snowrx

Thanks for the detailed reply & photos Changes. My exhaust has a flex section, and I lack the overhead charge cooler hose to hang the turbo from, so I was wondering if I had missed some hardware updates somewhere. Something to ponder while I try to plumb in a charge cooler around my tall fuel rail.

Changes mentioned: " The primary support of the secondary / collector section of the manifold is the turbo which has no weight bearing issues, it is self supporting within its own semi flexible mounts. Contrary to the rumors the turbo acts as a mounting platform for the manifold. The bracket is secondary. This does mean your turbo / exhaust and charge cooler supports should be in good order." My 1985 had only the manifold as a support for the turbo. I took a look through the later parts books, but am unable to find a description of the semi flexible mounts . Does anyone have a picture or diagram showing the turbo mounts handy? I wanted a more vertical path for bump shocks to avoid any horizontal thrust from the angled turnbuckle, and to utilize the M10 hole in the bell housing of the Citroen for a more secure mount, so I made this up .

I added a bung to the header tank and a tee at the heater hose exit from the head. It's a bit cramped, but ideally you want enter low, exit high so the trapped coolant can thermosiphon heat out with the engine shut down.

Here's a MAP/RPM chart of the turbo, controlled at 160 kpa but tuning is not done yet (is it ever?) Fairly quick to target, and will peg the boost gauge before you can lift the throttle if not controlled.

I knew I was on thin ice reusing the gasket, but took the chance and got to drive it one season before the engine was back on the hoist, giving me the chance to tweak a few other items whilst it's out. Not complaining, just sharing the experience for others to learn from. Glad I was near home and not on my way to LOG35! Reviewing my data logs, actual boost was less than 9psi (electronically controlled by my Megasquirt), but still a hard life. I did not cc the heads to calculate static compression. I spent a bunch of time juggling liners to get the best possible nip progression within spec, and ironically the failure was at one of the higher points. I don't have the uncompressed measure's, but the Goetze that came out originally was compressed to an average of .068" and the abused Kemp item was compressed to an average of .057" at the sealing rings. Haven't done the math, but the lower compression from what I hoped would be a "thicker" gasket was less than anticipated. I'll track down a Goetze next time it's apart. I put it back together with ARP ultra-lubed studs at 90ftlbs, and whatever gasket JAE has in it's kit now. Should be good for a while now with moderate boost.

1) Federal 1985 Turbo Esprit. 2) 8.5:1 JE pistons in new liners, 9-10psi boost, head machined at least twice. Stock studs 3) Fire ring extruded into the coolant jacket on intake side of #3 4) Whether the gasket was the cause or the result ? Not sure, I was road tuning boost settings, lots of full throttle full boost runs to high rpm in the recent mileage. Noticed high coolant temp at cruise later and shut it down. Can't say if high temps were due to coolant loss from gasket or if gasket failed from overheat (120 C). Car's tune now belatedly includes a coolant temperature redline curve that will force engine speed down if CLT exceeds 100 C, as I obviously was looking at traffic and not my water temp at the time. Water temps had been very stable until then, new thermostat, all fans working, not a hot day. 5) 50/50 propylene glycol coolant no additives. 6) Any notes on the installation- Torqued to old 70/75 ftlb specs due to unknown gasket brand and OEM studs. Just finishing the final pattern and the rear exhaust side stud on #3 pulled from the block. Weeks away from a new gasket, after interminable delays for parts and machining, so I took a chance and reused the gasket after helicoiling the block. 7) Liner nip in spec before and after failure, new liners and freshly surfaced head 8) Gasket was a black coated, copper oil ring item from a top end kit I got from Kemp. Not branded 9) 1,100 hard (tuning EFI) miles on rebuild.

In the end, my machine shop went with .004" clearance from the original metal piston dimension, disregarding the skirt coating. The 910 runs & sounds fine in spite of a bit a rough break-in mapping the new turbo.

I'm just starting to tune my boost with it, so I can't say much about performance yet. Boost is opening the wastegate at about 2600 rpm at present and I have to break in the new motor before I know how high it will go. Butt dyno says it's going to work out fine, but I have not compared datalogs to see what the before and after boost curves look like. I have the early fragile transaxle, so I ordered it with the low boost wastegate canister to run 8-10 psi max, hopefully gear limited. I'm now wondering if I should of used the default medium canister because with 9 (out of 10) turns of preload the wastegate is holding at 6.3 psi and I don't think I'll get to 8 psi on the wastegate canister alone. 7 psi may be fine as a base setting once I get the boost solenoid regulating things. I'm running it on a '85 G-car, so by the time I added a T3 >T4 adapter it was mounted higher and farther forward than the OEM Garrett, so my exhaust and intake routing was a little tight. In retrospect, I should of orderd my exhaust manifold with a T4 divided flange and saved some space. I couldn't bring myself to hack up the Aluox manifold to weld on on.

Bumping this old post as I am also curious about various piston areas used in 4 pot upgrades for the G car, Hispec/PNM, Wilwoods etc. Ebay has a ton of Wilwood and Brembo calipers, if I could get the balance right I can mill some adapters. Anyone have any piston sizes that have worked for them? Or disc upgrades to fit under the 15" BBS wheels?

I'm putting a set of JE forged piston in my iron liner 910. The pistons are off getting thermal coating on the crowns and lubricity on the skirts. What should I be specifying for my piston clearance? JE's product info sheet is vague; (.0025" on the piston specific data sheet, or .0035-.0065" (.075-.165mm) from the installation tips) and the coating vendor suggests that the coating will cause the cooler running pistons to expand less, allowing a tighter clearance. My hope at this point is to have them honed to .004"(.10mm) JE's lower suggestion, and rely on the anti-friction skirt coating if they run tight. Motor is not going to see race use, just the highway. After the pi$tons/coating$/machine $hop tally, I'd like to get as much wear as I can from these, and avoid unnecessary piston slap. Anyone been here ,done this and have any suggestions?

I agree it's large. I ended up selecting the BW6258 as it was the smallest water-cooled modern turbo I could find with a divided turbine housing that included an internal wastegate to match my equal length divided manifold . I'm hoping the low boost requirement, twin scroll housing and the lightwieght ball bearing rotating assembly will at least match my old OEM Garrett. I'll try to update my results after this winter's engine freshening and turbo install. My old fashioned wastegate makes me make profane noises when it sticks shut and I have to contemplate the siezed bolts holding it onto the housing. It pegged my boost gauge once too many times!

I'm still looking for a internal wastegate turbo to replace my existing big chunk of' cast iron. Has anyone looked over the divided scroll B/W 6258? Small lightweight wheels with modern aero, water cooled ceramic ball bearings, integrated compressor recirculation and a stainless divided scroll turbine housing ticks all the boxes for me. The offset turbine outlet should give me room for a T3 > T4 adapter also. Putting it on a Alunox exhaust manifold, but not looking to grenade my Citroen transaxle with more power, just to simplify and add lightness by losing all the cast iron in the external wastegate manifold assembly, and hopefully pick up some boost response on the bottom end. http://www.turbos.bwauto.com/files/pdf/179359-EFRTechPages.pdf It seems the new item is shipping with a .80 a/r divided scroll rather than the listed .92, so the above link may be out of date. Current part number is a 11589880036 for the .80 T4 housing turbo. Maps on BorgWarners MatchBot app seem to make it look feasable: (hang on, this is a monster URL) BorgWarner MatchBot

Looks nice, but my Alunox budget is busted from the last group guy. Shipping/wire transfer/duties/fees to the US kind of offset the GB discount. Thanks for the cross post to the yahoo turboesprit group.

Mine has arrived. It tried to walk out of it's box while shipping and I lost a few studs and nuts out the holes, but it looks great. Now the turbo search begins....

Yes Thanks for the updates. Hope Customs is kind to us. Now to find an internal wastegate turbo....

Keep the updates coming, My old cast iron wastegate just stuck shut yesterday......The boost guage wrapped right around to the wrong side of the peg, don't need that!

PM'd you for one

MikieP, Thanks very much for the photo's of the Alunox support, I was wondering just how the strut was fitted. it appears to locate the turbo in the vertical direction only, due to the pair of spherical bearings, which will help with ease of fitting, but might allow some vibration side to side as compared to the solid exhaust flange mount. But with all the tube involved that may be a good thing to allow for some thermal movement, and the slip joints should fight off cracks as well. It looks like this one might be a bit harder to snake in and out due to the longer tubes, but I'd guess the flow would be better than the other design. But unless a group buy drops the price quite a bit, I'm guessing I'll be back to fabricating one myself when the time comes! Kudos to Dave for his work on this!

Anyone have an image of the turbo support hardware installed for the Alunox header?

Move me from interested to Yes, unless the trans-Atlantic shipping/export costs get out of hand. Now to find a turbo....

Looks like this may get off the ground. I'm moving from Interested well towards Yes. Anyone have an idea of what it would cost to get one shipped to USA? I assume the VAT would not apply to export sales, which might help offset the shipping expense. The below has been posted on the turboesprit yahoo group, so hopefully they are registering their interest: EVERYBODY INTERESTED IN THE EXHAUST MANIFOLD GROUP BUY PLEASE E-MAIL DAVE DIRECTLY ON THIS ADDRESS: <saldavxx@hotmail.com>

Well, it's get this one or make one, so I'll be watching this thread to see what the final figures are...

If this was indeed stainless, I would be interested. My manifold survives, but has an appetite for gaskets and studs. I'd be more interested if it were a US group buy due to shipping/VAT/exchange/customs issues. Or perhaps one could send a pattern to the industrious Chinese, who seem to be able to to ship me a stainless WRX header and up-pipe for less than $US 120 delivered!