Matt H

Well, Kevin and I are putting the car back together and after glancing at all the f***ing cooling hoses I am wondering about running a T04E without the water cooling. You could lose the hoses to the turbo, the coolant crossover, the extra pump, and the issues with the fitment dissapear.

I assume that if you let the turbo cool before shutting it off that the effects of not having the watering cooling would be minimized. I am willing to live with shorter turbo life if it means I can dump all of the cooling hoses going to the turbo and the associated plumbing.

Any thoughts?
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hosrom_951

That is how most of the ricey cars do, run oil cooled not oil and water cooled.

Even some track cars with 500+whp and pushing the cars hard use oil cooled tubochargers........

Just letting it cool 'longer' than what the water cooled ones..........should be fine

I also heard that if the factory turbocharger water pump fails, it's no biggie since the pump turns on ONLY when the engine is off for ~30 seconds.........just let it idle longer.........

Bengt Sweden

The pump runs when there is high temp as indicated by the sensor in the piping from the turbo, plus always 30 sec when shutting off.
If the pump doesn't function you will still have water passing through due to sifoning. And then there is an extra thermostat so that you do not run too cold, risking condense in the oil, which was a problem on some of the first watercooled turbos. This is a pretty intelligent system, as you would expect from Porsche. Keep it. You can't just trow away pieces just because you don't know what they are there for.
Bengt

Sam Lin

Matt, do a search on turbo water and you'll find a few threads where this was pretty hotly debated in the past - in short, you've got the idea.

Sam

hosrom_951

Bengt Sweden: i heard and read that the pump is off and the water just 'passes' through it with the engine running weither it is functioning or not........

Unlike when the engine is off, it just wouldn't pump anything......

The main reason for turbo's failing is that their bearings get 'baked' and sieze, thus oil is the MAIN source.

However, water is the best heat exchanger, that is why Porsche used it, to extend the life/cooling of the turbocharger.

You should really keep it, wouldn't do any harm since you are getiing extra cooling to the turbo.....

Bengt Sweden

Yep, when the engine is running the pumping is done by the ordinary water pump. Oil cooling would do as well, I guess, if the oil was flowing after the engine was switched off. But it doesn't.
BB

HoBoJoe

The main reason to run a straight oil cooled turbo is to keep the coolant temps down... think of how much your turbo heats your coolant up when it passes through it.. The use of oil only cooling is efficient for race cars, because it reduses engine running temps... Letting it cool longer is the only draw back.. get a turbo timer and set it to 3 minutes all the time... Also, you can block off all the pipes for the turbo water pump, my friend has it done on his turbo S... If you want pics let me know...

Matt H

HoBoJoe, if you can get pics I would appreciate it. Before I order all new cooling hoses and water outlet pipe, etc.

Sam, I will read them thanks. I just couldnt find enough to make me feel comfortable now I know why, wrong search term.
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Bengt Sweden

Well you still have to get rid of the heat. Through your radiator or through a much bigger than stock oil cooler.

B

Matt H

Bengt, have the oil cooler down and like your location it is pretty cold here most of the year
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Bengt Sweden

Matt, no problem street driving but on the track even here the radiators struggle to release the heat. Do as you like, it's your car. I'll keep my watercooling and probably still add a bigger or a second oil cooler for the next upgrade.

Bengt

Matt H

Bengt, thanks for the info. I was really more wondering what is involved and whether or not it could be done without shortening the life of the turbo to 5K miles BTW, how is that 3.0L coming?
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madsedan

None of my previous turbo cars had water cooled turbos that i know of. I had a 95 M3 turbo with a Mitsubishi turbo on it and it was strictly oil cooled and a bulletproof turbo with 30k+ hard miles and dyno runs on it, AA in Florida said they had some that had almost 100k miles on them and were still in tolerance. Also, I don't believe my MR2 had a water cooled turbo. I think there are more factory non-water-cooled turbo's running around then water cooled.

Bengt Sweden

I have all the parts so I plan to build the 3 liter this winter. Our seasons are too short to do wrenching in the summer. I'll post some pictures when the block comes up on the work bench.
I am really looking forward to some bottom end torque. I hope that my Vitesse turbo will spool really quickly and from low rev with 3 liter pushing. Slightly higher CR 8.7 will also benefit low end. Then I have a ported manifold, slightly trimmed ports and a three angle valve job. There is also more area around the valves since the distance to the cylinder wall increases with bore size, which benefits the flow. Then I plan on a 3" exhaust and... mmmmm


Bengt

Bengt Sweden

madsedan
noone is argueing that you can't have just oil cooling, it's just to design for the cooling method you want, but if it is watercooled then the oil system is not designed to run without the water cooling.
B.