What are the benifits, if any, towards installing a van turbo. I've heard somewhere that they push more air than the truck turbos. Also would this just be doing what a WW or ATS housing could do?

 

Have you done some searching on the forum for some advice about the van turbo? There's a lot of info here that's already been talked about, and I wouldn't want to sell you short. I'm not sure that I can nail it all, but I'll try.

The benefits of installing a van turbo (or a 1.15 AR exhaust housing, like I have, see my gallery) is to reduce the exhaust backpressure between the engine and the turbo. The backpressure, also called drive pressure since it's what drives the turbo, can kind of be thought of as boost on the exhaust side. The stock turbo has a drive to boost ratio of about 2:1, so if you're running 20lbs of boost, you'll have 40lbs of drive pressure. That drive pressure is hard on the engine, and you run the risk of blowing a head gasket or worse busting a rod. The stock turbo has an exhaust housing with a 0.84 AR, the van turbo is a 1.15 AR. That larger AR is what reduces the backpressure. One of our forum members who has a van turbo ran a test to see what his drive pressures where compared to his boost pressures. He found them to be nearly identical, so the van turbo has nearly a 1:1 ratio of drive to boost pressure.

I don't know if van turbo necessarily pushes more air than the stock turbo, but it does it more efficiently. That is, you'll make the same or more power at lower boost levels with a more efficient turbo. For instance, with my stock turbo my peak boost pressures were about 34 psi, but with the van turbo it's 30-31 psi. Lower boost, but it's making more power. This is because the engine is not having to fight as hard to get the exhaust gasses out and through the turbo.

A van turbo is far different from a WW or ATS housing. The WW and ATS housing deal only with the compressor (inatke) side of the turbo. The van turbo has a different turbine (exhaust) housing. A WW or ATS housing on the stock turbo will get rid of your surge issues, but you've still got the problem of excess backpressure. If you stay under 25lbs of boost, it may not be an issue. But for me, I could easily hit higher than 25 psi, so I installed the 1.15 AR exhaust housing which essentially makes the stock turbo into a van turbo. The larger exhaust housing will help with the surge issues, the surge is cause by an imbalance between drive and boost pressures, and the larger exhaust housing will bring the balance closer to the same.

Check out my Turbo Upgrades gallery for some pictures of what I did. Also try searching the forum for more info. It's late, so I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things.

Read up here too for more info on the basics of a turbo. It may help you to better understand what's going on here, and what some of the terminology means.
Links here:
http://www.turbobygarrett.com/turbob...o_tech101.html
http://www.turbobygarrett.com/turbob...o_tech102.html
http://www.turbobygarrett.com/turbob...o_tech103.html

I hope this helps. I'm sure you'll get some more people chiming in. Feel free to ask if you have questions. We're here to help each other.

 

No I hadn't looked on the forum to see what had already been talked about, rookie mistake I quess. I understand how everything works with the turbo and different pressures and all its just that I had only heard of someone using a van turbo and didn't know what the differences were between them and my stock turbo. Thanks for clearing some things up and I'll look in on previous disccusions for more info.

But while we are talking about turbos has anyone used the GT45 or know of anyone that has. It looks massive and I think it had a 98mm induction

 

No mistakes made here. You'll never know if you don't ask. I like my turbo setup and the more I drive it, the better I like it.

I don't know of anyone here that has used the GT45. My concern with that one would be that the truck in its stock form doesn't have enough fuel to drive such a big turbo. You'd need a lot of fuel to drive that beast and you'd be looking at stage II or stage III injectors ($2000-3000) and an upgraded HPOP ($2000) to drive those injectors.

 

This is a post from another site, it will give you an idea how big that 45 is.


Turbo---CFM----Racing HP-----Daily HP
HX35----600------420----------330
HX40----800------560----------440
T66-----800-------560----------440
B1------900-------630----------495
H2E-----1000------700----------550
HX50----1000-----700-----------550
HX55----1050------735----------578
HT3B----1100------770----------605
GT42R---1200------880----------673
T76-----1350------945----------743
HT60----1400------980----------770
B2-------1500------1050--------825
HX60----1550------1085---------853
T88-----1750-------1225--------963
HT4B----1800------1260---------990
Big Brother-1900----1330--------1045
T91------2000------1400--------1100
HC5A/HX82-2450----1715--------1348
T100------2600-----1820--------1430
T105-----2900------2030--------1595
there ya go chris ,a 42 is just above the HT3B it has a 70.3mm wheel where the 55 in the largest form has a 67mm wheel. the chart comes from years worth of info collected off TDR by there members the HP rateings are for cummins so they won't be good for you.

 

Thats what I had figured but wanted to ask just in case. The reason why Im asking about the van turbo is that I have found a rebuilt one that I can get for less than what just the exhaust housing would cost me and was curious as to what difference it made. Also upon looking at your pics did you have to modify the flange because the housing that you bought didn't have one or because there is just a difference between the van and the truck flanges.

 

Good info mech!! Thanks.

There is a difference in the flange that bolts up to the exhaust pipe between the truck and the van. The van's downpipe is smaller, so you need the bigger flange. DI makes an adapter flange for the van turbo that lets you bolt the turbo right up to your truck downpipe. The only reason I had to modify mine was I wanted to keep the EBPV. If you want to get rid of your EBPV, then DI's flange adapter is the way to go.

 

don't buy the DI adapter. i showed my Diesel Tech teacher the adapter you talk about, he jumped when i told him i paid $100 for such a simple piece of metal. he took measurements off of it, and he has a machining buddy that owes him some favors. he told me that he could get me them for VERY cheap compared to the price of the DI unit. i gave him the DI unit as a base to go off of, and he told me the first one would be free. so then i could return the DI unit and get $100 back. if any of you are interested in doing this, tell me now, because i can get you a flange like DI sells for about $20-40 i'd guess. he said it would be free, just the cost of the material. i told him to use a strong steel because of the heat, DI uses 1040 carbon. but he has common sense, he knows what it does.


BTW JTharvey, my 1.15 n-w/g housing just came today. finally, no more dealing with shopdiesel.

 

Forgot about strokin's sweet deal there. I'm probably going to pick one up, because eventually I will get rid of my EBPV and get a different exhaust brake, which is why I have my EBPV anyway. For $20-$40, it's worth it!!

Great news on finally getting your housing!! Glad that SD experience is over for you. You think you'll have time to get it in tonight, or will it have to wait for the weekend?

 

my teacher has the exhaust housing to downpipe flange. no possible way for me to do it. im not using the DI one, because im returning it new to get my $$ back. his buddy is going to crank me out a flange by the beginning of next week. so then ill have all the stuff i need. can't do it this weekend either, work. maybe next weekend... ???

 

It's grueling, almost torture to know you have new go fast goodies and you don't have the time to install them. But I know how you feel. I had to wait on my EBPV to get done too. However, the afternoon that it was done, I had the turbo back in that night. I didn't have time, but I made time. I had waited long enough.

 

I will be listing my van turbo in the for sale section. I have found what I'm going to try next. Looking for at least 50hp, we'll see.

 

you goin' for the QSSB?

 

I can't say. After we pull with it I'll let everyone know. Believe me, you will be surprised!

 

Now I'm very intrigued. How long until you pull with it and we'll know something? I sense something other than the QSSB. That would be to obvious to be a suprise.