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Turbocharging Ford V-6's - Info Wanted


DCinDC

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Read my posts in this thread. http://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60282 Go read it, I won't repeat what is in there. And there are detailed pics in that thread.

It cost me under a grand: (off the top of my head from memory, this was years ago)

turbo (used) 50
Crane boost retard 200
oil pump 100
Cartech Rising Rate FMU 300
misc piping, wiring, relays, etc. 100
fuel pump 200 I use a Vortech Trex and a stock lift pump

You're going to need to be friends with someone with an exhaust pipe bender, otherwise the costs will skyrocket.

You need to understand the concepts, and you need to use best practices.

Nothing has broken but I don't bolt slicks on it and drag race it.

It's PLENTY fast. I run 17 PSI which is really huffin for my little turbo. I shift at 5000 or earlier, when I'm getting on it. People who have ridden in it, get out giggling. The trans will take it no problem. Just shift it slow, it's a truck. It can completely spin the clutch if you dump it, but if it's engaged and the boost comes up it holds just fine.

I built it just to have a fun little truck. It is that! It took one whole Saturday at my friend Dave Planakis' shop with both of us working on it. It's all about the exhaust piping to hang the turbo and run the charge air back to the front. If it weren't for him, it never woulda happened.

I like to say it took a grand worth of parts to let the 50 dollar turbo work.

The 2.9 is a GREAT engine to boost. It's plenty strong and it has a wide flat torque curve.

Pics are here: https://www.therangerstation.com/forums/showpost.php?p=541809&postcount=12
 
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allpau2thou

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I just got a 1993 STX from the "free" Craigslist section. It's a 3.0L V6. I already have a 5.0L 91' Ranger, so I want to Turbo charge this one. Looking for info.
 

LameDuck

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Here is a 4.0L turbo.

 

Surrey

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Can this be done to a 2.9L?
Turboing a 2.9 seems like a big waste of effort. These engines are at least 20 years old, and have head-warping problems without any additional stress.

If you want more power, start with a 4.0, then look at forced induction on that if your still not happy. Your just going to destroy a 2.9.
 

DCinDC

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Turboing a 2.9 seems like a big waste of effort. These engines are at least 20 years old, and have head-warping problems without any additional stress.

If you want more power, start with a 4.0, then look at forced induction on that if your still not happy. Your just going to destroy a 2.9.
Says the guy who's never done it.
 

Surrey

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Can this be done to a 2.9L?
Says the guy who's never done it.
Im just going to end this. None of us are helping Jim get info, we're just bickering. If we wanna do that, someone can ask about turboing a 2.9 and see what the responses are.
 

DCinDC

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Who's bickering? You're wrong and you got called on it.

I'm the only guy who posted in the thread, titled " turbocharging Ford V6s" who has personally done it, and I laid how to do it.

Maybe you should keep your ill informed opinions to yourself. It's irritating to those who want to do something and ask for help, AND those of us who HAVE DONE IT.
 

WhiteLX

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The Swedes sure do have a thing for turbocharging the 2.9L and making some good power with stock shortblocks and Megasquirt and sometimes a little e85. Unfortunately the site is in Swedish, but loads of pictures and google translate works well (you'll have to cut and paste text as translating the entire page doesn't seem to work).

http://skogenracing.editboard.com/f10-projekt-forum
 

4x4player

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My credo
He who travels faster, travels alone.
I have an 1988 Super 4x4 with the 2.9L V6 and the A4LD.
The turbo I have is a Schwitzer T3/T4 hybrid off of a 3.0L 4cyl gas engine. It does not have a wastegate.
It's a twin scroll design that was split at the exhaust manifold to take advantage of the exhaust pulses firing order.
My plan is to split the exhaust of the V6 and divide it into the turbo inlet. This isn't the most efficient design as far as firing order of the exhaust pulses go, but I don't want to build a "bag-0-snakes" exhaust system.
My wife and I plan on going rockhounding in the wilds of Arizona, so I don't need to drive some over engineered and expensive truck that is going to get banged around anyway.
However, I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around the wastegate (s?).
If the exhaust is split going into the hot side of the twin scroll turbo, wouldn't I need two wastegates?
Or..... Should I say, "to hell with it" and plumb both sides into a single pipe.
 
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Blown

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I am no turbo guy, but on superchargers,.......................Waste boost goes back to the intake before the blower and is vacuum controlled.
Better yet, You can make your own thread and may get more responses vs adding to this old thread.

boost is good!

turbo = supercharger as far as waste goes likely not the same so I am of little use?
 
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don4331

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Blown:

Waste boost goes back to the intake before the blower and is vacuum controlled is exclusive to a very specific make/model of supercharger (although very common).

4x4player:
I haven't played as much with twin scroll turbos, so would be curious on how the OEM application handled boost control.

You can control boost via recirculated intake air. That is what Blown's Eaton supercharger does; in fact you could incorporate the Eaton solution into your solution. That has advantage of having turbocharger spooled up at all times; but the disadvantage of having turbocharger heating recycled air. i.e. right up to full boost would be great; overboost would be big let down; system would work best with big intercooler in cool environment (e.g. Calgary)

If only using 1 turbocharger, you only 'need' 1 wastegate, you will just want it to be on both pipes (if that makes sense). Exhaust pressure will take the path of least resistance i.e. through open waste gate not through turbocharger turbine. Exhaust piping isn't one way street, so exhaust will flow 'backwards' through piping to get out wastegate. This has advantage of reducing load on engine - excess exhaust is just bleeding off, and intake air is only being compressed once, so not repeatedly heated, disadvantage - turbo isn't always spooled up for instant power.
 

4x4player

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2WD / 4WD
4WD
Total Lift
About 1.5" in front and 2" rear
Tire Size
29x10.5x15
My credo
He who travels faster, travels alone.
The OEM application was a huge waterpump designed to drain ponds. It was pressed into service to fight in a wildfire and ended up getting burned when the flames changed direction. The turbo and most of the engine survived. It had a separate wastegate set-up that I didn't have time to remove or a chance to study. The pump belonged to a friend who owned an equipment rental company and he let me snag the turbo before the insurance company hauled it off.
Anyway, I figured the turbo might work on my Ranger because the two engines were about the same size. Also, getting a clean turbo for free was the best part.
I bought a few good turbo books and did a bunch of research online. Heck, I watched about all the videos on YouTube about turbos.
However, nobody seems interested in putting a single, twin screw turbo on a V6.
But then again I never seem to do anything the easy way. I started this project years ago. (that's why no thread) When I finish it, I'll post all about it.
The twin screws are not really twins, they are slightly different. Putting the wastegate between the pipes creates a crossover tube and takes away some of the purpose of the twin scroll. A crossover pipe in a pressurized system wouldn't act like the crossover pipe in a typical dual exhaust system where it is only exhaust pulses in the tube.
I'm thinking, I'm over thinking it.
Dual exhaust into a single pipe which feeds both scrolls of the turbo with a single external wastegate is the simple solution and the least expensive route.
Getting the EEC to accept it will be a different matter.
 
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