Converting to turbo?

[precopster]

I have looked up both the LPT, HPT and NA heads on Vadis for the 850 and have yet to find different part numbers for turbo valves. The part numbers are the same and supercede to a newer number which is readily available (and inexpensive)

Is the sodium filled valve just a myth started by someone who tore down an engine that had been upgraded to sodium filled valves?

The oil feed line in the turbo block needs to be drilled and tapped in as well as swapping the coolant pipe which has a extra tee. You could put some Canadian 10 valve pistons in the NA B5254S block which would give you around 9.8:1 compression. You would need to add the flycuts for the extra valves, though.....

[kcodyjr]

Thanks, precopster, that's the kind of analysis I was hoping for.

Drilling and tapping the oil feed line sounds like a steady-hand critical pain in the butt, but doable. Simply swapping the pipe for the coolant feed, is good news indeed. How about their return lines? Is that just as straightforward, or am I going to be drilling a hole in the pan and finding a fitting at the hardware store?

If I'm going to mess with the bottom end at all, I'm thinking to just swap in some forged connecting rods, maybe the ones from eurosporttuning.com, and leave the NA cams in it. Is there a reason to change the pistons other than their height and surface shape affecting the compression ratio?

Does anyone think I can get away with this without changing the bottom end or cams at all? I realize 11:1 is a bit high for even a light pressure turbo, but today's fuels are a lot better than in 1997.

[jblackburn]

I have looked up both the LPT, HPT and NA heads on Vadis for the 850 and have yet to find different part numbers for turbo valves. The part numbers are the same and supercede to a newer number which is readily available (and inexpensive)

Is the sodium filled valve just a myth started by someone who tore down an engine that had been upgraded to sodium filled valves?

I think they replaced them ALL with sodium valves now. The darn engines kept burning em, probably from where people were getting detonation on low-octane fuels.

I'd change the con. rods out. Word has it they're the weakest point on the NA engines.

[kcodyjr]

OK, so I'm looking at a set of exhaust valves and a set of connecting rods.

I'd already assumed I'd be sending the head out for whatever it is they do to heads, so the valves won't be much further trouble beyond that.

What do I need to know about connecting rods? Are the ones from ardtuning.com a good bet? What am I looking for? Any gotchas to installing them, balancing and whatnot?

Thanks again!

[precopster]

There's quite a bit you can do with standard conrods without spending a fortune on forged ones.
The gudgeon pin end is cut into a three sided end and is very course and a potential weakspot with this design. Later '99 on have a rounded end machined nicely into a sphere. You could get some '99 plus conrods and save the bother or grind off the sharp edges on the earlier ones with a bench grinder then send them in for shot peening. Balancing is equally important while using the grinder; just find the lightest one of the five and take equal amounts off all surfaces until equal to the lightest one. YouTube channel fiatnutz has some great videos on the procedure. He recently did up a Volvo five and posted video of it as a bare block before being placed back in the car. He does some really nice treatments on engines to help extract greater horsepower and reliability.

[kcodyjr]

Thanks, precopster.

At $595 for the set, I wouldn't call the ardtuning conrods a fortune exactly, but point taken.

What I'm getting from your post is that I don't want to screw with grinding metal myself, since that's when balancing comes into it, so I need to choose and acquire a set of conrods. I'd assume a six hundred dollar set comes balanced, and I'd also assume that any set of five pulled from the same engine will also be balanced to each other.

So, I'm looking for a 99+ NA or LPT block, and grab just the conrods from it? What's a boneyard likely to charge me for the privilege of ripping an intact engine apart? It kinda better be cheap I think, or I'd rather just get a new set.

[precopster]

Rods are not balanced from the factory. The factory castings can leave extra material on the rod.





Look at killerb056 comments under the Volvo block video. He's the owner

and finally his video of the running car

[j-dawg]

A complete turbo longblock is under $200 from wrecking yards all over the place. That solves the problems of the valves, the oil feed and oil return, the hard water pipe behind the block, the throttle body (it's a smaller diameter on the turbo), and the rods.=

where is the line for the $200 turbo longblock? i could use one of those

[abscate]

Someone with a blown engine please cut a valve in two and drop it into your pool to settle this debate......