Parts is Parts

It’s time to start working on the Toyota H Diesel engine in my 1980 HJ45 Troopy. I ordered a set of pistons from Roodog’s 4WD Spares in Australia and they arrived yesterday. Those guys are great. I highly recommend them for any old Cruiser parts you might need. The exchange rate typically completely offsets the cost of shipping from the other side of the world.

I’m ready to start putting the engine back together. The cylinder bores have been inspected and honed. Thankfully they were within standard spec and I didn’t need to bore or sleeve the block. I got the cylinder head inspected and a complete valve job done on it. I have a stock Toyota head gasket from Japan and all of the other miscellaneous gaskets and seals for a top end job. Later tonight I plan to measure the rings in the bores and inspect/file the end gaps if necessary. The rod bearings and journals are in great shape, I think they have been redone at some point in the engine’s life.

I looked around at the various options to add a turbo to the H diesel engine. There’s really nothing out there. The H hasn’t been used in anything since 1980 and back then turbo kits weren’t very common. A few shops make kits for the 2H that can be adapted to the H but it requires a non-trivial amount of fabrication and possibly drilling and tapping of the cylinder head for new exhaust mounting studs.

I’m cheap. So I’m going the cheap route and making my own turbo kit for this engine. One of the design hurdles was figuring out what kind of exhaust manifold to make. I decided on 2″ square 316L Stainless tubing for a log-type turbo exhaust manifold. I had to design my own mounting flange to attach the log manifold to the head. I had the plates laser cut by Laser Cutting Services in Oregon. They were incredibly easy to work with and the parts were cheap. 12 pieces of 3/8″ 316L stainless laser cut and shipped for less than $100.

I’ve never designed one of these manifolds before. I hope the stainless tubing is strong enough to withstand the fatigue of the heat cycles. The exhaust temps can get hot on a turbo engine. I chose 316L stainless tubing because the coefficient of thermal expansion is less than other stainless alloys. I plan to TIG weld the whole thing up after I’ve gotten a little more practice in on the welder.

Keeping the cheap theme going, I bought a cheapie Chinese T3 knockoff on eBay for $149. It’s a .42 A/R turbine, .50 a/r compressor. I think it will be OK. We’ll see. I don’t intend to turn the fuel screw way up and I’ll keep the boost down to 8 or 10 psi. This turbo will hopefully handle it just fine. At the price I paid for it I can buy four or five of them for the cost of a single Garrett turbo.

I’ll post more as progress is made. I’m a bit busy with a work project at the moment so things will most likely progress slowly.