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Need turbo advice

3K views 42 replies 15 participants last post by  bigwheel 
#1 ·
I am going to be needing a new turbo for my truck here in the next few months. It has been surging hard when towing. I looked down inside of the turbo and the fins and showing ware. I do a lot of towing through the mountains of Colorado. I am wanting to here your guys advice on what turbo or upgrades I should do to the turbo? I have been think about just putting the ATS housing on but will that give me any power gains or not? Also I have been thinking about the van turbo. I am thinking about getting the egts down and maybe a little more power. I don't have a chip on the truck now, but will be getting one down the road. I am open to options and ideas. The truck is stock except 4" exhust, intake.

Also on a side note when I leave from a stop while towing the truck will shift from 1st to 2nd and I will loose almost all of the boost. I don't know if this is from the turbo or if something else is going on. It suck to tow off from a start when you loose all your power.
 
#2 ·
You've got lots of options out there, mainly depends on your budget. I would say the best and most expensive one would be a replacement ball bearing turbo from garrett or turbonetics ~$1200-1800. Cheaper would be van turbo, and cheapest ats housing~$400 or wicked wheel~$80. I can't imagine towing with a stock program! I'd recommed a towing file from one of the vendors here, should help your shift patterns. I would say get a valvebody for~$250, essential for tranny life. Ats or ww won't do anything for performance, just makes power more useable. A turbo won't make a big difference either with stock tune. Ww cured my surge, others need ats to do it but if you have the money, a bb turbo is awesome and should have no surge with great egt drop! Good luck, 'leeter
 
#3 ·
If I was to get a van turbo where would be the best place to get one and what is the avg $?

I would like to get a BB but price is always the problem. Which one would you guys recommend? With the ats housing are there any advantages besides curing surge?
 
#4 ·
what year truck?
I am assuming after a 99.5 since it surges

there are a few other options
beans offers a d66 type turbo for even the newer trucks but they are great options for obs and early 99's
the h2e is a great turbo though even more $$
rons turbo off ebay has some more stockish modified with banks housings etc..
then there is the big bad wolf and a few other turbos.
and of course the gt38r
 
#6 ·
You have the 99.5-2003 compressor wheel which is slightly more efficent than the earlier wheels (which are also sold in the aftermarket as wicked wheel ect), but causes surge in towing conditions. Ats housing is ported to equalize pressure in the compressor and prevents surge with really no other benifits. Ww will probably cure surge, ats will definetly cure it. For you I would prolly recommend the turbonetics because it is basically surge proof and has excellent spool up. Great for up to 475 hp, which is ALOT! Get what you can afford. 'leeter
 
#13 ·
I am thinking that a BB is going to be a little out of my price range right now. I am thinking about getting a tow tune in the truck, so will the the ATS be a good choice or the van? If I was to go the van route what is some of the gains I would see? Also what all is needed to buy to make it work?

Thanks guys
 
#15 ·
You need a van turbo, van turbo to down pipe adapter. I don't think you will notice a huge difference. But shouldn't have any surge. The ATS housing doesn't do much other than cure surge.

I think the WW would be a good start if you want to keep the stock turbo. Not alot of money, incase you decide to ditch the stocker and get a BB turbo. It sucks spending hard earned money only to toss it out the window.
 
#16 ·
I am currently running a van turbo. I can not get it to surge at all. Even towing 15K up a 6% @ over 6K elevation. I like it for now. You will only need the adapter for the down pipe. I got mine from bean.
 
#17 ·
I like my van turbo setup also. Very good for towing. The larger exhaust housing (1.15) will help drop EGT's a good 100 degrees. I have not had a surge problem either.

Here is the link to the adapter mentioned by fbilly420.

http://www.beansdieselperformance.c...-stroke-van-turbo-adapter-flange/prod_89.html

You could also ask Bean's Diesel Perf about a van turbo, and you can find them on ebay occassionally, but they go fast.

After towing our 5th wheel through Colorado, I talked with Luke Cline and he recommended I call Diesel Innovations about their aftermarket intercooler - I bought it and it dropped my towing EGT's a good 200 degrees.
 
#26 ·
Not more boost, just better top end. I have the WW also in my setup. Some use the WW and some use the ATS housing to prevent/cure surge. The WW has worked fine fo me and I have not had any surge.

edit: The van turbo can handle the higher boost levels better than the stock turbo since you would have less backpressure and less thrust load

I was looking on beans site and had some questions.

The 1.0 A/R non wastegated turbine house is that pretty much like the van turbo? Would I need to buy the compressor housing to? How would this setup do for towing?
Thanks
Like said above the stock turbo has a .84 housing and the van turbo has a 1.15 housing.

The 1.0 will be better than the stock .84 housing and will also let the turbo spool a bit quicker than the 1.15. The 1.15 will give you less backpressure and lower EGT's a bit more than the 1.0. It's a little bit of give & take and depends on what your plans are for future mods. If bigger injectors are in the future I would go with the 1.15. If you plan to keep the stock injectors the 1.0 will work well.

Talk with Bean.
 
#21 ·
The van turbo has a 1.15 a/r on the turbine side and I beleive it also has a differant turbine wheel. I am currently running the WW in mine. I am sqeezing 25-26 psi out of it.

I bet the 1.0 housing would do better than the stock .84 and no I dont think you would need to change the compressor housing. As for how it would do towing not sure I dont have any experience with the 1.0 housing.
 
#23 ·
well I live at about 5K elevation. turbo lites at about 1800-2000 rpm. Bottom end isnt bad because once it starts to spool it just takes off. It took a little bit of getting used to but I love it now. It will smoke alot if I just floor it from a stop but if I ease into it, it hardly smokes at all. While towing I just have to ease into the throttle to keep egts in check. but once it starts to spool I just hammer down and egts stay in the SAFE range. But I will be upgrading to a 38R with 1.15 housing soon (I Hope)
 
#27 ·
Yes, you will need to get a new wheel if the current one is damaged.

You would also need to modify the existing turbo pedestal or purchase a Non-EBPV pedestal like this one.



Your current one looks like thisone below :



if you go to a van turbo and eliminate the EBPV, something has to be done with the stock pedistal or it will leak. Your choices are modify the stock pedistal to get rid of the actuator rod, or buy a non-EBPV pedistal.

Now, having said that. I just reread your initial post on this thread. If the money is available I would plan for gauges (EGT, boost, tranny temp) and a custom chip with some tow tunes/programs. By all means, if your turbo is damaged, go ahead and get that problem fixed first. But, to get the most out of your setup a custom chip and some tow programs would be the way to go.
 
#28 ·
Here is some more info. Not trying to confuse you or have you try and drink from a firehose to speak. But, I like to have as much info as possible. Here is a link to a Van Turbo thread back in Spetember.


http://www.powerstrokenation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14955

IMO the Van Turbo is a great when it comes to bang for the buck. A well performing turbo for less than 1/2 the cost of an aftermarket drop in. But like everything else, it has its limits.
 
#33 ·
^^^^Thanks sleeper



If you want to put a stock wheel back in there let me know. I have a couple layin around. You can have just cover shipping.
 
#35 ·
I just gutted my stock pedistal and used it. The adapter from beans is all you will need.

oh ya and turbo pedistal o-rings
 
#40 ·
You basically have two choices with the pedestal when adding the van turbo. You can gut your current pedestal or purchase a non-EBPV pedestal. No problem with the gutted pedestal - many folks do it that way.

I'm sorry - I must have been smokin' something when I posted the pictures in my post above :doh:. This a a pic of a Non-EBPV pedestal:



Both pictures I listed above in post #27 are of the pedestal you currently have.
 
#39 ·
PDR made a turbo to kinda compare to the garrett but for a more affordable price, ther should bea couple threads about it if you search, and david did some testing aswell. basically it dropped my EGTs a fair amounts picked my boost up, spools faster, I wont say it gave me any more peak power, but it definatley works better in the mid range....and I dunno about a price yet..I need to fine a garrett. but maaaaabye around 1000? (cheap canadian dollars)
 
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