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Disclaimer: It is your truck and your turbos. If you mess anything up it is your fault and this is serving only as a guide. That said, usually it is pretty hard to mess something up internally in your engine by messing with turbos. It will either perform or not perform...
I have edited this a little bit to be a little more clear and show there are multiple options for turbo mods... This is all based on some of the turbo swapping/tinkering I did to get better all around streetable and highway performance, without trying to lose any fuel efficiency. In fact I gained some efficiency to an extent. Most of these mods are for up to 160 to maybe 200 hp I would estimate max, which in my opinion is more than enough to power most of our vehicles very well in my opinion...
EDIT: - There are some things I didn't know, like some fords have low/dropped mount turbos like the GM 4BTs.. Also, there are different HX335 turbos, that look slightly different... So, I am making edits to the original stuff as I am picking up new things from your posts. So post up corrections and clarifications!
________________________________________________
I have listed my recommendations for turbo mods as "options," as these are most common & easiest performance modifications. They are listed in order of most power/overall efficiency/performance. Option 1 > Option 2 > Option 3. Except, that it is possible that option 2 would be better for "bombers" rather than option 1.
FIRST:
What comes on our 4BTs is this (usually):
GM step vans: H1C turbo, 16cm2 non wastegated housing
Ford: H1C turbo, 18.5cm2 non wastegated housing
Photos of the stock H1C setups are posted below...
There are other variants and weird turbos, especially with 4BT gensets etc, so what is above is not always the case, just "usually" is...
There is nothing wrong with H1C turbos and in fact the best bang/$$ / easiest turn key modification for the 4BT is simply replace the exhaust housing with a smaller one. This is discussed below and is option #3 below.
OTHER NOTES ABOUT TURBOS & POWER:
The way diesels work is FUEL=POWER. Because we are ramming air in with turbos, you want to try to match the amount of fuel you have with the amount of air you have. This is how we are able to get these larger amounts of power out of these semi-small engines. The stock turbos can only make certain amounts of power in certain power ranges, so if we increase the amount of fuel we have, we must increasing the amount of air to the engine to match it, which equals increased power. You can also get a lot of power out of simply turning up the fuel, but you may lose some efficiency with unburnt fuel (black smoke).
Stock injectors are actually pretty good but to get real power (beyond what we are discussing here), increased injector size (Lucas POD "Prince of Darness" and the Bosch 190 injectors that PiersDiesel.com also sells are good injectors and are available for 4BT models) combined with increased air is where the real power comes from, for those seeking 200hp or higher. I personally am very satisfied with 130-160hp out of a 4BT and fine it runs excellently without compromising efficiency, and currently run stock injectors. That said, bigger injectors combined with a good turbo setup may be even better even at lower HP levels, I dunno...
TURBO OPTION 1: The HY35 turbo
People on www.Turbodieselregister.com first though the HY35 would be a good turbo for a 4BT. Is is basically the smallest exhaust housing with the biggest turbo Dodge/Cummins has put on any B series I am aware of...
The HY35 is a 9cm2 housing, wastegated... The way a wastegate works (see pic) is a little flap before the exhaust that lets extra exhaust BYPASS the exhaust turbo propeller. This is a great way to get boost fast from a small exhaust housing like a 9cm2, but it lets off extra pressure at higher RPMs. The HY35 is designed to start opening the wastegate around 18psi or around there...
I haven't run this particular turbo yet but plan to so I have no direct experience, but I do own one and plan to use it as soon as my new truck is running. DriversWanted on TDR and a handful of other people do and they all like them a lot and all say they work pretty well.. The Dodge guys who bomb their trucks are eager to pull them off as these turbos and exhaust housings are too small for serious 5.9 performance at higher RPMs. So they can be had used pretty reasonably. I got mine for about $250 shipped off Turbo Diesel Register classifieds (which are open to anyone), http://www.turbodieselregister.com/cgi-bin/classifieds2/classifieds.cgi
I think anywhere from $200-$350 is pretty good for a HY35 in my opinion.
There also seems to be a lot of "HY35" models on ebay that are not HY35s. Most look similar, but can't say for sure if they are variants or later models?
Anyway, photos here show what a HY35 looks like...
I have edited this a little bit to be a little more clear and show there are multiple options for turbo mods... This is all based on some of the turbo swapping/tinkering I did to get better all around streetable and highway performance, without trying to lose any fuel efficiency. In fact I gained some efficiency to an extent. Most of these mods are for up to 160 to maybe 200 hp I would estimate max, which in my opinion is more than enough to power most of our vehicles very well in my opinion...
EDIT: - There are some things I didn't know, like some fords have low/dropped mount turbos like the GM 4BTs.. Also, there are different HX335 turbos, that look slightly different... So, I am making edits to the original stuff as I am picking up new things from your posts. So post up corrections and clarifications!
________________________________________________
I have listed my recommendations for turbo mods as "options," as these are most common & easiest performance modifications. They are listed in order of most power/overall efficiency/performance. Option 1 > Option 2 > Option 3. Except, that it is possible that option 2 would be better for "bombers" rather than option 1.
FIRST:
What comes on our 4BTs is this (usually):
GM step vans: H1C turbo, 16cm2 non wastegated housing
Ford: H1C turbo, 18.5cm2 non wastegated housing
Photos of the stock H1C setups are posted below...
There are other variants and weird turbos, especially with 4BT gensets etc, so what is above is not always the case, just "usually" is...
There is nothing wrong with H1C turbos and in fact the best bang/$$ / easiest turn key modification for the 4BT is simply replace the exhaust housing with a smaller one. This is discussed below and is option #3 below.
OTHER NOTES ABOUT TURBOS & POWER:
The way diesels work is FUEL=POWER. Because we are ramming air in with turbos, you want to try to match the amount of fuel you have with the amount of air you have. This is how we are able to get these larger amounts of power out of these semi-small engines. The stock turbos can only make certain amounts of power in certain power ranges, so if we increase the amount of fuel we have, we must increasing the amount of air to the engine to match it, which equals increased power. You can also get a lot of power out of simply turning up the fuel, but you may lose some efficiency with unburnt fuel (black smoke).
Stock injectors are actually pretty good but to get real power (beyond what we are discussing here), increased injector size (Lucas POD "Prince of Darness" and the Bosch 190 injectors that PiersDiesel.com also sells are good injectors and are available for 4BT models) combined with increased air is where the real power comes from, for those seeking 200hp or higher. I personally am very satisfied with 130-160hp out of a 4BT and fine it runs excellently without compromising efficiency, and currently run stock injectors. That said, bigger injectors combined with a good turbo setup may be even better even at lower HP levels, I dunno...
TURBO OPTION 1: The HY35 turbo
People on www.Turbodieselregister.com first though the HY35 would be a good turbo for a 4BT. Is is basically the smallest exhaust housing with the biggest turbo Dodge/Cummins has put on any B series I am aware of...
The HY35 is a 9cm2 housing, wastegated... The way a wastegate works (see pic) is a little flap before the exhaust that lets extra exhaust BYPASS the exhaust turbo propeller. This is a great way to get boost fast from a small exhaust housing like a 9cm2, but it lets off extra pressure at higher RPMs. The HY35 is designed to start opening the wastegate around 18psi or around there...
I haven't run this particular turbo yet but plan to so I have no direct experience, but I do own one and plan to use it as soon as my new truck is running. DriversWanted on TDR and a handful of other people do and they all like them a lot and all say they work pretty well.. The Dodge guys who bomb their trucks are eager to pull them off as these turbos and exhaust housings are too small for serious 5.9 performance at higher RPMs. So they can be had used pretty reasonably. I got mine for about $250 shipped off Turbo Diesel Register classifieds (which are open to anyone), http://www.turbodieselregister.com/cgi-bin/classifieds2/classifieds.cgi
I think anywhere from $200-$350 is pretty good for a HY35 in my opinion.
There also seems to be a lot of "HY35" models on ebay that are not HY35s. Most look similar, but can't say for sure if they are variants or later models?
Anyway, photos here show what a HY35 looks like...
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