anybody have a turbo that has water and oil cooled bearings? i was wondering if it's worth tapping the coolant to this feature. I have a turbo timer, but is that enough "coking prevention" or would i benefit a lot more by tapping my coolant.

im a week away from boost, any advice will help

 

I've got one, but it was factory installed...

Saab switched from oil-only to water-cooled in the late '80s, got better reliability that way. So I'm gonna say go for water-cooling, but it's not like I had to do that plumbing myself.

 

Even with watercooled bearings you still need a little bit of cool down time. They also last a little longer and need a little less frequency of oil change. 2,500 - 3000 with watercooled instead of 2,000 - 2,500 with oil only. All this info comes from "Maximum Boost" so its a good source of info here. Corky Bell (the author) says that it's a nice option for OEM production turbo cars because of people's driving and oil changing habits. But if you take take of your car like change your oil on time and use a turbo timer or stay in idle for an extra minute the advantages are almost nullified. IMO stay oil cooled and keep up on all oil changes and cool down time and you will save money and easy of install. BTW most people do non-watercooled anyway for these reasons above. Like I said watercooled turbos were made for the production cars that normal people drive and treat like crap.