Hey everyone. I am looking to get new injectors as I think mine are nearing the end of their life. High IPR and low ICP at high throttle and get a weird high pitched squeal at random times out of the valve cover. Ive replaced o rings but only fixed the lower fuel pressure issue. Question is I have a van turbo and I'm wondering if I can run the stage 1.5s or if I should stick with the stage 1 injectors. So far the van turbo has done fairly well at keeping egts in check unless im towing then they can get high. I have the riffraff antisurge wheel currently and don't have any boost leaks and make about 24-25 psi. I am looking to buy from 1023 diesel as I have their tuning currently and they offer free tuning with injector purchase. Any insight appreciated. Engine is a 2002 so cant go over 400hp with my current rods.

 

With PMR's I would be hesitant about going very big with injectors. Unless you were looking for a good reason to get a forged rod engine anyway.

 

I ran a van turbo..you know, 1.15 ex turbine. ..with 160/30's and it was a laggy smokey nightmare, and it never came alive until until about 2800 rpm.

Some have had good luck with it...I wasn't one of them.

 

Van turbo has 1.15ar turbine housing with 70mm turbine exducer,just to keep the specs correct.

 

Ive already replaced the 2000 engine once due to low compression from high idle hours and broken air filter. I have heard the PMR engine handles up to 400hp and sometimes over but 400hp is usually the cutoff. I think theres like a 30hp difference between the stage 1 and 1.5 so just wondering if its worth the extra money or if the turbo will even handle it.

Looks like Im looking at either 160/0 or 175/30. My turbo is definitely lacking on the bottom end and could see it not kicking in on the top end. But once they are lit they sure work good. Mine usually kicks in pretty hard around 2000 rpm. Sounds like stage 1 might be the better option if the turbo was lacking with the 160/30s

Correct. I know the exhaust side is usually 0.84 on the truck turbo and I believe the turbine is also bigger than the truck but don't remember off hand.

 

I would say go with a fresh set if 160/0 and then look into a kc stage 1 63/68 .84 or a stock turbo and balanced assembly

 

I just found a long lost page on guys really liking the 1.15 housing with bigger injectors. I’m wondering if the KC balanced assembly in the van turbo with stage 1 or stage 1.5s would make a good combo.

 

It wasnt lost, it was left behind because using the van turbo is no longer a good option compared to the options available to us now.

no matter what you do, the van turbo will be lagy and miserable below 2200 rpms
adding more fuel wont make it spool better/nicer lower in the rpms
adding the kc turbine will actually make it spool slower, as you would be using a bigger and heavier turbine. You would be better off to let it how it is of you want to continue running it.

 

In my experience this is a false statement. I put the kc turbine and 11 blade compressor into my bus and had significantly quicker spool up. Cooler egts and an overall more usable power band. Somewhere on here I posted the before and after graphs from forscan. I'm on stock injectors so the comparison might not be the same but the kc turbine was the best money spent besides the hydra.

 

While the kc turbine or assembly is great, it stands that a bigger heavier turbine will not spool at a lower rpm then a smaller lighter one. (All things being the same as far as turbo health and leak free systems)
The larger turbine will flow extremely well once it is up and going. I have driven several trucks with the balanced assembly I installed after driving them prior with stock untouched turbos. They spooled great, the trucks that had worn bearings, wheels and leaky systems obviously had an even greater felt improvement. That said from stock turbine to kc will delay the turbo coming fully online a tad. Just like the borg s300 68mm wheel 73mm wheel (lager difference in size and more of a jump in rom delay)
In this case the op has a modified, assumed healthy can turbo. It is in a truck. My above statement holds accurate that with the more modern turbo and wheel choices that it makes zero sense to put money into that van turbo and the more performance and cost effective option is to go back to an oem truck turbo with the kc balanced assembly (or kc stock plus) or a kc stage one.
Either of the above options will make a night and day difference in daily driving and towing characteristics of the truck, and put the power band back where it should be

 

What about a 1.0 exhaust housing? I have a stock .84 and it starts to lose power pushing 2800 rpm and I'm wondering if removing some back pressure would help. Spools real good below that and pulls like a bull elephant. But I wouldn't ever want to go as far as a van turbo because of threads like this.

 

Eric, although I agree with your overall feelings on the matter. I think there’s more to play here than just weight of turbine. I feel like the 63 to 73 SXE turbine difference has a lot to do with flow design. It’s a smaller fan so the tighter conditions will push harder at same exhaust volume. At least in my mind. At a steady state flow rate (example running 1600rpm sustained) the weight difference should have a small impact as I picture it being more about flow across the blades in this scenario. Same holds true in my mind for the KC turbine as the blade configuration has been drastically redesigned compared to stock.

Full disclosure, I have not ran the KC turbine so I may be talking totally stupid as I lack first hand experience.

I totally misssd that the OP had the van turbo on a truck. Thought he was asking about it for a van. From everything I’ve read (couch quarterback here) the van turbos, like the 38r, had their day but now there are much better options available.

 

why drive over 2,800 rpm
decide if you want a overall good useable powerband, or mostly top end. If you want too end you will want larger nozzles too. Hard to have the best of both worlds with a standard non vgt single turbo setup.

a .84 is all that is needed on a truck with a %30 nozzle or less on injectors. especially if it sees tow duty

 

Put your mst back on, then change it to the kc turbine. My point will be made in real time for ya

The Borg 68 and 73 both in essence use the same turbine housing, the 73 is just milled put to accommodate the larger wheel, the 68 and 73 share the same blade design except size. The 68 spools faster because it is smaller and lighter.

 

I think you should be our test mule. Have your 68mm .84 exhaust housing machined to accept the obs 70mm turbine and pair that with either a kc wheel or the riffraff 4x4. I bet that would pull well through the rpms and still not lose drastic spool time
(should be less of loss then keeping the stock wheel and going to a 1.0)

thats why the kc turbine for a .84 does so well, the .84 will keep it spooling fast down in the rpms, a tad slower (100rpm ish) then a stock turbine, but the kc will continue to help the truck pull though the mid-upper normal rpms(as long as yoy can continue to get adequate fuel in to continue that power band)