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Best coolant routing for water cooled center section


Guest jt240z

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Guest jt240z

What is the best method for routing water to a T3/T4b turbo with a water cooled center section? I've heard of picking up the water cooling lines from off the trottle body, but is this the best way to cool the turbo?

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Guest Tim78zt

JT, my lines go from the thermostat housing and the front heater hose port(near the front of the block on passenger side). Can't really say if that is best, but that is the way the shop installed it. They used blue silicone hose.

 

Tim78zt

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Guest jt240z

Can you run the water cooled turbos with out water? Is it worth the extra effort? My plan is to add the water line but just wondering. smile.gif

Thanks for the help guys.

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Guest Tim78zt

JT, the payoff is down the road in terms of durability. The water cooling makes the turbo last longer and requires shorter cool-down time before shutting off the motor. I give it just long enough to bring the compressor shaft down to speed at idle (around 30 seconds). It has taken the place of a turbo-timer in my case. You will be very happy with having a water-cooled center section.

 

Tim78zt

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My take is this. I currently have it from the back of the block on the drivers side(1/2" NPT) to the turbo and then to the front of the block on the passengers side. The bad thing with running it back to the passengers side is rerouting heated water through the engine again. I am about to route it back to the radiator after the thermostat. So the new routing is from the back of the block drivers side to the turbo and then to the radiator where it can be cooled before returning to the engine.

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Guest jt240z

240Z Turbo,

 

Is the plug in the back drivers side a true 1/2" NPT or is it some metric version? Can I just use a simple brass NPT fitting screwed in with Teflon tape? I may just drill and tap a hole into the original plug and screw an NPT fitting into it.

 

If I understand you correctly, I can just route the return line back into the thermostat housing. What I'm thinking of is using one of the currently unused temperature sensor ports for the turbo water return line. How does that sound?

 

Does it mater which port I use for the water inlet and which to use for the outlet on the turbo? I don't thinks so buy why not ask. :D

 

Thanks guys for all your help. 2thumbs.gif

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inlet/outlet on the turbo makes no difference. The plug in the back of the block(drivers side) is british pipe. However, british pipe and NPT are the same at 1/2NPT. So, you CAN just use a 1/2"NPT fitting with teflon tape. The disadvantage to going to the thermostat housing is that it will give you temp readings that are higher than the actual engine temps. This is because the coolant has just passed through hot turbo and is now headed towards your temp sensor. I would route it immediately after the thermostat housing, just before the radiator. You can splice in an aluminum tube to your radiator hose and place a fitting on it for the return line.

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I take the coolant from the passenger side "T" before it goes to the heater core and run it around the front of the valve cover using the OEM solid line. From there is goes to the turbo using that flexible aluminum hard line. I connect to the turbo with compression fittings. From the turbo it goes to the thermostat housing. See pic below...

 

Pete

 

DSC00013.jpg

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Guest jt240z

What is the pipe thread size used on the water coolant inlet/outlets on the T3 center housing? I looked at 3/8 and that was too small and the 1/2 is too big. Where can I get these fittings.

 

Thanks again.

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Guest jt240z

I think the bearing housing I have on my rebuilt turbo has 18mm water ports. Does anyone know where to get the fittings for these so I can connect up my water cooling lines? Does anyone have an old set laying around that they would like to part with? I beleive the turbo was originaly a 300zx center and exhaust housing but I'm not sure.

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