Question about clocking a BB Garrett
 

I have a GT35R and to make the fittings that came with the single kit I ordered work I will need to clock the CHRA so the oil feed and drain are almost (if not entirely) horizontal... From what I remember always hearing, and the way I've always clocked any turbo housing I've ever worked with, was with the oil feed straight up (or as close to as possible) and the drain straight down. When I got the turbo it was clocked horizontal and I changed it, but after doing that and pulling the fitting out I realized why that won't work... it will hit the turbine housings flange, and even if it wasn't hitting that it would be resting on the manifold itself...

so if I can't clock it in that orientation does anyone know of a good place to order a fitting that will fit the oil drain on a 35R's drain? it's like a flange with a 5/8" hole as the drain, I can snag pictures of it tomorrow if people need it. It would need to basically come straight out and do a 90deg...

Thanks

You should be able to get a -10 AN adaptor and do all AN lines from there.

That's a good point, I was kind of fixated on hose fittings but AN fittings would probably work really well!

anyone have any idea if the CHRA can be clocked any way other than vertical? I'm starting to just assume that as long as the drain is at least slopped in a downward direction (somewhat) the pressure from the feed will be enough to push it out, I would just need to be careful and not let the drain get near or over 90deg rotation from straight down.

IIRC, Rick from Exile Turbos told me to have the feed lines vertical too. Not sure if you can get away from not having it completely vertical.

It needs to be vertical. Theres a little bit of play, I believe 15 degrees, but it really REALLY NEEDS TO BE VERTICAL. I know a guy who clocked his roughly 15 degrees, and on hard left corners he would get smoke out the tail pipe, but not on hard right corners. 30 seconds of me looking under his hood and the problem was found lol.

~Mike.............

Yeah I just heard back from TiAL (much quicker response than I was expecting) and they said the same thing, needs to be vertical in an ideal world but if it MUST be clocked at an angle then 10deg is the most...

I'm kind of curious if RX7store clocked it 90deg off center on purpose, or if they just don't pay attention to anything, but if I try to clock the CHRA properly the fitting they sent for the drain will not work at all, so that leads me to believe they purposefully clocked it that way... GREAT :rolleyes:.

Thanks for the replies/advice guys! time to go back and continue fixing everything that's wrong with this "kit"...

Check out the angled 5/8 drain fittings on ATPturbo. I had to use one of those and grind down a portion of it to properly clock a T04-R onto a greddy cast manifold on an FC.

Sometimes you need to get a little creative.

Its much easier to get the proper axis if you make a hardline for the oil return line instead of using fittings.

i don't think rx7 store clocked the turbo that way on purpose. garrett does that on assembly since they have no clue on who will be buying it or what orientation it will end up. i just fired up my 35R up tonight and no smoking. the feed and drain are slightly off center, maybe 5-10 degrees off. i know what you mean when you said the drain fitting is hitting the turbine housing, mine was too. are you using a hks manifold? that is why mine hit so i used a 90* -10 AN to braided hose and a -10 adapter welded onto the stock return line pipe in the front cover.
The main hurdle in my install was because i wanted to route the compressor outlet facing down. that made everything all fucked up! i managed to get it to work, i will post up pics after my downpipe and the rest of my exhaust is fabbed.

Well regardless of whether or not they clocked it that way, there is no way on this earth the fitting they provided will work with the manifold they provided (not HKS) without having the CHRA clocked at least 45degs. I already have it clocked ~20degs and there isn't a chance that fitting will sit flush on the CHRA even without the hose attached to it, let alone a clamp etc... It's just a poorly designed and quickly thrown together kit.

Classicauto: good suggestion, I had looked at those earlier but I think I'll run into the same problem (just less severe) with those. I believe I'd still need to clock it a little past the 20deg it's already at, but would be a lot less of an angle than if I used the provided fittings.

1revvin7: I hadn't thought about that, I wonder if I could find some sort of brake/hydraulic hard line that would thread into the flange fitting I already have, or if you know of a place with a better solution that would be sweet also. I did read quite a few places that the drain needs to be of fairly substantial size so there won't be a pressure buildup.

Take it to anyplace that welds by you and have them cut out a small spot on one side and re-weld it. It'll put a 15 degree cross on it. I had to do it on the last 35r conversion I did for someone...

Yeah I was thinking if I didn't go the -AN route I would end up buying one of those longer fittings from ATP and have it modified. The guys over at ATP have been a huge help in the past I just wasn't excited to spend $30 on something I needed to hack up and weld back together :tonque:.

Thanks for the advice guys! after pursuing some of your suggestions I definitely have a lot more options than I had first realized.

Read Garrett's site. There's a ton of good info there. I spoke with one of their tech experts a while back, and he recommended the CHRA be tilted some from vertical to promote good convection cooling through the water circuit. The hose from the lower fitting (doesn't matter which side) should slope downhill to the lower rad tank, while the hose from the upper fitting should slope uphill. He said the optimal tilt for the oil inlet was somewhere between 10 deg and 15 deg from vertical.

The first place I went was garretts website and after reading ever last writeup that I felt could touch on the subject came up empty handed. I was impressed with how well they cover a lot of questions someone new to turbochargers may have, but they don't seem to have a ton of technical information on hand unless I completely missed an entire part of their website on accident.

That's great info for a turbo when its parked and not running. Would you rather your car/turbo be set up optimum for actually running or would you prefer it be optimum for being turned off and parked? Not being sarcastic, its just clocking your turbo for convection currents imply that its not running. And if you want your turbo to perform as well turning left as it does turning right No oil back up in the drain), you'd want your drain to be symetrical, hense straight up and down. I'd say best case 7* to take advantage of both, having it straight, and these convection currents (btw, these new modern BB turbos and newer motor oils don't coke up like they did yesteryear)

~Mike...........