Ilikeurtractor
Veteran Member
- Joined
- May 16, 2011
- Messages
- 1,069
- Tractor
- Iseki TX1300F/TX1500/ TX2160F/TS2220F/ Satoh S370D/S373D
Well after some time pondering the whole turbocharging a factory N/A diesel and seeing a recent post (which I can't seem to find further information on another site which was referenced), I decided to try to adapt a turbo to a Mitsubishi KE75 engine to see how it would play out. At my elevation, I lose about 20% in peak power and torque due to the lower air pressure so just getting 3 psi of boost would help a lot and this is really my primary goal. Of course, I'd be ecstatic if I could make 6-7 psi of boost and try to do away with as much of the black smoke as possible on the high-speed end under load using the stock fuel settings - if that's how it will work - I don't know at this point but hopeful.
One of the first things I learned is that is isn't as straight-forward as I originally concluded to choose a turbo and I was a bit lazy in my original research, quickly deciding that any relatively small turbo "should" work. I chose a knock-off of a Garrett GT15 turbo for its price, availability, and size. Initial testing proved the engine is much too small for that turbo charger (apparently not enough flow to spin it enough to build any significant boost). I could just barely hear the turbo start to whine at about 2500 engine rpm with only slight improvement in spooling at 2800 rpm which is as fast as the governor would allow the engine to run. Even putting the engine under load at those speeds didn't seem to make much of any real difference in boost. It would not even budge the 0-15 psig gauge I had hooked up but I could feel some pulsating pressure on the line if I removed the gauge and held my hand over it.
Further research points to the possibility of an "IHI RHB31" turbo working better so I'm going to try that despite the project running quite over budget at this point. It appears to be the smallest turbo readily available so if it is still too big then I guess I'll be SOL for this project. I'll post the results when I get it swapped out.
Hopefully this thread can help others going down the same road and save them some time and money. I couldn't find a whole lot out there on similar sized diesels, but did read about some successful turbo adaptations (6-7 psi boost) on small Kubota tractors but with no real details on the turbo specifications. Since I now have the GT15 that I won't be using on this engine I may try to put it on an Isuzu 2AB1 (1.2L) engine in a Bolens G244 but I'm thinking that engine will still be too small for it. It looks like the GT15 is a good fit for (or was designed for) a 1.9L VW diesel. Seems as if engine horsepower plays into it also in addition to raw displacement but I can't find enough good info to wrap it all together.
One of the first things I learned is that is isn't as straight-forward as I originally concluded to choose a turbo and I was a bit lazy in my original research, quickly deciding that any relatively small turbo "should" work. I chose a knock-off of a Garrett GT15 turbo for its price, availability, and size. Initial testing proved the engine is much too small for that turbo charger (apparently not enough flow to spin it enough to build any significant boost). I could just barely hear the turbo start to whine at about 2500 engine rpm with only slight improvement in spooling at 2800 rpm which is as fast as the governor would allow the engine to run. Even putting the engine under load at those speeds didn't seem to make much of any real difference in boost. It would not even budge the 0-15 psig gauge I had hooked up but I could feel some pulsating pressure on the line if I removed the gauge and held my hand over it.
Further research points to the possibility of an "IHI RHB31" turbo working better so I'm going to try that despite the project running quite over budget at this point. It appears to be the smallest turbo readily available so if it is still too big then I guess I'll be SOL for this project. I'll post the results when I get it swapped out.
Hopefully this thread can help others going down the same road and save them some time and money. I couldn't find a whole lot out there on similar sized diesels, but did read about some successful turbo adaptations (6-7 psi boost) on small Kubota tractors but with no real details on the turbo specifications. Since I now have the GT15 that I won't be using on this engine I may try to put it on an Isuzu 2AB1 (1.2L) engine in a Bolens G244 but I'm thinking that engine will still be too small for it. It looks like the GT15 is a good fit for (or was designed for) a 1.9L VW diesel. Seems as if engine horsepower plays into it also in addition to raw displacement but I can't find enough good info to wrap it all together.