Hybrid Turbo Inatallation



This page will detail the installation of a T3/T4 turbo in an omni. After doing much research, and talking with Chris at Turbos Unleashed I decided to go with a Turbonetics T3/T4 Hybrid turbo with a TO4E compressor housing, and a 50 trim compressor wheel. The Turbine side has a Stage II wheel which was recommened due to realivly quick spooling, while still alowing for a great deal of exhaust gas flow. This compressor wheel should be able to support close to 500HP at the flywheel. I will be quite happy with 300-350HP on race gas. Note that I do have a ported head, intake, and exhaust manifolds. I dont think that I would go with a turbo this size unless this was the case. I had a T4 wheel in the stock compressor cover with at stage II turbine wheel last summer, and it did not spool up until about 4200 RPM. This was without a custom cal, but none the less it gives you an idea of how the power band is pushed to the right.


The following images show the initial mock up for the waste gate actuator bracket that I will be making. This one was used to rough out where I will place the bends so that the large waste gate that I have will bolt up to the stock swing valve flapper. Although Brackets are available from Turbos Unleashed for a mere pittance, I decided to make my own since I will be making just about everything else for the car. In retrospect, I can already tell you that the $15 is well worth it.






Here are some pics of the actual bracket that I will be using. I will probably trim it up some around the wase gate, but not too much as that might compromise its regidity. The arm is adjustable, however I will most likly not need to shorten it, as the lowest boost I could get out of the turbo that it was on when I had my turbo coupe was 12PSI. I think it should be capable of holding all the boost I can throw at it.

NOTE: The compressor housing had to be clocked ever so slightly to avoid contact with the starter, and a new bracked had to be fabricated. I would again recommend picking up the $15 bracket from turbos unleashed unless you too are going for the bragging rights of making absoulutly everything possble on you Omni.









This shot shows the turbo attached to the head. Note the oil feed line is forced to face roughly parallel with the long edge of the head due to the fact that Turbonetics turbos come with a oil filter attached to the cartridge. This caused the line to hit the intake maifold in any other postion. As a result the oil feed line that I purchased is about 4in. too short to reach the oil distribution block that is attached to the engine block. I will be using a section of line and XRP fittings that I picked up at J&H hydraulics in Madison Heights MI. Their number is 248-543-8324. They are very reasonable and knowledgable.

NOTE: I had to clock the turbo so that the oil train tube would hook up to the center section of the turbo. This caused the oil feed fitting at the center section to hit the intake, and would not allow the turbo the be properly clocked. I had already made up my section of braided line, but That was worthless unless I would be able to clock the turbo to make the drain tube line up. I solved this newest delema by using a 90* 1/8 NPT to -4AN fitting right into the top of the oil filter which came attached to the center section of the housing. this actually allowed the clearance for the line to be routed the way it was intended, and the extra piece of line was not needed.


Note that I decided to grind the area higlighted due to seeing the close fitting nature of this area on The Turbodynamx Shadow.

UPDATE: I have driven the car for about 150mi. with the new setup, and I love it. See the Black Death page for the overall specifics. Boost comes on at right around 2500RPM, and it pulls hard until the clutch starts slipping which is a real downer. The wastegate bracket that I ended up making works quite well altough the minimum boost setting is almost 15PSI. It was a great deal of trouble and frustration installing my first hybrid turbo, but it was well worth it, as the car is putting out noticably more power than last year much sooner.

To se pictures of the IC piping, and a good view of the turbo in the car check out the Spearco IC install page.
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