Thanks for the replies. We are not talking about putting the turbo at the tailpipe. Just behind the engine in line with the exhaust I have a large open area. And access to areas to make a filter housing. And I am in the same boat as raydav, I only want a little help in the hills, even moderate ones. No one has answered how much boost I need and it is near impossible to find a number. But there it is, 7 psi. I also looked into pumps to feed the turbo, just threw in the new styles for comments. I have no idea what they cost.
This is a fact finding mission, keep the comments coming....+ or -.
Sounds like you get to rub elbows with some fun people!
"The most powerful version of the naturally aspirated 7.3L IDI in the Ford F-Series was rated at 185 horsepower and 358 lb-ft of torque, while the turbocharged version produced up to 190 horsepower and 388 lb-ft of torque."
Info from Diesel Hub
This tiny power gain was from a barely turned-up IP and a max boost of about 5 psi.
What's the point, then? That you won't have very much more "pep" until you cross over ~4psi non-aftercooled. Add some charge air cooling and you'll feel more of that power for sure. I highly recommend charge air cooling.
I've read a few threads about IDI remote-mount turbos, one was compounds. Someone else even added a VGT under the bed! They fiddled with an arduino and got the code to make it work acceptably--pretty cool stuff!
The big picture was that none of them complained about turbo lag, even after worrying about it during the build. The biggest issue of course is getting oil back into the crankcase; after that it's "don't oversize your pipes" on longer runs. There are online calculators that help with that, easy to do some research on that front. Just thinking out loud, but you don't NEED to mount the air filter under the hood. You could enclose a filter under the van and run a snorkel to fresh air any darn plan you like!
Do you have a 6.9 or 7.3? There's a difference in max safe boost between the two, favoring the 7.3 quite a bit. I know you aren't looking for big numbers, but it's a factor.
The ATS 093 or factory FORD turbo(same thing made by ATS) is a good starting point for the turbo. If I was going from the ground up, I'd personally try to source something like the R&D Stage 1 or CDD Stage 1 turbo. They are more modern designs and aren't all that expensive, either. They will be more efficient at all levels vs the 093, and capable of higher max boost if you ever want to crank the fuel.
But if you're going "best boost for the buck" then find someone with an incomplete 093 setup that can't sell it cause they don't have the pedestal/crossover pipe and get a nice bargain turbo. Just know that almost every used turbo will be clapped out and need a rebuild. It's just how people are, you rarely get an honest take on a used turbo for these engines. And exception might be if you can find someone on this forum or FTE that can say "I put it in *** miles ago and blew a head gasket and I'm just parting it out" or similar.
Well there's a novel for you! Haha I guess I got carried away.
-Joshua
