Toyota 2.8D Turbo
I am seriously considering putting a turbo on my 2.8 diesel powered hilux as she is pretty gutless whenever there is any kind of hills around.
There seems to be any amount of kits available so I would not think I'll be breaking any new ground.
Most of what I have read on the topic seems positive but I ask here for any thoughts, good, bad or indifferent?
Bad, bad idea. You really should pull that engine out immediately, stick it in a crate and put it on a boat to America. I can PM an address of a place that will generously accept such worthless scrap iron at no cost to you. The yard I have in mind would even cover transport cost, more so if said engine included a W-series bellhousing for the transmission, fuel tank & lines and the engine control & wiring harness. :-)
I don't have any real first hand knowledge to offer other than it sure seems like it would help the power. Did the 3L ever come stock from Toyota with a turbo like did the 2L? I would think the 3L would be similar to the 2L-T, which aren't exactly known for their head gasket reliability, right?
But then again everyone in the States complains about head gaskets blowing out on 22R, 3F, 3VZ and 1FZ engines at 200,000 miles as though that is a problem. Sure, they don't go forever but 15 or 20 years and that many miles as being unreliable?
Premium Member
It would be nice if we could get those diesels here. When we bought my wife's new FJ, the Toyota dealer here had a used 70 series Land Cruiser with the diesel and PTO winch that someone imported. It was sitting in the center of the showroom floor even though it wasn't it incredibly great shape and I think they were asking about $45K for it.
Brian - KF7ORO
RE:="Bad, bad idea. You really should pull that engine out immediately, stick it in a crate and put it on a boat to America. I can PM an address of a place that will generously accept such worthless scrap iron at no cost to you. The yard I have in mind would even cover transport cost, more so if said engine included a W-series bellhousing for the transmission, fuel tank & lines and the engine control & wiring harness. :-)"
You blokes could not put up with the power or more correctly lack of power, you could buy a heap of 350 Chevys for the cost of even 1 of them even here though they are not expensive or in short supply as far as engines go.
RE:-"It would be nice if we could get those diesels here. When we bought my wife's new FJ, the Toyota dealer here had a used 70 series Land Cruiser with the diesel and PTO winch that someone imported. It was sitting in the center of the showroom floor even though it wasn't it incredibly great shape and I think they were asking about $45K for it. "
That is expensive even for here. I could pick up 3 for that price and the exchange rate is fairly comparable between the Aussie$ and the US$, pretty close to 1:1 last time I looked.
Anyway, kit purchased and half fitted already, I have spent 2:30 minutes on it so far, I stopped because the crew were keen to go out for dinner so I'll finish it tomorrow. No surprises so far and everything looking good and going together as advertised, fingers crossed. Jim (son) has taken a few snaps so will post them later with a bit of a write-up on it if I get bored driving it around. If I don't, you'll have to wait until I do
Last edited by vk3aif; 09-17-2012 at 08:09 AM.
As far as I know the 3L did not ever come with a turbo option but I am led to believe there may have been some 5L's with turbo's?? Again as far as I know the "L" series engines are all the same block but the heads have evolved along with bore size over the various iterations, not sure on the stroke but I could look it up in my manual if anyone wants to know. I think the head gasket issue seems to be somehow linked to the coolant temperature and the cooling system is marginal at best in stock form, on a hot day, 38+ deg C with a head wind with A/C on the temp gauge goes up quicker than the speedo and a close eye needs to be kept on the gauge. I'm hoping with the improved efficiency of the turbo it will alleviate that problem and not exasperate it but I guess I'll find out soon enough with summer on its way again?Originally Posted by AC0VH
Anyway I best get back to the installation and report progress here but if you don't hear anything for a while it will likely be because I'm tearing up the track somewhere and not because I have hit a problem unless the problem is that I have been locked up for the stupid "hoon" laws they have introduced here. Do you blokes have fun police there?
Well turbo kit is on.
I did the fitting in son Jim's workshop because it would have taken several days to make room in mine and his is usually fairly tidy. The kit came with a single sheet of paper printed on one side only with 10 dot points for fitting instructions, no drawings or photos but several of the parts bags had labels like "air in", "water", "oil" and the like. The warranty book was pretty impressive though. The kit also had such goodies as a baseball cap and turbo sticker. Anyway, it was a bit of a 3D jigsaw puzzle but a home was found for all but a few of the bits and pieces but a nice plug with a copper gasket was left over and I have no idea where that was supposed to go?
The instructions said to fit the dump pipe to the turbo before installing the new exhaust manifold/ turbo assembly and claimed the original engine pipe would mate with it, there was no mention of slotting it before installation so I followed the meagre instructions only to find when I got to that part the pipes were not a good fit so underneath I went with the 5" angle grinder and was only able to access the bottom of the dump pipe with considerable difficulty. A crooked slot was dually cut but resembled more of a spiral and the one supplied clamp sort of closed up on it, I will have to revisit that at a later date.
The instructions said to wind the fuel screw in 1/4 of a turn but that was far easier said than done. What a pain it was to get at amongst all the pipework around the back of the pump, anyway the slot in the screw is at 90 degrees to where it was but I am unsure if it is 1/4, 3/4 or 1 1/4 turns further in???
We then started it up and warmed her up for about 20 minutes idling looking for leaks and getting the air out of cooling system and all seemed good.
The first run was about a 40 Km loop mainly on major roads in case recover was required which thankfully it wasn't and when we got back and lifted bonnet (english), hood (us) there were a few oil spots spread around and the source traced that to a hose that had not sealed properly so I re-tightened and checked everything again.
It had been decided that we were going to go up into the hills for dinner with my 89 yo mother so I headed home to clean up before setting out and there had just been some light rain and when coming out of a slow corner in 3rd gear I put my foot down as usual and it lit up the tyres and went sideways. It had never done that before and took me quite by surprise but I managed to save it before heading the wrong way up the road and made a mental note to be better prepared in future.
I took it up to mothers to bring a 16 element phased array back home but that is another story for another time. The road there includes several hills that previously required dropping 2 gears and lots of speed but this time I tried 4th and it sailed up easily at 100 km/h gaining 1400' in 4km in one section and the others proved no obstacle either though the temp gauge climbed a bit on the big one.
So what is it like to drive now you ask? Well, it is a completely different vehicle, no more loosing momentum on overpasses, it accelerates in 5th better than it used to in 3rd, it is not an embarrassment too drive in traffic with 18 wheelers and road trains blowing me off at the lights like used to happen, changing gears is now almost optional. I visited a mate this evening and the climb up to his place used to be 4th gear, foot flat to the floor and 90 km/h, tonight, 5th, 100 km/h and heaps of throttle left. That is what makes me wonder if perhaps the fuel screw went in more than the desired 1/4 turn? There is no sign of black smoke so perhaps it was right?
I will in the next day or so clamp a thermocouple to the dump pipe to see what temperature it is running and if that is within reason I'll leave it as it is but it is a nice feeling to have throttle to spare rather that just a two position one.
Here is a picture of the turbo sitting in position part way through the install.
IMGP2357.jpg
The engine bay is still filthy from playing in the mud up the Wombat State Forest the weekend before where everyone got thoroughly bogged and I only washed the outside.
The fuel adjustment screw that the only way to see it was to poke the camera in there, that is why it is off centre or with a dentists mirror.
IMGP2358.jpg
More pictures coming when I get them from Jim.
Last edited by vk3aif; 09-17-2012 at 08:14 AM. Reason: Typo
3 weeks and several thousand Km on since the turbo fitting and all is still well, my only regret so far is that I had not done it sooner. I have not picked up the pictures Jim took of the fitting yet but will post them when I get a hold of them. The kit I used was on of these http://www.dtsturbo.com.au/ but bought new off ebay.
I have clamped a thermocouple to the dump pipe and after another run up the big hill mentioned above the temp peaked at about 555 deg C right at the very top which is close enough to the maximum of 550 recommended in the instructions for me so the fuel screw adjustment must have been pretty close. It has used a bit more fuel like going from 12 L/100 Km to 12.4 L/100 Km but the ease at which it now accelerates and maintains speed on the hills is worth every drop extra of it. I have no doubt if I was to drive it at the speed it went before it would use less.
On the down side, I suspect we will be fitting another one of these units but this time to Jimmy's 80 series in the very near future because it just wouldn't be right if I had the drop on him for once and he turns slightly green whenever he has driven or been a passenger in the lux of late
Last edited by vk3aif; 10-06-2012 at 01:10 AM.
Turbo update,
Mine is still performing well and after my son Jim took it for a drive and then accompanied me in it on a trip to Torrumbarry for a ski race a few weeks back he was looking decidedly green so he bit the bullet and bought a kit for his 80 series with the 1HZ engine. We fitted it yesterday and today and found there was a bit more mucking around with it than there was with the 3L upgrade in my Hilux but it is all up and going now. We then headed for the hills to try it out and so far so good.
On a slightly different topic, we have been suffering diesel fuel shortages here for a week or so with one of our refineries off line with an "electrical fault??" and I heard mention of storm damage at another? I don't know how widespread the effected area is/was, it might be just the South East corner of Australia or it could be a wider problem but I have been ok to date and have a little in reserve but will need some by Christmas or need to make alternate arrangements.
I am deeply saddened to hear the news reports out of the US of the senseless events of the past few days and my thoughts are with those effected this is supposed to be a time of cheer.
Happy Christmas to all.
Well my turbo has been on for over 7 months now and Jimmy's has been on his 80 series for about 4 months and both have been performing great touch wood. Jimmy has since fitted an intercooler to his and claims that had a significant improvement as well in keeping EGTs down while towing his camper trailer. I am a little pressed for room under the hood for an air to air cooler so I am toying with the idea of going for an air to water unit but have not made up my mind as yet because while the heat exchanger itself is smaller I would have to find space for a pump and radiator with maybe an electric fan as recommended or plumb it into the existing cooling system and the units I have seen work out a lot more expensive than the turbo kit cost in the first place.
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