applemansapple

hey i was wondering what the turbo looks like out of curiosity i have pretty much the same basic idea of what it would look like.like a turbo but these are old turbos so i was wondering what differences they have from new ones and stuff like that

Bleach

Mainly the stock turbo is smaller. The overall design has been the same for years.
Some new turbos have the compressor housing polished. Of course the old Garrett turbo was not polished.

lww

Pretty much no changes in the 'look'. Most of the changes have been in the materials and compressor/impeller wheel designes. Modern computer based aerodynamic blade designs are literally light years ahead of the old hand scratch and slide rulers used back in the 70's and early 80's.

But the external 'look' is virtually unchanged. Maybe a little polish on the compressor side for the bling.

Heat Rave R

I'd heard that modern turbos are oil-cooled while old ones weren't. Dunno how true that is though.

Bleach

Oh, that's another point. The 280ZX and first year of the 300ZX turbo were oil cooled. They went to water cooled later.

As for modern turbos, I was thinking water cooled is more common.

lww

Definitely water cooled. Too many people back in the 80's were smoking their turbos with cooked oil by running them hard and parking without waiting for the turbo to cool down. That's why you see so many Turbo Timers on the market today.

With water cooled, this is much less of a problem.

Remember all the little 4 banger turbo cars coming out of Chrysler in the 80's?

A buddy of mine owns HPC Inc. They do 2000+ degree coatings on engines and components for race cars. Back in the 80's he landed a huge contract with Chrysler to coat all their turbos with his patented process because they were getting destroyed on turbo and engine replacements under warranty.

Water cooled is the way to go. You'll also see some people that have converted their oil cooled turbos to water cooling, but this isn't cheap either.

If you're on any kind of budget, the best thing to do is just let the motor run for another minute before you turn the key to off.

If it's just been normal driving and nothing too spirited, then even this isn't necessary. But a minute out of your life is worth a $500 turbo or worse a rebuild on the motor $$$.

assimilated420

ok i have a question, i have second datsun 280zx turbo that came off my dads car (my dad had 280zx back in the day..) he says its from an 82...is there any design differences between 81-82?? also, whenever i cough up th moo-la to rebuild my engine and put a twin turbo setup, should i use the 2 original turbos or purchase 2 newer ones? understandably newer ones are better and well newer but what difference am i looking at between using 2 originals and 2 new ones?

Bleach

Well, the turbo unit themselves and the entire engine in a 1981-82 280zx turbo is the same except for the distributor.

If you are rebuilding a twin turbo engine you would of course start with two freshly rebuilt or new turbos. But the question then is should you use the same size turbos that the ZX came with stock? A twin turbo engine can have a pretty high potential. Are you going for 500-600hp? If so, I believe two T3/04 hybrids would be needed.

assimilated420

i plan on goin for around 500-600hp, so i think its prolly best i went with 2 new turbos..or maybe could i just the one i have rebuilt?? itd cost around the same i would imagine..unless i went with junkyard parts(like hell i would..only for parts that really wouldnt matter.......such as when my upper thermostat housing broke cuz the dumbass who worked on it before overtightened the bolt and completely stripped out the threads and when i tried to rethread it, only completely fell apart)

also..if i went with a twin turbo setup, would i have to get another intake? because it looks to me like the current one could support 2 intakes, only one is being hogged by that blasted EGR crap and i would think that a 2nd throttle linkage and modified accelerator linkage(or whatever the hell its called that transfers the motion from the accelerator and throttle) would work...? i dun know, just throwing ideas out there

thankx

Skully

if you want to run 500-600 with your Z you will need work to the internals....
also a bigger turbo because the stock wouldnt do it....

if you went witha twin setup....you dont need 2 trottle bodies and a different intake....you route your piping so it joins into a Y pipe from the intercooler and into the single intake...

lww

500-600hp is not trivial. You'll not only need a bigger turbo(s), you'll need nearly all new engine internals, fuel system, ignition system and a new transmission which will require a new drive shaft and possibly modification to the trans tunnel and shifter location. May even need something stronger than an R200 diff.

Expect to spend in the neighborhood of $5k for a cheap job that may or may not last. To do it right is going to take much more than that unless you can build the engine and do the fabrication yourself.

You'll be running 100+ octane as well so $4-$5 a gallon is going to become familiar.

assimilated420

well i dont think ill prolly run it up to 500 or so, that is a lil expensive for me...what i plan on doing is getting my engine rebuilt with shaved head, cylinder bore w/ new pistons, twin turbos with a good intercooler, performance cam with dual 3" exhaust straight back (none of the catalytic conv bullshit, no muffler...(oh that would sound SWEET!)) imagined getting up to about 350+ hp and i planned on dropping my auto tranny(WHY THE **** DID THEY PUT THAT IN THERE I HAVE NO CLUE..i sorta see why as i have driven it, but....no) and putting in a 5 or 6 speed tranny with a new differential(those R200s just dont seem to hold up all that well..i hear they go quite often...my dad had a 280zxt and he said he replaced it twice..perfomance car for sure...he said he ran 400hp with a single turbo and a bunch of modifications.....) that is my plan for the future.

any comments/suggestions welcome..

Bleach

Not a bad plan but some of that seems unnessisary.
Twin turbos are only needed for 500+ horsepower.
You can easily get to 350hp with a single turbo and use the factory exhaust manifold. That will be cheaper and much more reliable. Shaving the head is not needed either. The turbo will put out all the boost you need for that kind of power.
The auto was stronger than the Nissan 5-speed in 1981. That's why the '81 only had the auto as option. The auto does have a shifting bennefit. It does have smoother shifts and the torque converter actually does something when you've got 300 ft pounds of torque. The stock auto tranny is only good for about 250 torque with stock internals.

fairladyVT

All turbos are oil cooled I believe. Its just that some have the added water jackets. If there was no oil the turbo would burn up really fast.

Skully

ALL turbos run oil trough it to lube the bearing and the shaft, not just to cool, water cooling is an added bonus....