Turbo info for 6.9 idi

[redeyeironsides]

I have a 1986 6.9 idi and i want to put a hx35 turbo on it. I was wondering if anyone could give me a scetch of what to do to put it on or a diagram? Also if anyone sells head studs, bigger injectors, or shorter pistons (to lower the compression ratio) i would be interested in those. If you have some info please share it and if someone has those parts link them to me and i will take a look. Thankyou!

 

[tbiagent69]

I have a banks kit on mine. It works pretty well, you may want to look around and see if you can just get a bolt on kit. I wouldn't worry about shorter pistons, my understanding is that there is no difference between the NA and turbo engines as far as compression goes.

 

[icanfixall]

Welcome to the forum. Many members have got the ARP stud kits from several different sources including Summit. We have 2 members that supply the ARP kits. Agnem aka Mel has them and he owns Conestoga diesel in Pa. Great guy to deal with. the other member is Russ aka typ4. He is located in Oregon. Ebay has lots of sellers offering the 6.9 kits too. Just shop for the best deal if thats where you want to buy. Mel has the best pumps and injectors money can buy. Contact him for more info. Generally we can't buy low compression pistons for the 6.9 but can for the 7.3. Only custom pistons are made for the 6.9 in the turbo pin style. Any idi can run the turbo rods with the larger piston pins. Most every internal part of the 6.9 is also the 7.3 parts. Running that turbo is not th bolt on easy to use turbo but its being done just the same.

 

[redeyeironsides]

Thanks for the info guys, i would love to see a diagram of a bolt on kit just as a reference.

 

[redeyeironsides]

Welcome to the forum. Many members have got the ARP stud kits from several different sources including Summit. We have 2 members that supply the ARP kits. Agnem aka Mel has them and he owns Conestoga diesel in Pa. Great guy to deal with. the other member is Russ aka typ4. He is located in Oregon. Ebay has lots of sellers offering the 6.9 kits too. Just shop for the best deal if thats where you want to buy. Mel has the best pumps and injectors money can buy. Contact him for more info. Generally we can't buy low compression pistons for the 6.9 but can for the 7.3. Only custom pistons are made for the 6.9 in the turbo pin style. Any idi can run the turbo rods with the larger piston pins. Most every internal part of the 6.9 is also the 7.3 parts. Running that turbo is not th bolt on easy to use turbo but its being done just the same.

where do i get the lager piston pins and what is a safe boost to run at i am thinking 15 psi???

 

[icanfixall]

Ford or International can sell you turbo rods but they will be expensive. I have not seen a set on ebay for maybe 5 years and I bought that set. If 15 lbs is your planned boost you can do that from the stock turbos and rods for these engines. If the 6.9 is your platform I say stud the head so the boost wont lift them. Adding an intercooler will allow more useable boot. Usually its felt that 13 is the max boost without an intercooler. Above that and the air is superheated going into the engine from the turbo beating on it so much to make boost.

 

[mariner45]

My engine is stock apart from the after market turbo. I usually run around 5psi or 6psi when on the highway (60mph). I can get the turbo to give me 12 psi if I really boot it. I have my fuel pump screw adjusted so that I cannot go much above 12 psi - it seems to work well.

 

[jaluhn83]

Take a look at some of my old treads - I posted some info about a year ago.

Studs are easy to find. No need really to do anything to the bottom end. I had my pistons machined down 0.015" by the machine shop and then sent them out for ceramic coating. Would probably go 0.020" if I had to do it again. No issues with starting with that setup, which is where you'll have issues lowering the compression too much, though I've never had it in anything colder than about 30*.... your results may vary.

I'm running a bull moose pump from Mel (see above) and I run about 20 psi full throttle burning cleanly. I'll get pretty good black smoke lugging it too much or getting into it too fast but that's true of any rig. I can hold 20 psi from about 1800 rpm up, and will see about 10 at 1500. Boost builds pretty quickly and I feel the setup is nicely responsive.

You will want an intercooler. I setup a water to air unit due to engineering concerns - didn't want to mess with trying to cram an air to air unit in though it's not that hard. Seems to work well though I don't have any real way of measuring effectiveness at this point.

My turbo setup is a scratch built setup that's been modified quite a bit over the years. The HX35 is a T3 input flange and the outlet is similar but not identical to the Banks WG turbo (3" V-flange on the Banks - HX35 that I have is slightly smaller) However, the compressor housing is a fair bit bigger than the Banks. I think you could use pretty much any of the id turbo kits out there as a base to work from, but you'll almost certainly need to do some creative fab work to get it all to fit together. Nice thing with the HX35 is that the outlet flange is removable, so what I did was actually weld the v-flange on my downpipe to the cover and then the pipe is removed by removing the 5 bolts that hold the cover on. Awkward but it works.

Also be aware that there's numerous HX35 variants out there. I have a link to some info in one of my old threads (titled 'HX35 info' IIRC). I'm running an 8 blade off a 98 (IIRC) dodge cummins. The 7 blade is supposed to flow more at full output, but there's some thought from what I could find that the 8 blade has a better low end. I don't know. Mine works well. Big thing to be aware of is that they were also used on numerous industrial and other application cummins motors that may or may not have the same specs. Also a lot of the ones listed on e-bay are cheap chinese knock offs that are reportedly pretty much junk....