Being at about 4800' here, I'd like something better than the Banks Powerpack I have now. In playing with Mercedes diesels, I have a pair of small wastegated T3s, each one sized for a 3.0l engine that turns 4300rpm. I don't want to cut out my firewall or have a hot exhaust pipe right in front of my dash, so I keep thinking more and more of using these turbos, mounting them at the front with custom exhaust manifolds. Has anyone done something like this? What's the general consensus on this sort of setup?

 

do a search. its been brought up many times, and shut down twice as often

 

Unfortunately its true. A lot of as want to do this and I got some old T3s used a long time ago with the hope of doing that myself but gave up before I started - which seems to be the norm.

I don't want to say it can't be done or that you shouldn't even try, but its not something I've ever seen anyone follow through with.

 

if you have the money and time to do it and money and time to switch back do it. I think the exaust housings would be too small for your engine and overspeed the turbos but thats with out knowing any of the specs also it would be a nightmare to plum in my opinion but if you have the resoureses its worth a shot my buddy just put a sidewinder on his truck and illegidly hit 22psi on it I'm sckepticle untill I see it hopefully I can check it out tomarow he was also running 2250 for EGT so I'm not so sure this is legit but if it was just for a brief period or possibly it takes much longer than most of us thought for the heat to soak into the pistons.

 

I think the a/r is .65, but I'm not sure. I ran this calculator: Ray Hall Turbocharging - Java turbo matching calculator and it is suggesting the same turbo for the Mercedes with a single as the 7.3 IDI with twins.
I did search under "twin turbo" "twin turbos" and "dual turbos" but did not come up with anything solid.
The truck I am putting this engine in is a 69 F250, and while there has been at least one user on here who successfully put a turbo'ed IDI into this body truck, I don't like the thought of having that much heat right into the firewall.
Since I am not running a/c, if I put the batteries in the back I can run the turbos out front but might have to get creative with outlet side exhaust routing. Making the manifolds is the easy part for me.
I'm mostly thinking along these lines since I have these turbos. One is still in use, but that engine is going to get a new pulse-style exhaust manifold, aftercooler, intake and a mechanically controlled VNT as soon as I have the money. It'd just be cool to do both upgrades with the same money, instead of buying other parts.

 

Is that the AR for the exauhst or intake? in theory it coul work.

 

What comes into play with something like this is the time and cost of fabricating everything and the limited space for the plumbing.

The next thing after overcoming the fabrication and space limitations is the max boost an IDI can stand in stock form.

A 6.9 is pushing it at 12 PSI boost with stock head bolts.
A 7.3 is good for around 15 PSI with stock head bolts.

Yes I know several people have exceeded those numbers, myself included.
I ran 15 PSI on a stock 6.9 for a while, and when I tore the engine down the fire rings on every cylinder had been leaking.
Not enough for an instant failure, but it was only a matter of time before it did fail.

After milling the pistons and swapping to ARP head studs, once I went above 22 PSI on a 6.9, the next thing I started having trouble with was the valley pan/intake manifold gasket.
At 22 PSI I was putting boost into the coolant passages next to the intake ports on the heads.
When I tore the engine down to address those problems, I also found I had blown the exhaust manifold gaskets and the ATS exhaust plumbing connections were leaking at the back of the passenger side manifold and both ends of the cross over pipe.

So studs in the intake manifold, exhaust manifold and some modified exhaust gaskets I found at NAPA along with High heat copper gasket maker I finally had everything sealed up and able to stand about 25 PSI.

Running that much boost, I am now in need of an intercooler.
Truck runs great as long as the outside temps are around zero, but it starts falling on it's face as the outside temps increase.

There have been a couple people that did use Power Stroke turbo's on the IDI after several custom mods to the exhaust plumbing and intake plumbing.
The results were less than expected as far as boost numbers, which most people said was rather dissapointing after the time and money they spent making the mods to mount them.

In a 69 chassis, I imagine your space limitations are probably even tighter.

With the IDI turbo support starting to go away, I am sure the adapting other turbo's question is going to be asked more and more.

The best I can say, take a serious look at the space you have, the connections you have to make and give serious consideration to the fabrication you will have to come up with.
Exhaust in
Exhaust out
Oil supply in
Oil return out
Air cleaner to turbo supply
Boost out of the turbo to the intake manifold.

It is not something that will be impossible, ATS, Banks and Hypermax all went through that to come up with the systems they sold.

There were also a couple other turbo systems out there that made a brief appearance for the IDI.

But at the same time, I hate to think what the first prototype of each of their turbo systems cost.