Slowly upgrading Zetec to turbo

[wowblaauw]

All,

I hope you are all finding solace in your respective builds while this pandemic is raging.

I started my nut and bolt rebuild to my GBS Std last December - with the rear end done and finished in no time with a completely new rear end, suspension, diff, drive shafts and hubs and brakes, I started on the front end. With the all of the suspension sorted in no time, I started on the engine bay. A refreshed hybrid ST170 block with RST pistons and steel rods ARP bolts, ported flowed BT cylinder head etc to make for a really strong engine. I have been beset by problem after problem with components being too large or not the right size - you know the gagg. One thing is changes and the repercussions and causality...

I am now plumbing my newly acquired TOCA BTCC Owen Developments turbo in. While oil in and out is straight forward, my issue is where do I take the coolant feed from - there are. several opposing views on this, taking the feed from the lower intake from the radiator to the thermostat for take off. I also read somewhere that there is a port on the rear of the cylinder head for which a coolant take off could be had. Given my cramped engine bay and ease of access to the rear of the cylinder this would be my preferred option. 

My question is this, would it be OK to remove the 1/4" or 3/8" (not sure which at this time) plug and replace it with a coolant feed - my concern is that this isn't a plug for coolant? If anyone has an idea for this i"d be most grateful.

Thanks in advance, Craig

[DeanRudkin]

I have a full water set up on my car but my car is with red seven automotive at the moment if you check them out on Facebook most my car photos are there 

[wowblaauw]

Thanks Dean, but it is unclear from the images at redseven as to where he takes the coolant feed from although both cars look quite spectacular. 

Cheers

Craig

[Matt brown]

Don't bother with the water cooling it is only for when the engine gets turned off, just allow the car to idle few a few mins after a hard drive to allow it to cool. All it will do is add more stress to your already stressed cooling system. I've been running a zetec turbo in my zero for a couple of years now with no issue

[richardm6994]

So I’ve basically I connected the turbo cooling with a smallish (6 or 8mm, can’t remember exactly) bore hose from the cylinder head to turbo then from turbo to bottom of rad.

The water jacket around the turbo core helps keeps the oil temps down and acts as a thermal barrier between the hot exhaust turbine and cold air turbine. Short term running without water cooling isn’t going to cause any issues but long term, wouldn’t fancy it myself….especially on an engine kicking out nearly 280bhp….also running without inevitably creates higher air intake temps.

Shouldn’t cause any issues to a correctly set up cooling system either - well at least it’s been fine on the two zetec turbo’s I’ve built to date.

 

[wowblaauw]

1 hour ago, richardm6994 said:

So I’ve basically I connected the turbo cooling with a smallish (6 or 8mm, can’t remember exactly) bore hose from the cylinder head to turbo then from turbo to bottom of rad.

The water jacket around the turbo core helps keeps the oil temps down and acts as a thermal barrier between the hot exhaust turbine and cold air turbine. Short term running without water cooling isn’t going to cause any issues but long term, wouldn’t fancy it myself….especially on an engine kicking out nearly 280bhp….also running without inevitably creates higher air intake temps.

Shouldn’t cause any issues to a correctly set up cooling system either - well at least it’s been fine on the two zetec turbo’s I’ve built to date.

 

Richard, that’s great and thanks. But, can you tell me where on the cylinder head you took your feed from?

[richardm6994]

There’s was a threaded take off on the retro Ford rail that I used 

[wowblaauw]

Thanks all for your thoughts. I am now thinking that I can take off from the cylinder head temp sensor as this is just a sensor with no output. I have the GBS thermostat housing which provides me with both temp sensors for ecu and dial. But, there I was thinking this is straight forward that its a 1/8' npt so i ordered a 1/8" npt to an4 fitting to run coolant to the turbo and then on to the rad. Fittings arrived from Torques this morning and have just tried fitting them and no, the thread is finer than that of the npt. Any ideas would be gratefully received. 

[wowblaauw]

18 hours ago, wowblaauw said:

Thanks all for your thoughts. I am now thinking that I can take off from the cylinder head temp sensor as this is just a sensor with no output. I have the GBS thermostat housing which provides me with both temp sensors for ecu and dial. But, there I was thinking this is straight forward that its a 1/8' npt so i ordered a 1/8" npt to an4 fitting to run coolant to the turbo and then on to the rad. Fittings arrived from Torques this morning and have just tried fitting them and no, the thread is finer than that of the npt. Any ideas would be gratefully received. 

Scrapped that thought, I just bought an adaptor plate from J9 which will sit between the GBS thermostat housing and the head which has an M14 x 1.5 take off for the turbo coolant feed. Gosh, I'll have this running next week, thats going to be dangerous lol