Thread: Disco TD5 Turbo Upgrade

I've been away on holiday for a couple of weeks so haven't been able to work on the disco much.

Here's the latest on it.

The VNT turbo didn't have the same flanges as the original so I had to make something to suit.

The inlet has this 3 bolt flange rather than a spiggot like the original.



I machined this piece up to adapt the turbo to the original Land Rover intake pipework.



I had to make it with counter sunk bolts because regular bolts fouled on the inlet pipe and it was a tight squeeze. The inlet pipe is also a larger size than the turbo impeller so I tapered the inside of the flange to smooth the transition. Here it is bolted in place.



The other piece of machining I did was to make a new EGR pipe. Rather than weld something up from tube and plate I figured I'd machine it from billet. I had some left over from another job that would do the trick. I made the flange a bit thicker so I could drill it and tap it for a boost signal port to control the VNT. It was easier than trying to drill and tap the manifold.



I bead blasted the surface to give it a cast look rather than a billet bling look. I want to keep the whole thing looking factory and not make it to obvious to first glance that it's been modified.

The inside of the EGR flange has also been tapered to smooth the transition from the rubber intercooler pipe to the intake. I don't know how much difference this stuff makes on a turbo diesel but it was easy enough to do when I machined it.



My normal hobby is in messing round with naturally aspirated petrol powered stuff. This is my first play with a diesel and a turbo setup so there's lots of new and interesting stuff to learn.

Cheers

Michael

Mick

Looks good mate...very keen to see how you get it to work! You might get a few people on here pressuring you to make up kits etc for their td5's!!

Angus

I got back out to the shed tonight to do a bit more on the turbo setup.

I machined the face of the exhaust manifold. Here it is mounted in the mill. It took a bit of setting up to get it all square and aligned. I also checked it for warping and it had quite a bow in it. It's an awkward shaped piece and was a little tricky to clamp down. I wanted the alignment to be spot on so I only had to remove the minimum amount of material.



Here it is after machining it. I ended up taking 1.3mm off it to straighten it all out. The fly cutter wasn't big enough to do the whole thing in one pass so I did 2 overlapping passes. There's a visible mark where the two cuts overlap but you can barely feel it when you run your finger nail over it. I think it should make a good seal.



All that remains to do on the manifold is give it another bead blast to knock the sharp edges off and make an EGR block off plate. I reckon I'll put provisions for an EGT sensor into the block off plate while I'm at it.

The other piece I've had to make it the Oil inlet/outlet flange for the turbo. The standard turbo has the oil inlet on the top with a banjo fitting and the outlet on the bottom with a 2 bolt flange. The new turbo has both the inlet and the outlet on the bottom. I machined this piece to connect them. I've cut the flange off the original LR return pipe and the pipe will press into the large central hole in the new flange. The threaded hole takes a 1/8 NPT to AN#4 adapter and I'll run a braided line to the oil feed next to the Oil filter. I've still got to machine the outsides of the flange down to the right shape.



Hopefully I'll get these pieces finished tomorrow night and then I can bolt the turbo in place and start on the exhaust.

Cheers

Michael

Looks real good so far, Mick! I wish I had some of your tools in my shed!

Mick, any numbers off the VNT ?
(can't quite read it on the pics)

Made a little progress on the weekend but not as much as I would have liked.

Here's the finished Oil Feed / Return setup for the new turbo. I used the original Land Rover return pipe but massaged it to fit into the new block I made.



Here's how it connects to the turbo. You can also see the AN#4 fitting where the high pressure oil line connects.



Here's the manifold after a quick spray with some hight temp black paint. Below it is the new oil line. I put a protective sleeve over it as it runs quite close to the exhaust housing of the turbo.



Here it is all bolted up.



The next job is to build the exhaust. I've got to unbolt the original and weld a flange on just before the cat. I can then build a whole new down pipe. I picked up a stainless 2 1/2" flex bellows on Saturday that should flow a bit better than the stock one.

I've also got to find a hose that steps down from the inter cooler pipe to the smaller diameter outlet of the turbo. The other option is to weld on a step down end onto the inter cooler pipe.

For those that asked here's the number on the turbo. I have no idea what application it was originally designed for or whether it's just a generic VNT turbo.



Cheers

Michael

Just did a quick internet search on the number and it came up as a 2006 Nissan Safari which is a type of patrol I think. From what I've read it uses a 3.0 diesel engine.

Update: Just found some pics of the turbo from the ZD30 motor used in the patrol and it's the same one.

Cheers

Michael

Mick, That is a fantastic installation with excellent attention to detail. Are you entertaining the thought of marketing such a 'kit' in the future?

JC