Oil Cooled Only Turbos? Experiences?
 

Just wondering how many of you are running Oil Cooled only turbos and what you are seeing in terms of reliability, oil life, etc? On one of my past 1.6 builds I was running a T28 Oil Cooled Only turbo that seemed to cook oil like crazy (Oil needed to be changed every 1K or so) despite allowing extensive cool downs.

Just curious if you all have had similar experiences? :bang:

Supposedly with synthetic oils cooking isn't really a problem anymore. Most turbo failures I see are oil seal problems from poor drains. That said, I run a restrictor and a -12AN drain to be safe. My seals don't leak and I have no shaft play, ~3k miles on the setup so far.

most turbo race cars ive seen are oil-only cooled and they all work just fine.

The turbo used in the Greddy kit is oil cooled only. I have about 7K on my mine. Doesn't seem to burn oil. I guess you could run a query of how long people run the TDO4H-15G before upgrading/how long they've lasted.

Oil-cooled Greddy Kit, 20k+ miles on it. No issues.

run oil cooled only turbo too, no problem, track with it as well.

700hp srt4's oil cooled, you should be fine on 1/3 of that power.

No reason you should ever have any issues unless you run shit oil or dont change it often enough. In which case you would have issues with a water cooled turbo also, so its really not an issue. I would have no problem running an oil only turbo daily driven and tracked. Like Pat said, with modern oil, its not an issue as much to have oil break down like dino oil used to on really hot setups. However, given the option I would run water cooled just to help spread out the cooling duty.

5 setups, all oil cooled, no problems

be a man.

The main purpose of water through the turbo is to prevent coking oil, basically after shutdown.

I believe Dr. Turbo stated the reason for water cooling a turbo not too long ago, and it is what Braineack said.

The coolant keeps the CHRA at a more uniform temperature, but ultimately it's the oil that still passes over the bearings/shaft and provides the most cooling benefit.

Were you running an external air-oil cooler? Bad drains: ftl. You get back pressure and keep the oil suspended in the chra.

Drain was more than sufficient. The car in question was built, run and sold over 6 years ago. So no way to diagnose it now! I was just curious as to others experiences.

Excessive crank case pressure will cause drain issues, even with a sufficient drain. Nearly everything I've read states what's posted above- the water cooling was implemented by OEs to prevent oil coking after the car was shut off.

We've got plenty of folks who have 10,000+ hours of run time at various loads and rpms on original turbos with oil only on the diesel side. Some push 45psi boost. On Rotella dino oil.

When we do have failures it is usually due to hot shutdown and can be traced back as a recurring problem with certain operators. Human error.
BTW - anyone know where to find a 24v turbo timer? God knows we need some in this industry.

Ya I have problems with my operators not alowing idle time before shut down, the best solution I found for that is to send the home for the rest of the day. All 40 or so of our machines are oil only cooled and some have lasted over 10,000 hours.

Ok experts- what is the target oil temp for shut down?

We don't use oil temp just time, not all of our machines run at the same temps, or even have oil temp gauges. CA new laws state that we can only allow and engine to Idle for 5 minutes or we can be fined.

:bigtu: Turbo timer.. just need to have the time to install mine.. Blitz dual turbo timer and no english wiring diagrams = procrastination and lazyness.

sixshooter -24v relays on standard timers should be fine. you can always get voltage regulators or convertors to power it..

Running one on you car is fine, but buying a fleet worth of them would be expensive and just one more thing to go wrong, sending a mechanic and a truck out is very expensive for something as simple as wiring, and on heavy equipment they go through hell and back and the wiring takes a beating. I would rather send out a memo and send a few operators home then install a turbo timer and voltage regulator on all my machines. But have wanted one for my car for some time. I always use Amsoil so I dont have to worry about it cooking in the turbo.

time for idleAire and generators...oh wait, CA has their own rules for those, too.

It is surprising that we have heavy trucks and drivers still doing business in CA. My owner operators hate CA.

Oh yeah, my set up is oil cooled only. Last year I did pressurize my crank case by closing off the breather tube. The result? I blew the turbo seals.:eek5:

My greddy had MANY miles on it and when I sent it out for upgrade they said it was in great shape.

For what it's worth I didn't hook up the water lines on any of my turbos (for the sake of simplicity). I always ran with an external oil cooler though, whatever that means.

So, if I'm running an oil only cooled turbo, and think it would be best to implement an oil cooler, how do I route the lines? Should I use the feed line and add a cooler before the oil enters the turbo, or run it between the turbo and the drain line? (I'm a newb, and feel like this is a dumb question)

Greddy for about 80k miles. Possibly more, I'm not sure how long the PO had it on. Seals started leaking about 20k ago. Still have standard drain which sucks. I need to tap the pan. I'll rebuilt or get a new one when the new drain is in.

The drain must be un-pressurized and unobstructed because it works by gravity, therefore the only place you could place the cooler would be pre-turbo.

This is for your '96, right? You've already got the best oil cooler money can buy for a street car. It's a circular sandwich plate between the oil filter and the block, though which bypass coolant flows. Keeps the oil in the low 200s, and has the added benefit of pre-heating the oil with warm coolant when the engine is warming up.

Unless you are actually tracking the car, or have documented overheating of the oil, you don't need an additional oil cooler.

I'm finally adding the oil/water cooler that I purchased last summer, this weekend...

My oil cooled only (no water jackets at all in the CHRA) T4 60-1 just died on my after 9 short months and under 10k miles. I don't use a turbo timer as they are kinda cheese, but I don't hit full boost up my driveway and I do let it idle for a bit if I am really flogging it. I only found it by pure luck. I had the head off as I was upping the compression from 7:1 up to 9:1 and installing a mild set of cams. I figured I would check the shaft play. 1/4" is pretty excessive. I was missing parts of both the turbine and compressor wheels. The car still has hauling ass and spooling fine.

I sent the CHRA back to ATP yesterday.....we will see how much they really love me ;)

yeah, but would having water jackets have saved it?

ATP received the CHRA today. I am very anxious to hear the diagnosis. I think my diverter valve is too small and not venting enough air between shifts. I will either add a second one or jump to a large Forge valve.

Feeding an oil cooler through a -4AN line would be an exercise in futility. I use a Mocal adapter with a built-in thermostat.