Can a turbo last?

[FABRICATOR]

Gyroscopically stable? Us dummies call that balanced. The impeller may be stable as a rock, but we are talking about moving the housing. The turbo is not designed for much circular motion, or motion that is not supported across the length of the entire shaft/oil film. Does it matter? Who knows. It's a lousy kind of power for off-road anyway. There's no substitute for cubic inches.

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[ChuckH]

Moving a Gyroscopic force out of its plane can cause quite a bit of force at right angles to the object spinning ( force on the fluid bearing ) grab a bike wheel and spin it and hold it by the axle then try and turn it out of its spinning plane.

To minimize those forces in a offroad car a turbo should be mounted so the shaft is spinning in the same plane as the rear axle (left to right)

[subrunner]

<<<<<<Takes a bow

Just kidding, lol

[subrunner]

I agree with Chuck, I wasn't talking about balance. If you picture a turbo as 2 aluminium pinwheels attached to a shaft spinning at 75-150k, the centrifugal force acting on the impellors creates quite alot of gyroscopic stability. It's like 2 bicycle wheels hooked together, lol.

Phorensic, is your truck a 4 cyl or V-6? If it's a 4, the turbo from a Ford 2.3 turbo(t-bird) is about perfect and you can get them for like $60. You just need a turbo header. I have a buch of turbo stuff(including EGT) that I'd like to get rid of, so hit me up.

[ACID_RAIN28]

Just cause a Trophy Truck has 20+" of travel dosn't by any means make it a smoother ride in comparason to say a class 7 or so, It just allows the ride in the car to become more violent than say a smaller travel car. There are times when it is like you head is in a paint mixing maching. That is probably the biggest misconception about a TT

[phorensic]

Subrunner, I have a 3.0L v6. Sorry, but I'm not in the market for your turbo stuff right now. A 35mm SLR and lenses are on my priority list right now. Maybe I can fit a T4 in front of the motor when I get my e-fan...yeah right. I was thinking of doing a semi-STS style setup by putting the turbo right next to the tranny where there is actually some room for it after the exhaust crosses over. And yes, it would be skidplated like crazy.

[Samco Fab]

From my experience with turbos on off road cars, the exhaust is what fails most of the time. You typically have more heat in the exhaust with a turbo, so better materials must be used. Mild steel is not a good cantidate, use 304 stainless minimum, and 321 if your funding permits.
Also heat expansion can cause problems. Sometimes you will need a flexible stainless bellow to allow for expansion, on a V8 feeding into a single turbo, you will probably need them on either side of the cylinder heads.

Burns stainless sells a lot of good parts to fab your own stuff.

[Jarvis]

Does it matter? Who knows. It's a lousy kind of power for off-road anyway. There's no substitute for cubic inches.

Man i hope thats a joke you know that if they made them legal all the top teams would have them. You get the same power with lower weight where is the drawback.

[John F2000]

Man i hope thats a joke you know that if they made them legal all the top teams would have them. You get the same power with lower weight where is the drawback.

I agree. A blower is like adding cubic inches.

"Can a turbo last" Yes
1. Gyroscopic effect and parrellel plane..... never heard of it. Just make sure the oil drain is going down to gravity feed.
2. Vibration effects on turbo... Irrelevent in an off road application
3. Bouncing or jumping....again irrelevent. Off shore boats been using them for years. The bouncing can have a long term effect and you can spend money for a ball bearing turbo. But by the time a bushing turbo would wear out you would have already gone thru your motor several times and the non-ball bearing is very cheep to re-build
4. Make sure to size the housing much smaller than a street application to eliminate turbo lag.
5. yes you can mount the turbos to the frame, note attached picture. Just make sure motor is solid mounted and you have a strong cage/frame.
6. Key to off road turbo is the exhaust. Use 321 stainless on head pipes, 1/2 steel flange, and a 321 bellows doesnt hurt.

In the end a properly set up turbo motor is great in the dirt and gives you the ability to raise or lower your boost depending on fuel availability.

[Jarvis]

A supercharger would work well to no lag and extra power straight off the mark.