I am looking to upgrade my turbo to a 88mm garret ballbearing turbo now i have tried to get some information on this but with little luck my main question is will this kill the life of my engine dramatically as a daily driver? Will i kill my MPG by doing this to my ride? And Is this as durable as a regular turbo? and any other suggestions about problems with this upgrade?

 

I use to have an 03 CC PSD F-350, and I almost did the same upgrade to my truck but traded it in before I did it. As far as "killing the life of the engine", it wont hurt it at all just give it more air to breath. MPG wise you should see an improvement unless your foot gets heavier. it is every bit as durable as the stock one but from what I understand it cannot be rebuilt, so when it wears out over time you will have to replace the whole thing, unless they have changed the design since I last did my research. From what I've heard from people who have done this upgrade is that it spools up way faster than stock and is much louder than stock (turbo whistle). but none of them have said that they hate it or wish they would not have done it.
Check out this web site: http://www.turbobygarrett.com/turbob...werstroke.html

 

The Garrett BB turbo is most definetly rebuildable, the problem is not that it can't be but instead that its almost as expensive as buying a new unit. Hence if the bearings ever go then you'll be buying a new one.


Are you running a very hot chip or have or planning to upgrade injectors? If the answer to these are no then forget the turbo. Stock injectors and programing simply put does NOT push enough fuel to spool the larger turbos efficiently. Its going to be a very laggy pig and your economy is going to go through the floor because of all the fuel you're going to waste trying to get it going. Now the BB turbos are more efficient, but its at the top end that the efficiency comes into play. Upgraded turbos aren't for the beginer in diesel performance and require other mods first to support them. Gotta have the fuel first to spin the sucker.


Oh, and BTW there are MUCH better turbos out there than the Garrett BB.

 

[QUOTE]That must have been what I read. :o

Now Garretts web Site says that this turbo gets the numbers it does with just a chip and exhaust. And I also thought that one of the purposes of a ball bearing turbo was for faster response.
And If he was going to run a Holset H2E I would agree with getting larger injectors or it would be a pig but the GTP38R is, from what I understand, a stock replacement turbo and would benefit from larger injectors but is not necesary.
I just read an article in Diesel Power where they put one of the Garrett powermax kits on a 02 Duramax with just a Banks six gun tuner and 4" exhaust and they reported "the boost comes on much sooner and remains strong throughout the entire powerband".

Pwrsmkin7.3 Maybe you should go to TheDieslStop.com and ask around.

 

Its not going to be as bad as an H2E by any means, but its still not going to spool as fast as they let on without a good chip. Acutally it'll need a pretty hot program to spool quickly. The GTP38R is a bolt on replacement turbo in that no extra mods need be done to fit it. I still wouldn't recommend upgrading the turbo if all you have is a chip. The stocker isn't your limiting factor at this point. To the OP, what exactly have you done to your truck already? More than likely your money is better spent elsewhere at this point.





Well thats apples to oranges really. The Duramax injectors are capable of flowing alot more fuel than our stockers. Add to that the fact that it responds to boxes MUCH better than the PSD does and you've essentially got a PSD with upgraded injectors and a good chip. Its really hard to compare the effectiveness of mods between a PSD, Duramax, or Cummins.




I think www.thedieselstop.com might work a little better

Though while there is good info there, I wouldn't recommend it as its to the point that you must wade through so many BS posts and threads to find the info you need that its hardly worth the effort. Other sites like www.thedieselgarage.com or www.competitiondiesel.com would be much better.



Though if you feel you HAVE to upgrade the turbo I'd suggest a Turbonetics unit. They've got a few models that can spool quickly on just a chip, but are still rebuildable for a reasonable cost unlike the BB units. Check out www.blackwidowdiesel.com as Brian is the best person to get one from. Really good guy to deal with as thats where I went to get my trans done.

 

Thanks! this information is very useful i Do have a Edge Evolution programmer and a K+n filter with straight pipe soon to be changed to a 4" turbo back exhaust but as for injectors i was thinking about but was still in debate to get it done to my truck but other than The Garret BB turbo what other ones are there i was lookin at this Ford Phat Shaft but it is still a quality issue :http://www.smithdieselparts.com/cata...7a9c021c47d52a and they say it'll drop EGT's but is this under heavy load or not? would i need 2 upgrade my intercooler as well?

 

Edge Evo = Junk. Been there done that. Their 100hp "Extreme" Program stacked with the Juice/Attitude on level 5 (total hp of around 120) isn't even as strong as my DP chip on my 80hp economy setting. Edge is like the Gerber Baby Food of the hp world. You might eat it when you're little and someone is trying to spoon feed you, but its not always the best stuff.

K&N filter = Destroyed engine. Lose it now or you'll end up with a dusted engine and turbo. Hopefully you're not too late already.




The Phat Shaft is ok from the reports I've heard, though I'd still opt for the Turbonetics. If you read on the link you provided you need a minimum a hot chip to have a chance at spooling it. Your Edge isn't up to the task.

An intercooler upgrade would benefit anyone, even if you have a stock turbo. The problem is that you're talking $1000+. If you want one I'd suggest a Spearco unit.

Again, is your turbo damaged in any way or are you just trying to throw money at the truck? You don't start off upgrading the turbo. You build the rest of the systems until the turbo becomes the bottleneck. Based on what you've said you have for performance parts you have a long way to go before a turbo will be of more benefit. As an example my truck did run an ATS BB turbo on stock injectors with a hot chip. It does ok, but wasn't that impressive.

I would suggest that you get a good air intake first off, then a 4" turbo back exhaust. After that ditch the Evo and get a real chip. In the mean time you'll want to do the prepump and intank mods to fix the air leaks. After that a regulated return would be a good mod to help eliminate the last of the air problem with the fuel. From there then you might look at turbos or injectors, though when you look at injectors keep in mind that depending what you pick you may need to do a dual hpop setup to run them.


Oh, and the obligatory, I hope you have gauges, because if you don't then all this performance stuff doesn't matter as you'll literally melt down your engine before you get to buy the rest of the stuff. You'll also need an upgraded trans to hold the extra power you throw at it. My truck has about $7000 invested in everything.

 

So what does that make Banks?

 

What I flushed down the toilet this morning after eating Mexican last night.

 

Wow guys....reading these things makes me think that leaving it 'stock' is the easiest /most dpependable modification of all

"You can't mix matter with anti-matter...you'll get an explosion" (whatever ...but it sounds appropriate )