to save fuel economy

If your goal is mpg, there are much easier ways to gain 1-5mpg without going through the work of adding a turbo kit. https://www.nickpisca.com/diesel/tur...-idi-vehicles/

 

genscripter. Im curious are there any disadvantages to adding a turbo. I also have an ambulance and have been thinking about adding a turbo in mine. The better speed pickup does sound very attractive.

 

That's a good question. I want to say outright, that having a turbo is 1000x better than NA. I would never go back to NA. But I will make a list of disadvantages that I ran into, and if it seems lengthy or extreme, it's only because I'd like to be thorough.

1. it can take some special tools and time to get the turbo to spool up properly. You can add a turbo to any IDI, but if you want to get the optimal boost, it'll take some timing equipment to get the BTDC in spec. They don't have the ferret meters anymore, so there are some other companies sell alternatives. The poor man's method is to just adjust the IP an increment at a time, drive the van, check boost/egts, adjust an increment, drive the van, check boost/egts, and so on until it's optimal. Than can be slow, and if you ever have to replace the IP, you won't know the best timing value without the meter and timing gun.

2. You'll need to invest in a pyro and boost gauge, and if you want one that lasts more than 8 months, you'll need to spend some decent money.

3. Used turbo kits are almost always incomplete. You'll need some fab skills or creativity to make the 5% of the kit the PO forgot to take off.

4. The new hypermax kit is kind of expensive (but worth it). It will bolt up, but as you probably read in my installation thread, there were some parts of the kit that did not work. All the parts that dealt with the Turbo were perfect to install, but the appertenances like the kickdown linkage, tranny dipstick tube, and few other things did NOT work for me and it was annoying spending that kind of cash just to see it wouldn't work.

5. the ATS and Banks kits have a y-style up-pipe that will conflict with a deep sump trans pan or other parts. That limits the kind of upgrades you can do to your tranny.

6. Nearly all the van turbo kits have no options for intercoolers. The repercussions of that I'll talk about at the end. (note, Justin at R&D just made a fully turbo'ed and intercooled van a few months ago, but at the cost of obstructing the engine bay with cooler piping.) Without an intercooler or cold air intake, any pressurizing system will build up hot temps in the intake, and none of the van turbo kits are designed to employ an intercooler to mitigate that. Regardless, I've been driving my van for over 6 years with a turbo sans intercooler and it's not a major issue, just means there is some power not accessible in certain situations.

7. the banks turbo kit has an air filter housing that literally takes up the entire under-hood access area. Just to add a quart of oil, you have to pull the darn air filter setup. A real pain if you need crack injectors, drain the fuel filter, and other regular maintenance.

8. The Banks van kit has several feet of CDR hosing that seems really unnecessary. The ATS and Hypermax has a short and clean setup by modifying the valve cover, but pulling a valve cover on an IDI van is a chore, especially if you have AC.

8.1 You'll need to invest in better exhaust to mitigate EGT issues and give better exhaust flow.

8.2 the sound. Some guys don't like hearing a turbo whine through a doghouse. (I don't hear it, but I lined my doghouse with soundproofing.

8.3 The heat. You WILL need to wrap your pipes, pedestal, and turbo with wrap and heat blankets. It will f up your doghouse (I had burn marks) without making some insulation and reflective materials. Even with that, it will heat soak your doghouse until it's hot to the touch from the interior. In the winter, that's cool (free heat), but in the summer, it's a real PITA. My front AC basically runs 24-7 just to mitigate the radiant heat of the doghouse. I did find some success preventing heat transmittion by wrapping my EM's, and by installing two layers of doghouse insulation (from a junkyard van), a layer of reflective sound/heat proofing on the engine-side, and installing leather saddlebag doghouse cover on the interior.

9. Just recently (as in this week), I was trying to find a solution to my recent EGT issues. I've been having great EGT results driving at highway speeds and up-and-down hills, however when I go up long 10-mile steep California desert grades, eventually my EGT's build up temp and I have to let up on the accelerator, slowing to 55-60mph Something must be heatsoaking or maybe I had bad compression or timing was off. Well, I set the timing, checked my compression (420-460psi), and then I knew it had to be something else. I spent some time examining the engine bay for a solution that wouldn't require an intercooler. I contemplated making a custom ceiling-mounted air-water heat exchanger intake hat, but maybe there was something simpler.

When I first installed my turbo, I was concerned about the doghouse, so I placed a turbo blanket on the hotside of the turbo to drape it from the top down over the pedestal and up-pipes. It resembled a hoodie. It helped to limit the heat transfer from the turbo to the doghouse. I never considered the heat that would radiate from the front of the turbo to the intake and intake hat. I just installed a 2nd blanket, that I put fully-around the hotside of the turbo, then put the old blanket back on like the hoodie I mentioned above. As I tried to install the new blanket around the turbo, I noticed just how close the intake hat and turbo are together. It was maybe 1/16" - 1/8" apart. So close that I couldn't slide the new turbo blanket between them. I had to undo the intake hat a few threads just to get enough of a gap to slide it on.

Considering the turbo can get up to 700, 800, 900, 1000 degrees, having the intake hat only 1/8" away would definitely absorb significant heat. Also, it's pretty darn close to the #5 and #7 intake ports, so that was absorbing heat as well. I have only driven the van a few days since these blanket upgrades, but I've already seen a 100 deg decrease in EGT's and also, the EGT's drop off A LOT faster after letting up on the accelerator.

I think this turbo+intake gap was a design oversight ( I know the banks kit tries to mitigate this with a metal heat shield but it's a bandaid), but with the doghouse and engine ceiling in the way, there really isn't a good way to design a van turbo kit that will properly fit without the closeness. It's the best we can do with the space we have.

10. If you travel to and from high/low altitudes regularly, having a turbo can be a pain to tune and time to optimal levels. Whenever I move up passed a mile high, I pull over to turn down my IP a flat or two, then I retime the IP. It helps to keep the black smoke down (due to the lack of oxygen at higher altitude) and keeps the EGT's lower. I live at sea level, so moving up higher can be noticable at the exhaust pipe.

11. IDI engines come in NA and Turbo versions. There are more details about this online (you can find the links), but if you add a turbo to an NA engine, it's not getting the optimal output. The difference will be pretty much negligible, but it is a factor. (My IDI is an NA block with a turbo, and I'm ok with it).

12. Don't forget to modify the interior of your valley pan to allow turbo oil drainback.

13. You'll probably need to upgrade to head studs (which in a van, is really a pain in the ***). I did the stud upgrade when I replaced my heads, and 5 of my studs and pushrods had to be rubberbanded in place just to get them in the block.




That's all i can think of at the moment. HTH

 

Thanks for all the info! I did some maths based on your claims of 1-2 mpg gain. I would make my money back after about 12k miles in CA where diesel is $4 right now. That's if I installed the $2500 kit plus other required mods myself. Personally that is a little too much work for me at this moment. Maybe in the future when I've got some money saved I can pay some shop to do it. Or I could drive down to SoCal and pay you to do it Gen! You say it is 1000x worth it. But I don't care much for power, just wanted the mpg gain. Since you have so much experience, do you know what the tow limit difference is with the turbo? I saw you said it goes faster or doesn't lose speed up hills. But can you give an educated guess of the new max tow weight?

 

Sorry, I never tow anything, so I don't really know. I do haul stuff, but the most i've ever towed was 2 tons in the back.

The hypermax kit is really easy to install on a van, and anyone who has a standard socket set and some spare time can do it with ease. The doghouse makes the process really easy to access. Probably the hardest part is reorganizing the wiring harness (detailed here) under the IP, but that's not too tough either.

 

I;m putting a factory turbo on my 88 E350.
Made a post about.

Really excited to give my camper some longer legs too!