Hi all,
this will probably open up a whole hornets nest, but I reckon its very unwise to run the turbo without water cooling when this facility is fitted as standard, why else would Garrett bother doing this if it was not needed?

I have seen the remains of some T3 & T34 turbo cores where water cooling has been omitted and it is not pretty, one unit only 5 months old and the bearings were absoluteley shagged! So yes I guess premature bearing wear would be one reason not to go without cooling.

I have a multi channel temperature monitoring system fitted to my stage 3 Cossie this allows me to check various engine parameters. With a Hybrid T34 and pedalling hard I see cylinder head temps of around 85 to 90 C, oil temp of 75 to 80 C and pre turbo exhaust temps of around 850 C with good AFR at an ambient temp of 20 C

By removing the water cooling from the turbo the engine oil will absorb a large amount this heat from the exhaust turbine housing, something which is not at all wanted! The oil could boil quite easily after prolonged use in this way.

Another thing to consider is that the oil cooler is cooled by water, this will again absorb some heat from the oil but will ulimately affect the engine coolant temperature so is still cooling the turbo but in a slightly different way.

Water is cheap, plentiful and has excellent cooling properties, much better than oil why would anybody not want to use it?

Lets hear your ideas guys!


CheeRS, Mike