which turbos are better, those that are just oil cooled, or those that also have a line to the coolant system as well?

if the liquid cooled turbos are better, would just a couple T's in the heater hoses work to hook 'em up?

 

the oil lubricates and cools some the water jacket "water cooled" kind helps to give the bearing a longer life and to keep coke from building up in the oil passage from baking. I would say you might want to run the coolant but some dont even have a way too and some choose not to.

 

so a water cooled turbo will run fine without a coolant hookup, that's cool. I would try to hook 'em up of course though. But will this put a strain that the stock cooling system can't handle? i am running stock dual fans (always on), stock radiator, 180° t-stat. I will get an oil cooler.

 

no it wont, hook em up

 

If you buy a brand new turbo that has water passages, then hook them up. However, the junkyard turbo guys using the old turbocoupe T3's don't usually hook up the water lines. I've never cut one apart, but from what I've heard the water passages don't really do much for the cooling on those particular turbos.

 

So you're saying people run a turbo like this without watercooling?

EEEIIISSSSHHHH!!!!

 

thanks guys. i will most likely use a t-bird turbo, as the GN's are hard to get a hold of in a junkyard (especially 2). from looking at the t-bird engine bay, the hood scoops are also used to channel incoming air onto the turbo. maybe i can do do something like that as well with a twin turbo hood?

 

That is a scary picture.

Alot of people run never hook up the water lines on water cooled turbos. Mine aren't. Once you get into you're project you'll find that anything you can do without, you'll want to. It's that much more hose to run, that many more leaks that can happen, that much more ugly mess under the hood. Thats not to say that water cooling isn't a good idea...just that it can be done without it. Alot of OEM turbos have cooing passages because they stick the turbo back smooshed between the motor and the firewall or somewhere where there is no airflow. If you mount your turbos somewhere with good ambient airflow..that can go a long way too.

 

This is somewhat of a loaded discussion.

Typically, turbos with water cooled center sections use a different bearing material then ones that are not water cooled. It is not a question of oil coking (if you have problems just run synth, if that cokes you’ve got other problems besides the oil), it’s a question of bearing material.

In most cases, if you expect to get good life out of the factory bearings in turbos with water cooling passages you want the water passages hooked up.

The TC T3’s are the exception to the rule. Besides the very early ones, they used the ‘non water cooled’ bearings, and as far as I know all the rebuild kits have those also. So you can successfully run them either way.

Now what aftermarket water cooled turbos come with… I don’t know, I’d ask whoever built it…