Neat little tidbit of info about oil for you turbo guys

[Fallenauthority]

I still peruse the DSM community from time to time because there are a lot of guys in the game that really know their stuff. Interesting little read from Forced Performance on the effect of oil type on thrust bearings in a turbocharger.
http://store.forcedperformance.net/...Performance Recommendations for Motor Oil.pdf

 

[ctt326]

High Zinc and Phosphorus are great for bearings and that's why I use VR1 10W-30.

 

[Bobby]

Just do an oiless turbo and you will never have to worry about it.

 

[retfr8flyr]

+1 Only way to go!!!



Earl

 

[Hatchman]

Could somebody give a quick explanation of an oil less turbo? What lubes it? What cools it? Why is it better? I have an idea, but hey, this is tech!

 

[Bobby]

Water cools it and ithas its own high temp grease to lube it www.compturbo.com

 

[Hatchman]

Water cools it and ithas its own high temp grease to lube it www.compturbo.com

Nice link, thank you!

Turbocharger Installation Guide
(Oil-Less Model)
Since this turbocharger does not require lube oil from the engine, it can be mounted in a variety of positions, including vertical.
This turbocharger contains a water jacket in its bearing housing and must be supplied with cooling fluid from the engine cooling system.

 

[JeremyH]

Good read David, I took oil out of the equation for my setup already though.

Brady to me its a million times better. First off it eliminates the need to tap the oil pan for a return drain. Which is awesome because tapping the pan just isn't fun period lol. No need to run turbo sepcific oil in the engine. No oil seals in the turbo to ever go bad and leak in the coldside or hotside. So no smoke show and no oil to get on the maf which can affect signal/drivability and no oil leaking by and then back into the engine for that matter. No worrying about hot shut offs or having to sit and cool down the car. On and oil cooled/lubed turbo, as soon as you shut the car off oil flow stops but the turbo continues to spin and heat in the turbine housing soaks back into the center section and you can have residual oil coking and burning inside the turbo when you shut it off. Water is much better at removing heat from the turbo period just like an engine so the turbo runs alot cooler. Also getting rid of the need for oil allows you to orient the turbo to take advatage of thermal siphoning where you feed cold water into the turbo from down low and then hot water exiting the turbo returns to the system up high. When your set up like this and you shut the car off/the water pump turns off, the heat from the turbo is absorbed by the water and rises out the top which siphons cooler water in from below which creates "flow" and cools the turbo even when the car is off!

 

[Hatchman]

Great explanation, Jeremy! I can't imagine any NOT buying an oil less turbo, just too many positive attributes with the only down side of price, but you'll probably save in the long run.

 

[JeremyH]

Great explanation, Jeremy! I can't imagine any NOT buying an oil less turbo, just too many positive attributes with the only down side of price, but you'll probably save in the long run.

My thoughts exactly, well worth the investment for the benefits imho!

I forgot to mention service life of the bearing carridge is longer as well. Comp states that with regular service you can extend the life of the the triplex ceramic bearing catridge indefinetly. Service intervals are around 3 year 36k miles for your average street driven setup which includes disassembly, cleaning, inspection and regreasing the bearing catridge. My first oil cooled turbo only lasted 6 months before it needed serviced for excessively leaking oil seals and the second about the same even with an oil restrictor installed, so for me this water cooled oil-less setup a huge improvement in reliability!

 

[one eyed willy]

I've always used VR1, and even with my oil-less turbo will continue....my motor has bearings in it too!lol

 

[JeremyH]

Walmart supertech ftw! lol

 

[Greg Hazlett]

Walmart supertech ftw! lol

Oh no you didn't!!!

Oiless turbo=no more turbo smoke show!

 

[jodadejss06gt]

I have only used mobil 5w20 in my car and the turbo has been on for a full 30k miles. No smoke issues with my turbo, the input shaft still feels great, and making full boost of 9lb @ 3k with 400wtrq. I'd like to get a billet oil-less eventually, but right now I can't justify the price tag.

 

[JeremyH]

I have only used mobil 5w20 in my car and the turbo has been on for a full 30k miles. No smoke issues with my turbo, the input shaft still feels great, and making full boost of 9lb @ 3k with 400wtrq. I'd like to get a billet oil-less eventually, but right now I can't justify the price tag.

I'm glad you have been lucky with your setup Jason. I know Luke is in the same boat as far as cost goes but he is having alot of smoking issues on his percision setup which sucks. I know after 2 years of dealing with that shit and paying to have the turbo serviced, then buying a brand new one, going through different restrictors still having issues, buying a brand new one again and upgrading the drain line as well and still having issues... I didn't care how much I spent I just wanted the oil feed and associated issues gone! It's really quite affordable actualy for what you get compared to other power adder setups and it would have been alot cheaper for me in the long run to have gotten the oil-less setup from the get go had it been out!

 

[SiriusB0neR]

Thanks for the reading
I'll try it out on this build

 

[Saleen S281]

I'm running Mobil1 10-30 full synthetic, would it be ok to switch to vr1 since I'm turbo now? I've always heard that once you go synthetic, you should stick to it, im at 80k miles.

 

[Saleen S281]

Just picked up what seems like a great deal at O'Reilly, they are selling Valvoline VR1 10-30 Synthetic Racing oil marked down from $9.99 to 4.99 each, picked up 6 of them and if this is a good deal, I might go back for the rest, lol. What do you guys think of this oil? I've always ran Mobil1 5-30 synthetic in my car, now that I'm turbo, I'm open to other options that might be better for the engine/turbo.

 

[W3bb3r04]

I have used Mobil 1 but will be making the switch to VR1 now after reading this most likely. I have a great chance to switch while doing the turbo like you are Jimmy!

 

[Makdaddy]

High Zinc and Phosphorus are great for bearings and that's why I use VR1 10W-30.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Just picked up what seems like a great deal at O'Reilly, they are selling Valvoline VR1 10-30 Synthetic Racing oil marked down from $9.99 to 4.99 each, picked up 6 of them and if this is a good deal, I might go back for the rest, lol. What do you guys think of this oil? I've always ran Mobil1 5-30 synthetic in my car, now that I'm turbo, I'm open to other options that might be better for the engine/turbo.

Should be fine
I always ran Mobil one as well,
But I am switching to the Amsoil Dominator Race Syn on my trurbo build it rates as high as VR1 on the Zinc and Phosphorus