My 4.0ohv turbo build thread

4.0ohv turbo build (soon to be twin turbo)

I never had a full thread about my 4.0 turbo setup and a few people have asked about it. My setup is far from perfect ( I dont even have a wideband on it) however I figured I would share my experience with turbocharging the 4.0ohv on a budget. Maybe this will help anyone who is wanting to slap a turbo on the 4.0 but dosent know where to start.

First off when I bought the truck it had a blown HG and I was traveling up a hill when it lost coolant and started to severly detonate "the death rattle". the rattle blew the head gaskets in multiple places, smashed and cracked valves, and smashed the middle cylinders CC sideways into the head. This is when i first learned first hand how strong the bottom end in the 4.0 ohv really is. The bottom end after that abuse was 100% intact and reusable.

However instead of replacing the heads I just dumped in another used tested motor from the yard for 300$. I have turbocharged other motors before and wanting more power from the 4.0 i decided to do so. I had pipe, a 30$ bov, oil lines and couplers just laying around, as well as the tools and welders to get the job done. Iwent to the wrecking yard and pulled a T3 turbo off of a 2.2L turbo dodge for 20$ plus the down pipe.

I had already tested flipped manifolds when the motor was out. So i dug in and first flipped the driver side manifold. It bolts up wit hno mods. there is a small lip that can cause resistance due to flipping the C shaped ports however it was so small i havent bothered with that yet. Sometime in the future I will port match the tiny lip that is sticking out in the path. Since this was my DD I built a temporary exhaust for the driver manifold that dumped up front with a muffler that was laying around.

The next chance i got to tear in was the weekend following. I spent one 3 day weekend getting the kit done.

i used the cherry picked to hold the turbo in palce while I tacked it where I wanted it. I carve the flange out of flat stock that was laying around.

I took a hammer to the 2" pipe to slide it into the flange and weld


Then built a down pipe that originally had a magnaflow on it.

The splash shield had to be trimed for clearance and the overflow was deleted, along with the battery being moved 90* and flipepd the p side manifold

the hotside was ran in front of the radiator and then tied in right before the flange and then i built a cold side from the compressor outlet to the TB





I placed a T where the oil pressure sender is and ran an oil line to the turbo that was made up with crimped fittings by a hydraulic store that cost about 10$. The setup made 5 psi. Was fun to drive. I ditched the magnaflow and noticed and also noticed how lean the setup was running so I placed in a pair of different 19lb injectors and off i went.

after turning the bosot up to 17 psi i blew the HG at the back of cylinder 6 and started to leak water in. After fixing the HG I have turned the boost down to 5 psi and swapped in 21lb injectors and the truck is much more responsive now.
The future plans are -wideband 02-possibly megasquirt-fuel system upgrades-compact coolant overflow-run a line from the rear washer fluid up front to a pump I have-extend the exhaust down the X

Heres some videos
At idle~
http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p149/nicalizel/?action=view&current=MOV03791.flv
Mild accel~
http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p149/nicalizel/?action=view&current=MOV00557.flv
When i did push it to 15psi~
http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p149/nicalizel/?action=view&current=15psigauge.flv

I may take the turbocahrged bucket out too some fields tomorrow if theres more snow tomorrow. The 4x4 is doing quite well with the turbo. These videos are not that great but maybe just maybe more snow will fall

Thats nice man..

I'm making a few adjustments the intake is still sucking in hot air. It will be ok for now I'm working on feeding it cold air I have a few ideas and a different compressor inlet flange that I may try and use. I'm also working on silencing the exhaust I'm going to try out a old strait thru ford resonator that i have laying around.

Are those black connectors from home depot?

Bill G said:

Are those black connectors from home depot?

Click to expand...

Yep, I used the same stuff when I made the CAI for my Buick. Although I couldn't most of what I needed at home depot, on the 3" to 4" adapter, had to go the the hardware store for the rest.

yes they are they seem to d othe job. If I had the spare change i would upgrade them. maybe someday but my ulimate plan is to implant a 12v cummins into the rig.

What did you use for boost control? Doesn't look like the waste gate is hooked up. Also what/where have you mounted your boost guage? Or do you have one?

The boost gauge is mounted temporarily where the radio was. When i bought the sploder it had no radio and I have yet to put one in. The wastegate is hooked up you can see that in the last pic if you look carefully theres a vaccum line coming out of the bottom. There is also a manual boost controller bolted to the turbo right out of the pic.

Heres a small thing I am also adding to the revised intake setup. Im building an airbox for the cone filter to pull air from the cowl area.

thats sick stuff man. i will be sure to post pics of my budget turbo ranger on here when its done.

Thanks man. I should be done with the new airbox on friday.

dyno number would be nice

who cares it fun to drive on the street and it has alot more torque than stock. Last weekend I intalled a muffler now its sleeper quiet. ive been working on the cowl intake setup. At work Ive been practing TIG welding so Im going to TIG that up. I emailed a few people localy about FMUs that they had for sale and Im working on building a homeade FMU out of a ford oem FPR. Wideband would be very nice but my wallet is as tight a s the economy. I have some cams/TBs/col overs for sale but no ones buying shit. When they go I will invest intop a wideband to tune a FMU and turn the boost up to 10-15 again. Should be a blast. One day I will dyno it but for now the 100-200$ spent on a dyno session to see ###ers could be spent elsewhere. Future plans include intercooling, possible custom intake, maf, tuning.....theres alot of ideas but my wallet holds me back. As soon as the weather gets a little warmer the turbo car will be higher on the priority list anyways.