My turbo is goiinnngggg........

[alexvanwyk]

I have a K12 Tekna 3door dci, in South Africa.
I have recently been pottering around under the bonnet, and noticed that there is some engine oil in the intake pipe.
I serviced it yesterday, and there is a lot of oil in the intake pipe.
All the way from the turbo, through the intercooler and to the intake manifold. The car hasn't started smoking yet, but I don't think its too far into my future.

Question
1 Is there an overhaul kit for the turbo? if so, what is the part number so that I can look up a local stockist.
2 What kind of turbo do they usually put on the k9k engine, so that I can look for a local supplier who might have an exchange unit.
3 Lets say I am a bit unhinged and want to 'up' the performance a little bit, is it as easy as just slotting a bigger turbo in there, and do you have any suggestions?

Any advice will be appreciated, there is very little local knowledge about the micra's out here.
Cheers
Alexander

 

[raptoranderson]

Micra turbo parts are incredibly limited for the K12 because there's only the turbo-diesel engine that comes stock with a turbo in the first place. I felt certain that the Micra shared its turbo with some other cars .... maybe a Renault of some kind? Bearing in mind that the K12 was built on the same platform as the Clio B and so may share a lot of the same parts. But I reckon that if you do some research into other kits or simply scrounge up some odd parts and throw together a kit of your own then you'll be better off

As for more power I'm not really a diesel enthusiast and so I'm not sure if my modification 'principles' would still apply, but camshafts are an 'easy' way to get more power. I spoke to Pipercams when I was looking at getting a set of performance cams for my 1.0 K12 and they said that if I sent them my cams that they could reprofile them for me and send them back for the price of buying a set of performance cams; 15bhp for 180 pounds isnt a bad bay's work! The only thing is that the CR engines run on a chain-drive and so to get to the cams you have to remove the chain which means a lot of hassle according to the mechanics at my local Nissan dealership ... no idea how difficult it would actually be though try dialling in some more boost if you can or just buy a bigger turbo like you said. Apart from that you can try to clear-up your engine's breathing with a straight-back exhaust and a polished exhaust manifold, maybe widen the throttle body a little bit and polish and port the engine head. Or just get it mapped!

 

[alexvanwyk]

Thanks for the reply.
This is my first foray into the Diesel ownership world, and it is also the first car I ever bought with a turbo, specifically because I know nothing.

Your suggestions for the power increase work well for petrol engines, we had a 2L, 4 cylinder engined puppy that ate a NOS equipped BMW M3 for breakfast. And it was owned by the head office as a demonstrator. They were slightly peeved when they looked under the bonnet and saw the carburetor.

I digress.

I found a place that rebuilds Turbo's so the daily rat race transport is safe.
If I am not mistaken, the turbo has an internal waste-gate. How do I go about increasing the boost? I have been looking into re doing the plumbing, and maybe a bigger inter-cooler, should I disable the vacuum to the waste-gate and put an independent one somewhere else in the system?
I don't want to go insane with this one, I want to approach it step by step.
I don't need to avoid cops while driving a dodgy car anymore, I have a wife, and its much worse.

 

[raptoranderson]

Cripes sorry for the painfully late reply on my behalf ...... it sounds like you had a hell of a car!! Jealous I don't have more money I can throw at my own Micra, but anyways.

Generally speaking I am pretty sure you would have to buy a turbo that didn't have an internal wastegate. If you disconnected the hose running to the wastegate then I think you would disable the wastegate completely, yes. BUT you would need a second nipple on the turbo to attach your new external wastegate to so that it could properly relieve the turbo of pressure. I am not 100% sure if that part is true, but I'm pretty sure it is hahaha might wanna double check it .... as for increasing boost in other ways, you can get a boost controller you can either buy a passive boost controller which is just a bleed valve that bleeds out some of the pressure going to the wastegate via that vacuum hose (the boost controller splices into the vacuum line and sits between the wastegate and the pressure source) which tricks the wastegate into thinking that there is less pressure than there actually is, OR you can buy an active boost controller like the ones made by GFB (highly recommend) which you can tune whilst driving your car so that you get as much boost as possible. Boost controllers will get you about an extra 3 to 5 psi (maybe even 6 or 7). If you want even MORE boost, get a bigger turbo or try adjusting your wastegate (might depend on the model) so that it allows for more boost before opening. In some circumstances there is a wastegate spring that must be pushed open by the boost pressure from the turbo and the stiffness of that spring is proportional to a pressure value, so you could possibly change out the spring in the wastegate for a stiffer spring that allows more boost. Make sure you get the car tuned for more boost though if you do want to go from internal to external, cut off the internal wastegate and weld open the wastegate 'flapper' and then weld on a nipple for the vacuum line and then install your external wastegate

 

[Guy]

Alex, the turbo is a small Borg-Warner unit. There's a company in Blackpool in the UK that does rebuild kits (including an 'enhanced' one) and they should be able to post one I'm sure .

 

[raptoranderson]

I go to uni in Michigan and am asking Borg-Warner about work in their turbomachinery department I'll see if I can make a special Micra turbo