turbo fabrication

Has anyone fabricated a turbo system for their car?

I have seen turbo's/superchargers fabricated, but it sure isnt easy. Most of the parts would need to be milled on a CNC mill. We are talking very fine engineering, especially for the spool.


I have seen a supercharger also made for a 1/10 RC car.

My brother and I fabricated a turbo manifold for his carbureted 22R RA40 Celica, years ago. Basically we took pipe fittings, 30s, 45s and 90 degree elbows and made the whole thing out of sched 40 1.5" pipe. All of the fitting was done with eyeballing and angle grinders. :icon16:

Had the thing welded up by a local shop, cost about $100 to have welded, and the fittings were free since my uncle runs a pipefitting shop. We plumbed it through the carb with a blowthrough box, basically just a sealed box that fit around the stock carb. A rising rate FPR was used as well, and surprisingly there wasn't any detonation until about 14psi or so.

The turbocharger was a junkyard T3 from a Thunderbird 2.3 turbo, it was a 60 trim T3 IIRC, and it seemed to suit the 22R pretty well, although there was some lag to be sure. A 3" downpipe was used, which dumped just behind the front wheels. It was ghetto fabulous. :smokin:

Unfortunately, it seems that the stock pistons were never really made to handle that kind of heat, and after a highway run, one of the ring lands gave up and that was it for the motor... Live and learn, it was a $500 car. :icon16:

^Pretty cool and fun experiment.

I agree though, it would be very difficult, time consuming, and budget consuming to make a one off for your self because of the precision machining required.

I assume that the threadstarter mean a turbosystem, not to fabricate the actual turbocharger. To fabricate a turbocharger is extremly difficult and costly.

yea, i meant a system, not the actual turbocharger. Thanks for all your input guys.

yea, i meant a system, not the actual turbocharger. Thanks for all your input guys.

That shouldn't be too hard if you have some sort of an idea of what you're doing. I myself won't be doing any fabricating for a little while since I cut my hand pretty bad today. The wound is about 2 cm long, maybe a little longer, and 4 mm deep. It took 5 stitches to close up, it hit a vessel, and lost quite a bit of blood. I'll have pictures tomorrow. :biggrin: Funny thing is, I didn't feel a thing when I cut it, when they sewed it up, or about an hour ago; but now it hurts like hell. Happened about noon, but the emergency room trip was only an hour and a half, which is pretty damn fast around here.

Sorry to hear it man, that sucks... Hope you didn't do any permanent damage, that's been scaring me about my wrist, what if doesn't heal right, etc...

Where do you live that it takes so long to get to the ER?

Um, still fabricating a turbo system isnt all that easy. You cant just have tubes cut to lengths to fit. Engineering everything perfectly and caluclating everything perfectly prevents detonation which can ruin an engine. Detonation is bad...

Sorry to hear it man, that sucks... Hope you didn't do any permanent damage, that's been scaring me about my wrist, what if doesn't heal right, etc...

Where do you live that it takes so long to get to the ER?

I meant the wait in the ER, sorry about that. The time to get there is only 10 minutes, and the entire trip and visit was the 2 hours. BTW, I live on the outer part of Houston.

Here's some pics for those without weak stomachs, although it's not bad at all. I lost almost a pint of blood into my trashcan and the bathroom sink. :loser: So, heres the pics below.



http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/503/33905DSC02057.jpg
http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/503/33905DSC02058.jpg
http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/503/33905DSC02059.jpg

Good thing I'm left-handed. :rolleyes:

What the hell did you do? I have probably needed to get stitches about 20 times but never have.

What the hell did you do? I have probably needed to get stitches about 20 times but never have.

I had a pretty sharp knife that I used for making wood carvings that slipped, went through two layers of leather, and made the cut. The guy who sharpened it for me when I bought it told me it would be as sharp as a scalpel. Oh well, it's not my first time with stitches, hell, I've put a knife through my leg once and busted my head open several times when I was young.

Um, still fabricating a turbo system isnt all that easy. You cant just have tubes cut to lengths to fit. Engineering everything perfectly and caluclating everything perfectly prevents detonation which can ruin an engine. Detonation is bad...

By far the trickiest part is the manifold itself, in many cases there just isn't enough room to make a log type, so you have to make a merging header in the space you have to work with. Also, you really have to know what you're doing to weld 1/8" tube to 1/2" plate for the flanges, you have to pause alot longer on the heavy side to get any sort of good penetration.

Most of teh stuff like the intake plumbing, downpipe, oil and coolant lines etc are pretty easy by comparison. If you have access to a mandrel bender and the right dies, it makes things a lot easier. If not, you have to buy prebent pieces and work around what you can get, which means you usually end up making a mitre or two to get things to fit just right. :icon16:

That looks like a pretty nasty cut Integra06, I hope you heal as fast as I do. My doctors is just astounded that the bone in my wrist had set and fused after one week, he says it usually takes at least two weeks. On top of that I'm now carrying 20-60lb tool boxes around and wrenching on my car! I see your sig and avatar are pretty arc intensive, are you a welder?

That looks like a pretty nasty cut Integra06, I hope you heal as fast as I do. My doctors is just astounded that the bone in my wrist had set and fused after one week, he says it usually takes at least two weeks. On top of that I'm now carrying 20-60lb tool boxes around and wrenching on my car! I see your sig and avatar are pretty arc intensive, are you a welder?

It should heal pretty fast, I hope the same for you too. I'm only 16, but I work in a chopper shop as a welder/machinist, so it hasn't really slowed me down there. I do more drafting and machining than anything, so that also helps me keep working. For the past year, I've been in a welding and machining class at school. My dad works at the Budweiser brewery, so when I'm a senior next year, I'll be going to school every other day and doing my machinist apprenticeship with him the other days. After I graduate, I'm thinking about going into the Navy if they'll let me finish the apprenticeship. In the end, I still want to go to college for engineering. Probably 90% of my family right now are teachers so I kinda wanna do something different.

By far the trickiest part is the manifold itself, in many cases there just isn't enough room to make a log type, so you have to make a merging header in the space you have to work with. Also, you really have to know what you're doing to weld 1/8" tube to 1/2" plate for the flanges, you have to pause alot longer on the heavy side to get any sort of good penetration.


Usually the penetration wont matter is much when your just doing a fillet weld (and its not for structural use), but still, welding two different thicknesses is the biggest pain in the ass. Especially welding .063 to .25, thats tricky ass hell.

Usually the penetration wont matter is much when your just doing a fillet weld (and its not for structural use), but still, welding two different thicknesses is the biggest pain in the ass. Especially welding .063 to .25, thats tricky ass hell.

Penetration really matters when you're welding stainless that is going to be heated up red hot, and then cool down to ambient air temperature every time you drive the car. :icon16:

You want good penetration with a slightly convex weld profile, it gives it a little more reinforcement, and a little bit more room to stretch as it expainds.

Integra06, sounds like you've got a good way in to a good trade, and a good plan. If you can that much practical experience, you should have no problems getting apprenticed. :smile:

Penetration really matters when you're welding stainless that is going to be heated up red hot, and then cool down to ambient air temperature every time you drive the car. :icon16:

You want good penetration with a slightly convex weld profile, it gives it a little more reinforcement, and a little bit more room to stretch as it expainds.

Integra06, sounds like you've got a good way in to a good trade, and a good plan. If you can that much practical experience, you should have no problems getting apprenticed. :smile:

When welding 18-8 you can get great penetration by turning down the IPM of the wire, and creating more of a fission process for MIG. I forgot turbo shit got that hot...oops. We dont use many turbos on hot rods.:icon16:

When welding 18-8 you can get great penetration by turning down the IPM of the wire, and creating more of a fission process for MIG. I forgot turbo shit got that hot...oops. We dont use many turbos on hot rods.:icon16:

Actually, turning up your wire speed tightens the arc gap to a point, and makes for a slightly hotter weld with deeper penetration. Turning down your wire speed too much can lead to big problems.

What are you welding that requires 18 to 8 gauge? Reinforcement for unibodies?

What are you welding that requires 18 to 8 gauge? Reinforcement for unibodies?

18-8 is another name for stainless.

18-8 is another name for stainless.

That would explain why I didn't recognize the term :icon16: I don't get to weld much stainless, mostly all mild steel fab. What I have done is all 1/2, and that was with stick.

That would explain why I didn't recognize the term :icon16: I don't get to weld much stainless, mostly all mild steel fab. What I have done is all 1/2, and that was with stick.

I dont do much 18-8 stuff either. I usually weld 4130 (20gage up), and mild nickel steels (22gage up). Most of the stuff I weld is usually done with TIG. I use MIG for tacking sometimes.

TIG is something I want to get into, so far all of my experience is with stick and wire... I'm considering picking up a used DC machine and just getting a TIG torch and a gas cylinder, so I can get my feet wet with TIG welding.

Fabricating a turbo system???? well as far as plumbing goes its only moderatly hard...that is hard is fabrication a manifold for a turbo...i would suggest finding a turbo kit that is made for your car...buy just the manifold...then get a turbo off of another car...have the turbo sent off to have sealed bearings and lal that good stuff replaced...then fab up your plumbing....making sure that for ever 100HP or 10lbs of boost to retard your timing by 2-3 degress or bump your octane input 3-4 points to prevent detonation...or both to be completely safe...and for massive ammounts of boost replacing the bottom end in your engine and droping your compression ration a point or so will make your engin live longer happier....