Thinking about turbo on my/6 again...

-
V

volaredon

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2010
Messages
3,532
Reaction score
1,984
Location
IL
As title says
85 d150 long bed, currently 727 which may stay
Other trans choices on hand are an 833 od or an a500.... Yes I have the 60s era /6 to sb trans adapter plate for that possibility
Currently 3.21 gear, not looking at changing much from there whether I do the turbo or not.
Daily driver/ may pull a small camper or utility trailer with a few mowers on it occasionally
Daily commute 70 miles round trip, mostly 65mph, about 4 stop signs between here and there, mostly cornfield lines, rural state 2 lane road.
Not looking for more than 6-8 psi at most. Mostly looking for wow factor at an occasional cruise night. At the beginning want to run my super 6 with nos 318 carb. Want to stay carbureted.
Thinking draw thru.
Would a turbo from a lebaron turbo coupe be enough? Not looking to race. "It's a truck"
And I want to retain factory ac
Only thing"I" can think of that might be a problem is it's a fresh engine, rebuilder grade piston 20-over, and I set the ring gaps about right in the middle of spec. Wishing I'd have opened them a bit
77 peanut head, oversized si valves, ported. Block + head shaved a combined 0.100, Aussie head gasket, CR a calculated 8.4:1.in other words CR exactly to "blueprint" specs as list d in every Chilton and Motor manual of the day
 
Last edited:
I know you already probably saw the one Engine Master's did, and the one on Tony Angelo (sp?) In his 1980ish truck.
DeadDodgeGarage (Jamie) is doing one right now on an early A just.
I watched the latest vid on it today
 
I seen part of the Tony angelo post. Didn't get all the way thru it. I'm trying to avoid a Chinese turbo like he used. That's why I thought "lebaron turbo".
 
how 'bout one from a Buick 231...gotta be a few of them around, and it's only 6 cubic inches difference
 
I had one of those years ago when I was between/6s and got rid of it, never owned anything GM in my life, soni had no use for it then.
But yeah it would be close except for no Buick turbo was designed to be a truck engine. Maybe one from a Buick 231 would work? I dunno.
From what I have read, it seems like for my purposes one from an engine 2/3-3/4 of the CID of what you have would be better as one "rated" for your size of engine won't spool up until you get way high in the rpm range of the engine, a smaller one will spool up lower, closer to a usable rpm range. I'm not looking for crazy, mostly looking for the "neat-o, hey that's cool" when I pop the hood for others to see but I definitely want it functional
 
with that low of boost and wanting to run it NA first, a torquestorm supercharger. then you wouldnt have to redo the exhaust. most turbo's are not meant for draw through ( plenty of people do it ). if I didnt want higher boost levels thats what I would have done.
 
I have a cobbled exhaust at this point anyway, put together from scraps out of a dumpster that's next to a local muffler shop. Just solid enough to be able to run it and keep the neighbors quieter than the truck.
For boost quantity I was thinking 6-8 max.
But just like too much cam I don't want a turbo that hits its stride at an rpm higher than I'm thinking I'll ever see this thing run.... I don't want something that will max out at 5500 when I don't think I'll hardly ever see 4k rpm.
 
If you’re going to do a draw through setup, use a turbo that was originally designed for it or you’ll constantly be dealing with oil consumption. They have a carbon seal that allows the turbo to be in vacuum and not draw oil. If you’re not interested in power then really any turbo will work that was designed as a draw through. Don’t worry too much about turbo size. Ring gaps in “the middle of the range” (what were they?) will be fine at low boost pressures, up to about 8 or so pounds. This isn’t a rule, but more my experience. If the tune up is good and you use intercooling (can’t with a draw through) you can get away with more boost on tight ring gaps.
My recommendation is do a blow through set up. It opens your choices of turbos up drastically, allows intercooling, and there are plenty of ways to modify a carb or buy a blow through throttle body/carb set up ready for boost.
 
Crazy spitballer pants here….

7.3 Cummins turbo? But I would look at a throttle body injection and running an O2 sensor.

No suggestions on the TB here but the reasoning is that from little I understand, is that carbs don’t do well in recognizing density.

Again, just a guy, spitballen.


You tube guy from awhile ago (12bolt….. something) was doing Chevy straight 6s had good results. I’ll try to circle back with info.

Edit:12bolt Tom.

His earlier stuff I thought he was using the 7.3 turbo and injecting it.


Eye candy of a pro charged unit

20240706_091020.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Didn't know there was a 7.3 Cummins engine to begin with. This is a 225 /6 which (aside from a test lab deal that never made production) has always been a gas engine.
I do have a brand new wide band o2 setup here collecting dust....
 
Lots of guys use the 7.3 ford power stroke turbo. Maybe that’s what he meant.
 
TT5.9mag said:
Lots of guys use the 7.3 ford power stroke turbo. Maybe that’s what he meant.
Click to expand...
Ya, hence the spitballen crazy pants intro.

The diesel motors are low rpm units so I was thinking gravitate towards something like that since the OP wants to keep it below 4Kish
 
My current thoughts are to try to utilize the NOS BBD I have for this engine already, I figured it's a lil rich for it as built n/a, because it's nos for a 70s 318 truck with "heavy duty emissions" (which back then means it hardly even had any emissions crap.... A carb meant for a 318 on a 225... That should give me some leeway shouldn't it?
 
clementine said:
Ya, hence the spitballen crazy pants intro.

The diesel motors are low rpm units so I was thinking gravitate towards something like that since the OP wants to keep it below 4Kish
Click to expand...
The stock 7.3 ford turbo has a 76mm inducer on the compressor. Much too large for a stock 150hp 225
 
clementine said:
Ya, hence the spitballen crazy pants intro.

The diesel motors are low rpm units so I was thinking gravitate towards something like that since the OP wants to keep it below 4Kish
Click to expand...
But being all those motors are higher CID than the 225 of a /6, wouldn't they be too big for this one? Maybe not. That's why I'm asking people that hopefully know
 


I know it’s a Chevy but seeing home made injection rail and shadetree kinda build for inspiration.
 
volaredon said:
As title says
85 d150 long bed, currently 727 which may stay
Other trans choices on hand are an 833 od or an a500.... Yes I have the 60s era /6 to sb trans adapter plate for that possibility
Currently 3.21 gear, not looking at changing much from there whether I do the turbo or not.
Daily driver/ may pull a small camper or utility trailer with a few mowers on it occasionally
Daily commute 70 miles round trip, mostly 65mph, about 4 stop signs between here and there, mostly cornfield lines, rural state 2 lane road.
Click to expand...

I hope by "daily driver" this is one you want to drive daily, not one you have to drive daily. This will be enough of a fabrication and tuning challenge that you should plan on significant down time before it's completed
volaredon said:
Not looking for more than 6-8 psi at most. Mostly looking for wow factor at an occasional cruise night. At the beginning want to run my super 6 with nos 318 carb. Want to stay carbureted.
Thinking draw thru.
Click to expand...

Personally I suspect that a draw through carb may be a little easier to tune, but it's still a fair amount of work. Also, draw through pretty much rules out intercooling.
volaredon said:
Would a turbo from a lebaron turbo coupe be enough? Not looking to race. "It's a truck"
Click to expand...
My first turbo setup used a K car turbo, and I would not recommend it. These can easily exceed your target boost well below your torque converter stall speed, and run out of breath below 3000 rpm.
volaredon said:
And I want to retain factory ac
Click to expand...
Doable but an extra challenge.
 
Didn't think intercooling made that big of a deal at low boost level like I'm (thinking) wanting.
 
MadScientistMat said:
I hope by "daily driver" this is one you want to drive daily, not one you have to drive daily. This will be enough of a fabrication and tuning challenge that you should plan on significant down time before it's completed

My first turbo setup used a K car turbo, and I would not recommend it. These can easily exceed your target boost well below your torque converter stall speed, and run out of breath below 3000 rpm.
Click to expand...
I haven't driven it since the new motor went in
And I thought the waste gate "throttled" the boost to spread it out as rpm went up .. I'm thinking I'll hit 3k rpm sorta regular, but doubt I'll hit 4k very often given the application. What turbo would be better that will spread out it's usefulness "that" high? And please don't say "cheap Chinese wannabe"...I've gone to pretty good lengths to buy new old parts to avoid Chinese content to this point
Being as how this is a truck and not a light sporty rocket of a car how would that play into what id want? I know I don't want something that doesn't come in til 4000+, I can't see that doing me much good.
Currently I have a fresh rebuilder grade low stall converter... still in the box. Leaning towards the a500, vs the 727 or 833od... Have all 3 on hand.
Whichever trans goes behind it will get gone thru.abs yes I have the adapter plate to put that 500 behind a /6.
 
Last edited:
I would suggest a Garrett Gt35 or even Gt32 if you want the boost early, or a Holset HX35. These are not normally sealed for draw through use, though.

It is possible to rig a wastegate to intentionally delay boost instead of limit it, but this would need a large external gate and electronic controls.
 
I admit that I don't know much about the fundamentals of a turbo setup.... Just that I want a little boost without getting too much
 
Spool time is controlled but the size of the exhaust housing of the turbo plus the amount of exhaust volume being pushed to it as well. On mine I have .96 ar housings on my twin 76mm and on a 428cid small block my boost comes in around 4k, but I have 4 cyl compared to your 6 pumping into it. Size wise depends on how much power, just a helper can run a 45-50mm turbo with a small .68ar or around there for sooner spool time. Intercooler depends on if you want a cooler a or charge even at 5-8 psi is still helpful, can run air to air for more of a daily driver. There are mods out there for a blow through that can be done at home with the right tools or some of the fittech can handle boost if that's in the cards.
 
I remember reading somewhere about what the "ar number" means but I don't remember what it was about
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top