HereticWild
Member
Congrats on a most excellent tractor!

Funny I was thinking about finding a small turbocharger and adding it to my CK20HST, just for a little extra power. Much cheaper than a new tractor would be. And no it will not blow up the engine or overpower the hydraulics before that gets started.
A turbo will not increase a Diesel's HP unless it is integrated with the IP to increase the injected fuel to use the added air. If you do manage to increase the output power you may damage the engine unless it's designed to dissipate the additional heat. Bottom line is adding a turbo is not simple.
With the 1992 Ford 7.3, you bolted on the kit, set the injector pump and rolled on down the road. My friend used it to do hot shot loads. He got over 300,000 miles on the engine before he sold it. Nothing was changed internally. You can take anything to the extreme, but if a turbo was add to the CK20s, it would produce much more torque with a modest HP increase. Most industrial diesel engines are built to withstand a turbo. An example would be the Yanmar diesel in the John Deere Gator. There are aftermarket kits that bolt on. Diesel Turbo Kit for the John Deere Gator HPX / XUV The Kioti engine is used on multiple applications just as the Yanmars are.The Mercedes 617 Diesel engine (5 cylinder, 3 liter, iron head) started as a non-turbo (naturally aspirated=NA) engine. The subsequent turbo version had oil jets that sprayed the underside of the beefed-up pistons (for cooling). Also the altitude compensator on the NA injection pump was replaced by an ALDA that sensed boost pressure to increase the injected fuel with increased boost. The turbo IP is a different design as well. If you disconnect the turbo boost pressure from the ALDA the engine loses a LOT of power. The extra injected fuel is needed to spin the turbo to generate much boost. The max boost is only about 12 psi as I recall and you needed 2000 rpm to get any noticeable power increase. I know we're just talking here but just adding a turbo to a diesel won't do much except, maybe, damage the engine.