Update time...
It's been a while but things have been changing in the background.
Having been running the custom injectors with the VNT for a good few months and a few thousand miles of daily driving the VNT mech had finally begun to slow down (hardly surprising with the amount of soot the injectors throw out).
It needs to be a reliable daily so with that in mind I decided to de-tune slightly by putting the standard turbo back on along with SDIs.
That lasted for 2 weeks...
Having gotten used to the power and torque of the VNT, the standard turbo wasn't cutting the mustard higher up the rev range so it had to go. The way I saw things were I could either re-fit the VNT and run it with SDIs so as not to clog it up every few thousand miles OR I could try something completely different, not yet tried on an L series as far as I know.
So, this is the end of the VNT chapter for now. It is all cleaned out and waiting on a shelf in the garage for some more action in the future maybe.
So, as always, lots of pictures and info so if anybody else wants a bigger turbo on their car too there are literally no excuses not to do it!
First of all, here is 1x VNT turbo kit with super clean silky smooth vanes safely in storage should it ever be called up for duty again in the future:
Out with the old and in with the new. The postman came with some presents:
But what's inside?
As you can see, lots of turbo goodness including a blown GT2056s as used on Renault Trafic vans and Vivaro vans with the 2.5 dci engine between 2003 and 2006.
Part no. 714652
Other useful info:
Compressor inducer: 41.5mm
Compressor exducer: 56mm
A/R: 0.53
Trim: 55
According to the seller there was just an oil seal gone but rather than rely on used parts I decided to replace the whole CHRA (cartridge) for a brand new uprated one from NKK turbos. This has staggered seals, uprated bearings and is completely balanced with print out.
Other than that, there are just loads of gaskets, some stainless exhaust sections and some steel plate for me to get creative with.
Some pics of the turbo, ties in with the blown oil seal story, oil everywhere!
After a thorough clean/ de-grease:
A flange for the turbo end of the downpipe:
Recycling some old exhaust, I made a little partition to isolate the wastegate from the turbine outlet. I also made the flange look a bit prettier.
Continuing the theme of recycling, I needed a flange for the other end of the new downpipe:
Before I could lock the wastegate shut properly, I needed to clock the turbo which is where the VNT came in very useful. Both turbos have the same manifold flange (so I didn't have to make another adapter plate) and also the compressor housings look to be exactly the same casting surprisingly. They have the retaining bolts in slightly different places and they are obviously machined to take the 52mm and 56mm compressor wheels accordingly.
One thing that did cross my mind was how easy it would be to make a VNT GT1856V using the compressor side from the GT2056s. Maybe something for the future?
Anyway, back to this... a clocked turbo and a few pics comparing the 1852V and the 2056S:
So now I could start my next piece of metal work... a means of keeping the internal wastegate shut:
All bolted together:
And naturally it got the oil and filter dropped and new stuff put in.
It is now all fitted and ready to go, I just need to get the downpipe parts welded together and a screamer pipe for the wastegate made. If its too loud I'll just plumb it back into the exhaust as with the set up with the VNT.
So I've got what could potentially be the next best thing in L series tuning or the next lemon. Really wish I could say which of the two it is but no downpipe means no drive yet.
Needless to say I'm excited to see how it is... watch this space.
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