Adding a turbo to A small engine

[RogerAS]

All,

I'm not a mechanical engineer by any stretch so the question.

Can a turbo be added to a small diesel engine, and what would need to be done to do so?

I know one would need to up the injected volume of fuel to keep a lean condition from happening, and an increase in the cooling capacity, but what else would need to be done?

Is the idea crazy?

RS

[mobile_bob]

diesels by their very nature are lean burn engine's , so there is no concern for adding fuel to overcome that problem
although you might add more fuel to make more power for the available air charge.

most naturally aspirated engine's are too high in compression to benefit much by a turbo in my opinion, my 195idi is
20:1 and i would not turbo it for any reason, although i might give it a try on the 195di engine that is something like
15:1 compression.

not sure what the benefit might be, but i would probably limit the boost to 4 or 5 psi max, due to unknown issues
with bottom end brgs that might crop up when you start to make more power.

whats you engine of choice?  what are your goals?  do you have a source of oil with sufficient pressure to feed the turbo
without compromising the engines needs?

there are countless examples of folks that have turbo'd listeroids and probably just about every other engine imaginable
not sure what the results were, both in short term gains and long term reliability issues.

of all the engine's we mess with i would probably try it on a listeroid before i would risk chanfa's idi engine's

good question, followed by more questions huh?




bob g

[Crofter]

A turbo would certainly complicate a listeroid with the need for pressure lubrication just for openers. You will be increasing peak cylinder pressure and head gasket sealing may be a problem. Without lowering static compression ratio you also increase the resistance to fuel injection and spray pattern could be affected. If you lower initial compression to accommodate the boost then you hurt cold weather starting.

Certainly bearing loads and exhaust gas temperatures will be higher if you add boost. Although a 6-1, 10-1 etc seem to have large bearings for the power produced, the peak loads of that large piston could well be higher than on an engine making  25 horsepower per cylinder at 3 times the rpm.
The need for added cylinder filling ability seems more suited to prevent torque fall off on an engine that will be asked to run at high rpms. That is the trapping ground for turbos in my opinion.

I sure like the way the turbo performs on my 2001 VW diesel but it wouldn't give me a good feeling to be hitting my 10-1 any harder in the head, Lol!

[veggie]

Check out this fellow....
He turbocharged a 6/1 and achieved 5200 watts of power.
Nice project.

http://utterpower.com/turbo_6_1.htm

veggie

[BruceM]

I found that a small but significant boost in power can be had by adding some propane; it cleans up the burn so that you can run at a power level that would have been a very black exhaust.  

This may be more true at my elevation (5600 ft.), I have no way to test this out at sea level.

All I did for a test was to intentionally overload (and extra 800 watts) so the exhaust was black and nasty, then add propane to the inlet.  It didn't take that much to clear up the exhaust.  I don't know how much power gain I really get, but some published figures say 8-10%.

Certainly not as effective as a turbo, but a lot less work and it might be helpful for someone.

At my elevation, the turbo would be very helpful, even if it just got me up to sea level performance!

[rcavictim]

I found that a small but significant boost in power can be had by adding some propane; it cleans up the burn so that you can run at a power level that would have been a very black exhaust.  

This may be more true at my elevation (5600 ft.), I have no way to test this out at sea level.

All I did for a test was to intentionally overload (and extra 800 watts) so the exhaust was black and nasty, then add propane to the inlet.  It didn't take that much to clear up the exhaust.  I don't know how much power gain I really get, but some published figures say 8-10%.

Certainly not as effective as a turbo, but a lot less work and it might be helpful for someone.

At my elevation, the turbo would be very helpful, even if it just got me up to sea level performance!

Bruce,  I have found the same as you regarding light propane fumigation.  10% power gain is probably accurate.  It completely cleans up the exhaust and makes an engine that is running on the edge just run so much better sounding. I am at 1620 feet ASL.

[vdubnut62]

I have heard of adding propane, but the Rednecks around here usually do it to hotrod their diesel pickups.
What I didn't know was that it would help clear up the exhaust. Why? Does the propane replace enough of the primary fuel that
the smoke disappears, or is the smoke reduction an artifact of more efficient ignition or combustion?
I talked to a feller that had his Dodge 'way cranked, when the exhaust temp was getting into the dangerous range on a hard pull,
he told me that a light "dose" of propane would drop the exhaust temp by around 300 degrees. If the propane is just adding fuel, I don't understand.
I can't help it, I'm just curious to the point of being annoying 
Ron

[JohnF]

I have a local guy who does turbos for race cars.  He is interested in a 6/1 and thinks he can put a good turbo on it using the output from the oil pump.  He wants to keep it to 5-6 lbs boost so we might get 9hp or so, if it works I might just offer an aftermarket turbo.  Should work for at least the 6/1's and 12/2's, maybe even up to the 10/1's and 20/2's?  Won't likely be cheap (around $400) but it might just solve some problems for some folks.

[Fat Charlie]

If the percentage of power increase significantly outweighs the cost (percentage of another engine), then it's cheap.  If it really can add 50% power and it costs less than 50% of an engine, then it's a steal. 

Getting more power without duplicating or replacing all your hardware?  Priceless.

[Jedon]

I dunno about 6/1's but in gasoline car engines adding a turbo usually significantly decreases the life span of the engine.

[AdeV]

Diesels lack torque at the top end of their rev range; this is why they're terrible at going up hills, but brilliant at fixed low-RPM applications. Adding the turbo allows the air charge to be much increased at higher RPMs, which has the effect of delaying and reducing the torque curve decay; which is why turbo-diesel powered cars will go up hills better.

As to the effect one would have on a Lister? Good question; I'd anticipate it being possible to size the turbo such that it will deliver extra power when required, but you still need the torque at the low end of the rev range. All the TD vs D torque graphs I've seen show the peak torque moving higher up the rev range when a turbo is added; which would actually hurt the low-revving Lister(oid) CS. It might help the 1800+rpm brigade, though - I imagine a faster-running engine would deliver a much perkier performance with a turbo.