I was poking though my local junkyard and stumbled across a few older volvos.

I had been entertaining the idea of building a junkyard turbo (mostly for the fun involved of seeing if it'd work). The turbo's I found were in the turbo wagons, from the 80's. Particularly the 85-86 models. I had a couple questions, and information to verify if anyone knows.

They're apparently garrett turbos.

anyone know the trim size?

I was told that they put out around 10lbs of boost, and spooled up fairly quickly.

Should I consider one of these as a turbo project unit?

Thanks.

 

usually garrett t-3

heres a great site for you to look over www.homemadeturbo.com


Rob

 

Every Volvo I've looked at has had one of the following:

1) .48 a/r turbine housing, stage 1 turbine wheel, oil cooled center section, .42 a/r compressor housing, 50 trim compressor wheel
2) .63 a/r turbine housing, stage 1 turbine wheel, oil cooled center section, .42 a/r compressor housing, 45 trim compressor wheel

Some of the ones that I've looked at the have been reserviced have a water and oil cooled center section. #1 is a pretty decent turbo for a non-VTEC B series or a D series engine. #1 is also what is found on most Saab 900's. It's not a T3/T4, but it's a great "starter" turbo, IMO.

Sonny

 

its not a t3/t4 hybrid turbo but it is a t3 correct?


Rob

 

The Volvo turbos are all Garrett T3 turbos. The exhaust flange pattern has a "step" in it though. That's fine for most manifolds, but it will need to be machined off for some manfolds.

Mercedes Benz and Saab use a standard T3 flange that look like this:


The Volvo flange looks like this:



Sonny

 

thanks


Rob

 

what's the round thing connected below the turbo??

 

wastegate?

 

The round thing is the wastegate actuator, actually. THAT's a volvo?! YAY, that's what I have and I didn't know, haha.

 

yeah they spool up pretty well, but they can run out up top. merkur or tbird turbos are nice, they have a big comp and turb (.60/.63). but this may not be what most people want.

 

I just like the fact that they're cheap and easy to get a hold of.

Also, rebuilds are dirt cheap in comparision to a lot of the more high perf turbos.

Yay for cheap parts, and durability!