GSX1400 engine Turbo project

[Joseph]

Guilty as (turbo)charged (although i had already mentioned that it wasn't due to go in a bike)

Dry sump would indeed be perfect, not for the budget though. It would 100% need total home R&D and fabrication, i doubt anyone provides such equipment for this engine

I'm hopeful that a sump baffle situation should be enough

Edited April 2 by Joseph

[Joseph]

Looking at the sump i'm actually not sure that baffling is possible or even necessary ? The pick up is very deep low down and cased in, and based on the fact that the oil sump level is actually 2 inches above the oil sump mating surface, it might take quite some G force cornering to empty the oil out of the pickup area.

Anyways, not there yet, i'm currently looking at the header design.

I've seen many online, basically a 4 into 1 with a flange plate for the turbo to bolt onto.

Whats the general consensus on turbo headers ? NA engines need equal length tubes, some do tapered diameters etc, there's lots of potential in the header for those, but on a turbocharged setup how important is the header design ?

Asking because i have space issues that i don't want to dig into too much, so if a very compact header is ok, i'll take it from there.

Here is a photo of the header i had on that slabside :

Two pairs of 90 degree bends from cylinders 1 and 4 into the turbo flange, and 2 pieces of straight pipe tapped into that from cylinders 2 and 3.

Sounds alright ?

[Joseph]

Another question and doubt heavy post.

Right. So this is what i'll be working with :

HE221 as you can see. Good deal made with someone who'd bought all this stuff for his diesel Mercedes before figuring out that it would be too small for his appliance.

Looks like these Hoslets are the growing trend in good options for a 4 cylinder bike engine though.

Beyond the damning fact that now that i have a turbo in hand, i have no idea where it can actually fit on the tricycle i'm building... 

... I still need to dial it in.

It now springs to obviousness why external wastegates are in some (most ?) cases, a great idea.

My case potentially being one of them.

Current orientation of the turbo inlets/outlets will need drastically changing to suit my needs.

Is it correct to state that, as long as the bearing housing is horizontal (oil pathway therefore perfectly vertical), the turbine and compressor housing can point any which way i want ?

However

The vacuum unit setup and placement will then cause problems, because it is solidly bolted into the compressor, with the actuator rod of the vacuum unit set in a line towards the flapper.

If i can rotate the compressor outlet to wherever I'd rather it be, if i make an outboard vacuum unit mount taken off the chassis for example, in order to retain current unit position, I should be good to go ?

Thanks !

[Arttu]

Yes, you can rotate both compressor and turbine housings as you like. What matters is the center section. You want to keep the shaft roughly horizontal and oil ports more or less vertical. I think I have seen +-30° from vertical recommendation for the oil ports somewhere.

And yes, you can mount the wastegate actuator wherever you like as long as the mounting is solid in relation to the turbine housing and the lever angles work. But here it's good to give some thought for practicalities like how you can install and adjust the actuator...

Regarding the header design. My opinion is that tube length matching isn't very critical on turbo headers. But what matters is the collector design. If possible the primary pipes should join at relatively shallow angle directing the exhaust pulses nicely into to the turbine inlet. And try to avoid too abrupt cross section changes there. Pipe diameter is a though question, I have seen both small and big pipes working pretty well. Again, I would try to avoid big steps in the diameter, from the head ports to primary tubes and from tubes to collector and turbine inlet.

[Joseph]

Thanks for all that info.

Based on what you said (and what i can fit), if i build something similar to the photo i posted, it will be merging two 38s (from cyl 1 and 4) slightly stretched at the end to get to 51 with v band connector at the exit of the header, then a short length (around 45cm, can't do less) of 51 between the header and turbo.

After that it would be 63 from the exit of the turbo to the rest of the exhaust system.

[Arttu]

1 hour ago, Joseph said:

Based on what you said (and what i can fit), if i build something similar to the photo i posted, it will be merging two 38s (from cyl 1 and 4) slightly stretched at the end to get to 51 with v band connector at the exit of the header, then a short length (around 45cm, can't do less) of 51 between the header and turbo.

So 2 and 3 would join to 1 and 4 before the main collector? Ideally you should step up the pipe size after those merges to make it proper 4-2-1 system. I think the connector pipe between the collector and the turbo will hurt efficiency a bit but probably not too badly. Try to keep diameter of that pipe relatively small, not any bigger than the turbine inlet.

[Joseph]

Yes thats it, i have an idea to make a compact merger setup for a nicer integration of pipes 2 & 3, it adds work and complexity but it could work out ok.

Space is always the issue

Indeed having the turbo just after the manifold exit would be good but not possible here.