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Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 11:28 am
by NICO
free5ty1e your killing me hahahahha so stoned reading this and your a laugh hahaha.
my lit brother just order a rebuild kit.
my dad fixed my 323 gtx cuz the turbo blew up and i think he payed 30bucks. my dad put it all together, works like a champ. my gtx is so fast. bigger intercooler, port heads, raceing computer, 17psi boost on a legacy turbo, dame it is a scary little bullet. my legacy is faster but that gtx is a monster in residential turning MIGHTY MOUSE.
about the t-bird trim, if i new how to post dame pics i would love to show you them. side bye side legacy fan and housing, and t-bird fan and housing in the pics you can see ths size diffrence.
Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 2:06 pm
by free5ty1e
nico... you've got photos of the t-bird rhb5? If you email them to me I can post them here. Or better yet, what is the compressor trim number on that turbo?
and... I'll have some of what you've got - pass it dis way!
Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 4:55 pm
by NICO
ok this is what it says on it 51t 21 86, beats me.
i would love to pass it over i got pounds up hear, i would make a killing 3gs american turns in to 4gs canadian. you ever try canadian bud its the best in the world and my city makes the most.
Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2004 10:37 pm
by free5ty1e
damn turbos, labeled with all kinds of useless numbers... so at best we can guess the T-bird turbo is what, a VF-51? lol... I'm so lost.
Man, I may have to come up and check things out up there. You're makin me wish I lived in the Great North

They don't take too kindly to that sort of activity where I live. This here's a Bush state, for some ungodly reason

Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2004 1:26 am
by NICO
hahaha vf51 it is.
ya come on up its crazy up hear everyone is lade back with no guns only muncies hahahha.
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 10:35 pm
by free5ty1e
Ok Ok... does THIS look familiar, any of you who have done the t-bird hybrid turbo mod?
IHI RHB52 VI-55
The guy says he has no idea what car it came out of but I'm looking for a bit of help from my good friends here at Legacy Central

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 10:42 pm
by free5ty1e
Oh and a bit more research turned up that the largest RHB5 compressor wheel (from the 87-88 t-bird coupe) has a trim of .60 a/r. I'm just trying to gather as much information on this turbo as possible because only one junkyard in town has a t-bird turbo coupe and he doesnt want to sell me the turbo since the motor's good...

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 10:43 pm
by mTk
From what i can tell it came out of an Isuzu I-Mark. 1.5L 110hp
MK
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:09 pm
by free5ty1e
Eew. lol... what do you base that conclusion on, if I may ask?
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:23 pm
by free5ty1e
Found a turbo that definately came off of a t-bird coupe, 87-88, .60 compressor a/r... numbers on the compressor housing agree with what Nico posted earlier:
51T-21 98 2
So I am supposing the important part of that number is the "51"... so its an IHI RHB5 Vx-51. No idea what letter to put in place of the x, maybe an f, maybe a j, maybe an i... I've seen all three on ihi turbos during the course of this research. I'll see what else I can find out. Oh the 87-88 t-bird coupe has a 2.3L motor. No idea if its a 4-banger or a v6, but every piece of information can be useful in some fashion.
More calling around to junkyards tomorrow, when they open again.

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 12:35 am
by mTk
Google my good man.
MK
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 1:14 am
by mTk
IHI RHB52W vc-32mx/ax is the turbo model from what i can dig up
Only info i can find is the stock numbers for a thunderbird 190hp 2.3L on unkown psi.
MK
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:31 am
by NICO
that turbo up there is not the one, holy that is small. if you get the turbo from t-bird it is a huge inlet and yes its off a 2.3l 4cycl.
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:59 am
by free5ty1e
mTk... so the 87-88 t-bird turbo coupe (2.3L 4 cylinder) uses an IHI RHB52 VC-32? If this is true perhaps it will be a bit easier to locate one. All the junkyards so far still say no turbos left in their t-birds...
That google... hey, its how I found this board. Never got very far looking up turbo model numbers though. Thanks!
oh hey - the junkyards have asked me if I'm looking for an automatic or manual t-bird when I explain what I'm looking for... did they have different turbos?!
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 5:55 am
by -K-
That was not the turbo you are looking for. The auto and 5spd turbos are the same, the computer at the JY just always asks. I can ask my brother to ask around on turboford, might get a bad turbo with a good cold side real cheap. Or a good one for $50-100. You could get the part# from Ford if you have to have it.
190hp at 15psi, good to 17-19psi on that engine. The hot side is bigger on it also. My brother is at 260-270hp by the 1/4mile dyno converter.
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:45 pm
by free5ty1e
Thanks K... yeah I'd imagine it'd have a bigger exhaust side too. Just swapping that turbo in would probably work, wouldn't it? The exhaust side has the oil and water fittings though... I guess those would have to be swapped with the original too.
Hmm... How does making the hybrid we have talked about compare with just swapping in the t-bird turbo? And how does that compare with the coveted td05-16g WRX turbo swap? Just slower spool-up with each turbo, but higher boost and max RPM?
K yes if your brother comes across either a good cold side or an entire good turbo cheap, let me know, I will probably buy it. Until then I'll continue my search at junkyards here.
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 3:27 pm
by NICO
free5ty1e only the front of the t-bird turbo will fit, if you want crazy mid range do this. but there is so many diffrent types of powers turbos can give you.
then putting on headers and down pipes and screwwing around with intake airfilters all play parts in how the turbo should feel about hp
Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 5:06 pm
by free5ty1e
oh yeah the exhaust side might not bolt right up to the existing DP and all, forgot about that.
Well, I just want to make sure the hybrid turbo will be able to push decent boost all the way to redline, the stock turbo blows at this. Or rather, doesn't blow. Whatever.
I still like the nice, round number ... 20 psi.

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 2004 9:53 pm
by georryan
free5ty1e wrote:
I still like the nice, round number ... 20 psi.

I hope you've got fuel upgrades. Boostjunkie was running 16.7 or so psi on a TD05-16G and he had the walbro 255 lph fuel pump, and his hangup was the injectors. They were close to max.
Kelley will be selling fuel rails and injectors for our cars soon, if you need anything like that.
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 3:31 am
by free5ty1e
Yes indeed... I would of course have larger injectors and a higher capacity fuel pump at the very least in place before running that kind of boost with a bigger compressor... probably have aftermarket injector control too, thinking about going with one of those electronic boost controllers that takes care of all of that for you.
...Who's Kelley? I was just planning to get a Walbro fuel pump, a 92-94 n/a fuel rail, and some nismo high flow injectors.
Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 4:59 am
by georryan
Ah didn't see your post count. People who have been here for a fairly long leangth know kelley.
He's opening a shop. You can see it in the vender section. He also has a nearly 400 hp legacy that pulls on sti's and corvettes. Pretty impressive.
Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2004 12:30 am
by free5ty1e
Thanks - I have located The Kelley. Sounds like he'll have some good products for the good ol' Legacies.
Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2004 3:47 am
by -K-
I think it would be faster to just go here
www.turboford.org and check the parts for a IHI.
I'm real happy for now with the hybrid. It pulls hard to redline now. I was going to swap the whole turbo over before I found the hot side was cracked real bad. I was going to make a new up-pipe because the bolt pattern is different. One of them uses NPT oil fittings and the other standard so I was going to have to change out the center section of the turbo. Then the exhaust got me. The Ford turbo uses a cast piece about 5in long with a 90deg downturn after the turbo. This cast piece also holds the wastegate. So it would have been hard to get a DP to fit . That's when I went with the Hybrid.
Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2004 2:59 pm
by free5ty1e
Yeah, if I were to go with a whole new turbo I'd probably wait to get a td05-16g from the wrx... the hybrid is a happy medium, especially once I find a larger downpipe and have a turboback exhaust installed.
Just found and purchased the compressor housing and wheel from that exact ford turbo, should be on its way. Now I need to find a reasonably-priced rhb5 rebuild kit for when I do this thing.
Oh... just so we're clear, the up-pipe is the piece with the o2 sensor, feeding the turbine exhaust from all 4 cylinders? And the downpipe is the turbine's exit to the exhaust piping? If so then what the hell is a mid-pipe, and where did I hear that?

Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2004 7:45 am
by -K-
The up-pipe is what the turbo bolts down to. It goes from the header to the turbo. It doesn't have an O2 on mine. The WRX has a EGT built in, as well as a cat. The down-pipe goes from the turbo down and back to the tranny. It has a very bad cat in it, and the pipe is small. A good DP with a high flow cat is where it's at. The mid pipe goes from the tranny to about the rear dif. This is where the longer wheelbase of the Legacy needs to get added to a WRX exhaust. Then the section with the muffler from the rear dif back.