Turbo Support

[RustyNut]

Hi All

With any luck i'll begin re-building my engine in the next month or so and only have a handfull of items left to organise. One of those is the Turbo/Manifold support bracket. As i've not undertaken this task before i'm looking for any pointers on how best to go about it? I've been trawling through previous threads and looking at engine bay photos etc checking where the supports are mounted on the cam cover but it's the connection to the turbo and any support beneath it that i'm not sure about?? Is there a connection to the engine mount point required? There also seems to be all manner of designs about with quite a few of you using a rose jointed system and others just going for a straight welded frame support. Is there a prefered method or does it not matter so long as there's support? Additionaly i'll need someone to make this support and wondered if anyone knows of an engineer near or in bristol that could undertake this task for me?
Any advice you can offer will be much appreciated.

Cheers

Russ

[Pembo]

I've dropped a large (30mm x 30mm) piece of strong angle iron down from the turbo to the engine mount bracket. Lots of support and must take the stress too as it is in the right direction of support. No photos to show you but it was simple modification.

[Rusty]

From what I've seen you need a triangluar frame mounted to the coil cover screws with an adjustable twin rose-joint holding it to the turbo. I don't think any other support is required as the EM provides plenty of support, just not enough for a big turbo held at 30cm from the mounting point.

I'm not sure of any motorsport fabricators but there's a place near Stroud that might be able to help called MNS. Not the cheapest place but if you take along a drawing they'll make it for you.

Give me a shout if you need a hand.

[Keeper of The Kitten]

Andy is right, the normal practice is to have a triangulated support above the turbo and a hanger with LH and RH rod ends and an adjuster turnbuckle in-between.

The hanger bracket just has to pick up on some suitable points that provide the required support, usually somewhere high up on the cylinder head and definitely above the exhaust manifold which normally does the work (although a diagonal can pick up somewhere lower on the engine), or there is little benefit.

[RustyNut]

I like Pembos idea, nice and simple.
Interesting to hear different points of view as to the amount of support required. I always assumed the supports were above and below the Turbo to totally eliminate any flex? I take it that as long as the turbo and EM flex with the engine you'll be eliminating the risk of the EM cracking. I'll have a look at my Turbo when i get home to see if there's a fixing point on it for the bracket, if not i'll have to work this out too. It's a brand new 3071 from 034 but can't remember if it has an available mounting point or not?

[volcano rs]

it needs to be supported from bottom and top here is a pic of my one from top.
rose joint is there to allow it to flex a little when it gets hot and expands but not drop which would crack the manifold

[RustyNut]

Very nice Volcano. The support leg you have going down towards the manifold, is that the bottom support or do you have a further support that can't be seen in your photo? All looks rather solid, can't quite work out where the expansion flex would be taken up? Did you use the standard coil cover bolts or did you have to get hold of others? Cheers for posting the photo, much appreciated

[Keeper of The Kitten]

You don't have one underneath as well do you Volcano?

That's usually more than adequate support?

[volcano rs]

You don't have one underneath as well do you Volcano?

That's usually more than adequate support?

yes one at the bottom too can't be seen in the pic it goes from turbo flange to the engine mount bolt .standard bolts for the coil cover .

[volcano rs]

Very nice Volcano. The support leg you have going down towards the manifold, is that the bottom support or do you have a further support that can't be seen in your photo? All looks rather solid, can't quite work out where the expansion flex would be taken up? Did you use the standard coil cover bolts or did you have to get hold of others? Cheers for posting the photo, much appreciated

the rose jont allowes a little pivot so of it expands it will pivot but the weight of the turbo won't let it drop because of the support .