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Turbocharging Ford V-6's - Info Wanted


Jim Oaks

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Greetings,

I see lots of discussions here about turbocharging engines. We have pages in the tech library about turbocharging 4-cylinders, but nothing on turbocharging V-6's.

I'd like to put a page together for people thinking of turbocharging Ford V-6's so they don't have to comb through the forums looking for it.

I would appreciate any info/photos you can post here.

Thanks! :icon_thumby:
 


turbo cat

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Well I have had a little experience with turbocharging the 4.0ohv. Im rebuilding the turbo setup on my truck and plan to ditch the fmu in favor of tuning the ecu or going standalone with a megasquirt (most likely)

The 4.0 ohv has shown to be a stout motor under boost. Many have fed the 4.0 with 15+lbs of boost without breakage. I keep the boost around 5lbs for reliability reasons. If I was to correctly tune it I would turn it up a little. My 4.0 is completely stock throttle to pan. I used a 45 trim T3 with a .48ar exhaust housing. It is a small restricitive turbo. I have since ported the turbine housing and it reduced backpressure and pulls better up top.

You don't need fancy headers or fancy stainless steel. You don't need a fancy 1000$ turbo. I spent no more than 200$ on turbocharging the 4.0. The setup was a little crude but worked daily driven for years. It is now being updated. Stock manifolds work just fine and can be flipped and or rotated to wherever you need them. The early 4.0 heads have C shaped exhaust ports so for maximum flow you may want to port match the manifolds which can be as easy as placing the gasket on the manifolds and matching.
 

mykegee23

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hopefully will be mounting a rear turbo kit in the next 6 mos. when i do i wil give you pics and info
 

bobbywalter

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i have seen 20 psi trucks at milan.


7500 dollar engine though.


fresh heads and gaskets with arp studs. dynotuned by a reputable tuner.


most guys can pull this off for under two grand and get great power.


but many broken transmissions:dunno:
 
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Daven

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Well I have had a little experience with turbocharging the 4.0ohv. Im rebuilding the turbo setup on my truck and plan to ditch the fmu in favor of tuning the ecu or going standalone with a megasquirt (most likely)

The 4.0 ohv has shown to be a stout motor under boost. Many have fed the 4.0 with 15+lbs of boost without breakage. I keep the boost around 5lbs for reliability reasons. If I was to correctly tune it I would turn it up a little. My 4.0 is completely stock throttle to pan. I used a 45 trim T3 with a .48ar exhaust housing. It is a small restricitive turbo. I have since ported the turbine housing and it reduced backpressure and pulls better up top.

You don't need fancy headers or fancy stainless steel. You don't need a fancy 1000$ turbo. I spent no more than 200$ on turbocharging the 4.0. The setup was a little crude but worked daily driven for years. It is now being updated. Stock manifolds work just fine and can be flipped and or rotated to wherever you need them. The early 4.0 heads have C shaped exhaust ports so for maximum flow you may want to port match the manifolds which can be as easy as placing the gasket on the manifolds and matching.
Can this be done to a 2.9L?
 

Psychopete

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Can this be done to a 2.9L?
With a Megasquirt stand alone system, anything is possible. Could also run turbo on a Cali MAF system, but not sure how much boost it could reliably take.
 

Daven

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With a Megasquirt stand alone system, anything is possible. Could also run turbo on a Cali MAF system, but not sure how much boost it could reliably take.
What would it take to do it and for about how much? thanks
 

Psychopete

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Would take a lot of time and would be a big learning curve, cost really depends on what you buy and who you know. Buying all brand new is not going to be cheap. Best bet is to do as much research as you can a head of time and play around with small amounts of boost, and work your way up so the project isn't a failure from the start. Probably going to break a couple of things initally, but that is all part of learning what not to do. I wouldn't expect it to be perfect at first, going to take a lot of tweaking. One of the main reasons I just went with more cubes, a lot easier for me. :) These forced induction heads do things.
 
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Daven

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Would take a lot of time and would be a big learning curve, cost really depends on what you buy and who you know. Buying all brand new is not going to be cheap. Best bet is to do as much research as you can a head of time and play around with small amounts of boost, and work your way up so the project isn't a failure from the start. Probably going to break a couple of things initally, but that is all part of learning what not to do. I wouldn't expect it to be perfect at first, going to take a lot of tweaking. One of the main reasons I just went with more cubes, a lot easier for me. :) These forced induction heads do things.
Well where would i start with this? idk if i would be able to do this since i dont have any expertise in this kind of stuff. lol And i dont know if i'd be able to find the stuff pre-owned here because its a small city
 

Hahnsb2

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Well where would i start with this? idk if i would be able to do this since i dont have any expertise in this kind of stuff. lol And i dont know if i'd be able to find the stuff pre-owned here because its a small city
You know the saying "if you have to ask"?

Really you just need to sit down and do a lot of reading if you're serious about this. Most people aren't, 95% of everyone that comes on forums and saying they're going to turbocharge or supercharge something, never do it..

I did a LOT of reading before turbocharging my Dakota and learned a lot.
 

Daven

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You know the saying "if you have to ask"?

Really you just need to sit down and do a lot of reading if you're serious about this. Most people aren't, 95% of everyone that comes on forums and saying they're going to turbocharge or supercharge something, never do it..

I did a LOT of reading before turbocharging my Dakota and learned a lot.
Yes, i completely agree with you on that. I dont have the cash to do it right now, but im trying to plan out what i am going to do wth my truck as i get the money to do it. I would love to just turbo it, i just dont know of any pages that can give me the info i need. As you can tell, i know close to nothing about this stuff. So alot of the talk you guys use (lol), i dont completely understand as i do not know of alot of these parts and/or where they are located.

That is why i am asking questions such as "what parts will i all need", "how much do you think this will cost in total if i were to get a shop to do this", etc etc. Lol i understand if its too frusterating to try and spell it out for me. Just trying to get a feel for what the best way to go to add power to my ranger is. Exploring my options is all.
 

BassMaster5000

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Do yall know that the 06 stock block is rated at? You say you've seen 15-20 psi ran through a stock 4.0, but without knowing what kind of tune, supporting mods, setup, its hard to tell what the limits are..

Turbo Cat, have you dyno'd your set up?
 

PORTnPOLISH

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Not saying you guys don't know, but I've built 6 turbo DSMs so im pretty savvy when it comes to turbo limbo jumbo. If you have any qeustions you can shoot me a PM. I was lookin at what it would take to turbo my 4.0. Heck its Perth pressed for space but I could see it being possible with a custom manifold setup.
 

kuivinenj

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well i really want to turbo a 2.9L and i currently have 2 spares so expect something from me in a few months altho I've never bolted a turbo on anything in my life im gonna try and screw around with it
 

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