Hey guys, well now that the engine is broken in a bit im looking into turbo upgrades, i dont believe the t3 on my car is going to be sufficient for what i want. I have been talking to this guy that works at a porsche(mainly)/exotic car tuning shop, and he has a K26 from a porsche 944 turbo and a K26 from a porsche 930. he says the 930 K26 is larger than the 944's. I dont know much about these turbos but was wondering if they would be a significant upgrade from my t3.

also i believe these would be water cooled turbos, and my t3 is only oil cooled, how would i route lines to a water cooled turbo?


thanks

Jon

What gives you the impression that the K26 from a 930 would be water cooled? The 944 turbo might - I don't know much about KKK turbos though. You could route water lines the same way the factory did - one to the turbo teed off between the coolant reservoir and radiator, and the other teed off between the radiator and water pump inlet. Or you could leave them dry - it won't hurt the turbo none provided you use synthetic oil & give it a few seconds to cool down before shut down. Volvos aren't known for coking.

Have you actually looked at what you can reasonably expect from your new engine, how much flow and pressure is needed from your turbo, and what turbo might actually be suitable? Something like a 60 trim, .60 A/R T3 with a .63 turbine housing ('84-'86 T-bird Turbo Coupe with 5 speed, stock turbo) will feed 95% of the Volvo engines ever built better than anything else. So will a TD04HL/15G or 16T, though the turbine side is a bit small for my liking. A TD05H would be better, like what comes on early Eagle Talons with manual transmissions.

You can only move so much air at a given pressure into a fixed displacement engine. A bigger turbo won't bend the laws of physics, though a bigger turbo WILL tend to produce less exhaust back pressure, which will increase power that way. The bigger turbo will be more of a pain to drive on a daily basis, though.

The K26 turbos are all water/oil cooled - the 930 version is the same as the K27 ran on some VW Tractors, it isn't a terrible turbo - but not near as efficient for your lil engine as a T3 would be, also making a flange/exhaustmanifold/whatever would suck alot more than just bolting on another T3.

I have a few K26s that you can play with if you want, they aren't bad turbos - but they aren't that good either, most of them are glorified hairdriers after about 18 psi, even though i've seen more than 25 through ones with upgraded compressor wheels and ported housings...

I mean, if you just want crazy lag and stupid volume, you could always run a Holset?