It\'s Official - Water Cooled Turbos Need Water
Turbo Mini Forums

An interesting read:

http://www.turbobygarrett.com/turbobygarre...ter_Cooling.pdf

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Nice find paul!
the word irrepairable worries me...lol

Interesting and good to know, does the gt17 have the water ports? The gt2056 doesn't.

Edited by george91 on 5th Apr, 2011.

Are many /anybody running watercooled turbos in Minis?

The GT17s are watercooled so anyone running them

So whats the best way to plumb in a water cooled turbo on an a series engine??

I'm not going to be running a heater on mine, so i was thinking of taking the feed from the coolant plug on the back of the block and then having the return tapped into the thermostat housing or the top radiator hose. Then having an electric fan with a timer on it after the engine has been shut off.
Would this be suitable to help with the thermal siphoning effect?


And what would be the ideal set up for those running with heaters fitted?


And also a slightly bit off topic, but i remember when my brother had his skyline that he had a turbo timer fitted, to stop burning oil trapped in the turbo and to aid cooling after switch off and prolong turbo life.... Does anyone have one of these on an a series? :)

Bottom line, if Garrett designed the turbo with water cooling, why would you not use it? The way I look at it is that Garrett use water cooling for a very good reason, and anyone deciding not to bother plumbing it in, clearly think garrett were just having a laugh.

Same old story. If the manufacturer could have done it differently,for less cost and effort, they would have. If it didn't need to be water cooled, it wouldn't have been.

I guess the design of the core on the GT17 the GT20 are significantly different.

I would imagine the GT20 has a much higher oil capacity than the GT17 in an effort to keep temperatures down.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

Put it this way if my turbo had a water cooled core I would use it.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

Id run it pre heater and i will once i get a new one sorted

I'd run it pre-heater too. At least then you would have a toasty warm heater in winter.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

I had plumbed it that way, but realised that it was then going to be almost impossible to arrange for the thermosyphon effect once the engine stopped.

I have therefore done it as Jamestar suggested, above, and I know it works.

turbo timers are illegal unless i am mistaken, a gentle off boost drive before shut down is as good as imo ( ie around a car park and pulling into a parking space)

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

my t2 was watercooled and it made the heating in the car the nuts in the winter. however it did get a little toasty in the summer but hay what are windows fore.

"Tuning should be a compromise between what is possible and what is necessary"

10)Thou shalt always quest for more power

i have a turbo timer, forgot how to wire it in tho, and with petrol at £1.36 no chance am i wasting any leaving it running without me in it!!
so i just take the last ten mins of the drive back slow, usually im being towed.....lol

Sorry to hijack but what exactly does a turbo timer do? And what makes turbo timers illegal?

it leaves the engine running for a while after you turn it of, the illegal part is actually leaving your car running when you leave it....
i await correction :)

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

I've just finished plumbing mine this afternoon. It's a piece of piss to do on the GT17 if you have the original metal pipes and banjo fittings.

Hopefully this will help prevent it shitting itself after 600miles like last time!

In the 13's at last!.. Just

The only problem I had was that I used a banjo on the drain plug from the block and it did not seal well against the block.

I therefore made a screw in fitting with an appropriate stub and JB welded it all in.

Cheers Brett. :)

I suggest using this pump from ebay:

DC 12V Electric Centrifugal Water Pump 109 GPH (P-38E) (currently object 260688654282). Cheap and reliable, much better than expensive pump sold for PC and that can not stand 14v voltage. I've got one on my mini, been using it for about 1 year, went to track, works well. An expensive PC pump burned out 1 month after installation.

Use it with a turbo timer (cheap ebay, $25). The timer can be used to control the pump if permanent 12v is connected to the control timer input through a diode (don't remember how but it's straightforward).

Edited by alpa on 12th Apr, 2011.

std 998 A+, g295, MD266, RHF4, 109hp @0.8bar/5400rpm