Has anyone here ever heard of this turbocharger setup?

66trar

A buddy of mine offered to give me his complete old bolt-on turbocharger setup from the early 80s. I have never even heard of this before, but apparently this Accel "Turbosonic" kit was available back then. It has a bizarre looking setup for how it operates, since it's a suck-through design and not a pressurebox requiring push-through design. Check it out:

It's actually a dual manifold of sorts. You have the carburetor sitting on the flat space where my finger is in this picture and on the bottom flat space is where this would sit on your intake manifold. This big tube with a butterfly valve is where the primary intake charge goes to the turbocharger.

From there, when the system isn't at boost yet and the manifold is still under vacuum, (such as at low RPM), vacuum will keep that butterfly valve closed and cut off intake air flowing to the turbo, while in this next picture, the intake charge will flow through these poppet valves in the bottom of the intake until the engine achieves the acceleration/RPM required to lower the vacuum to the point of opening the butterfly valve and letting the turbo feed.

This pressurized the manifold and blows the poppet valves closed to prevent the charge from blasting through the carburetor and provides boost to the engine.

The intake charge flows in a loop from the big tube with my little finger on it, through the turbo and around into the smaller tube with my pointer finger on it, and down through the wide open plenum you see in the second picture into the intake.

The guy who gave it to me had it on a 400 of his own in the early 80s and told me it would put out about 10psi of boost.

What I would like to know is, have ANY of you ever set up one of these? Is there somewhere I can find literature on it? I've looked on the net for awhile now and haven't found anything on proper setup of one of these things other than some half-@ssed picture, so I'm having to go off of what he can remember and it's frustrating as heck!

I think it'll be a cool nostalgia thing though! 'boostin up old school style' Very Happy

How unusual would it be to see one of these at a rod show, I've never even heard of one, much less seen one!
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It's not the prettiest, but it's all mine....
"This is my El Camino, that's Spanish for........the Camino!"
1966 El-Camino 327, M22 4-speed.
1968 Mustang Coupe, 289, C4.
1968 Cougar XR-7, 390, C6.
1972 Land-Cruiser FJ-40, 350, Toy-3spd.

LeoC2 · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 8:48 am Post subject:

Oh sure! Famous turbocharger from the 70's, they were very common back then. If I'm not mistaken they were based on Garrett aircraft turbos.
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1986 El Camino
1997 Lincoln Mark VIII LSC

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rbohm · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 10:26 am Post subject:

yep, seen those when they were new. nice design solution for a carbed engine.
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66 mustang
76 el camino

a mans fate is a mans fate
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66trar · Posted: Thu May 15, 2008 4:07 pm Post subject:

Do you remember if there was anything special to their setup? I know you have to plumb the oil lines and I was figuring on letting the oil dump from the turbo run through a remote oil filter, (likely of the reusable mesh billet type now available, due to heat possibly wasting a normal filter), then through an engine oil cooler, then back to the oil pan. Do you know anything on where I can find literature about these?
_________________
It's not the prettiest, but it's all mine....
"This is my El Camino, that's Spanish for........the Camino!"
1966 El-Camino 327, M22 4-speed.
1968 Mustang Coupe, 289, C4.
1968 Cougar XR-7, 390, C6.
1972 Land-Cruiser FJ-40, 350, Toy-3spd.

rbohm · Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 1:11 am Post subject:

first never run the oil return line from the turbo through a filter. you will create a backflow problem that will damage the turbo bearings. you want to take oil pressure from the engine side of the oil filter, and run it back to the oil pan about 2 inches above the oil level at rest. you also want to use a large return line as the oil coming from the bearings will be hot and full of air bubbles to the point of almost being a foam.
_________________
64 falcon
66 mustang
76 el camino

a mans fate is a mans fate
and life is but an illusion

66trar · Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 12:24 am Post subject:

Whoops! I just spotted that mistake, I meant from the oil system through the filter and cooler into the turbo... anyways, thanks for the tips, I didn't even think that the return oil would be foamy, should I install some sort of baffle where it comes into the oil pan to keep it from shooting into it or just let it flow into the pan freely? Heat is gonna be a big deal with this thing, so I was figuring on having the exhaust housing of the turbo and the manifolds jet coated, then wrap the pipe and exhaust dump a ways back from the turbo. Since I have to get some sort of scoop on the hood to clearance the raised setup, maybe I should set it up for sucking in cold air from the outside since there is no intercooler? Any other cooling tricks you guys know of for cooling off an engine?
_________________
It's not the prettiest, but it's all mine....
"This is my El Camino, that's Spanish for........the Camino!"
1966 El-Camino 327, M22 4-speed.
1968 Mustang Coupe, 289, C4.
1968 Cougar XR-7, 390, C6.
1972 Land-Cruiser FJ-40, 350, Toy-3spd.

464elky · Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 6:43 am Post subject:

Real fender ports allow lots of hot air to escape the engine compartment. An old hot rodder trick, that doesn't look good IMO, was spacers between the hood and hinge to prop up the rear of the hood.
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Another 3 to 9 years should finish it.

66trar · Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 1:41 pm Post subject:

hey 464, do you mean 'rear fender ports'? What are those, just holes cut into the rear of the inner fenders to vent air? I agree with you on that old hood raising trick, it doesn't look very good!

BTW, here's a pic of the kit assembled off of the engine. This is another guys pic, but this'll give people a better idea of how they look. Check out that OLD looking turbo design! I bet the tuner crowd would love this!

_________________
It's not the prettiest, but it's all mine....
"This is my El Camino, that's Spanish for........the Camino!"
1966 El-Camino 327, M22 4-speed.
1968 Mustang Coupe, 289, C4.
1968 Cougar XR-7, 390, C6.
1972 Land-Cruiser FJ-40, 350, Toy-3spd.

464elky · Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 2:03 pm Post subject:

Since I am running a buick I chose these. It is unbelievable how much heat they kick out when your setting still and the fans come on. I think they let a lot of heat out when moving and the frontal air pressuring the engine compartment..

but here is a link to a place that has some different styles. You would have to make these functional by cutting the back out and screening it. here
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84 Elky with 455 Buick, Tremec TKO600 5 speed, 8.5 3:42 posi -
My Members Page Album
Another 3 to 9 years should finish it.

rbohm · Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 5:56 pm Post subject:

you want the return oil to go straight into the pan, do not use a baffle as that might impede oil flow and cause bearing problems. also you want to run at a 3/4" id return line, again entering the pan above the oil level. you should be using a crank scraper to prevent the oil from wrapping itself around the crank anyway. one more thing, run a turbo timer oiling system to keep oil flowing to the turbo until it stops spinning when you shut the engine off. this usually takes about 30 seconds, and is well worth the effort to prevent coking the bearings.
_________________
64 falcon
66 mustang
76 el camino

a mans fate is a mans fate
and life is but an illusion

66trar · Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 8:01 pm Post subject:

Thanks rbohm! That's some great input! I will take your advice gratefully. Have you had one of these? You seem to know specifics!
_________________
It's not the prettiest, but it's all mine....
"This is my El Camino, that's Spanish for........the Camino!"
1966 El-Camino 327, M22 4-speed.
1968 Mustang Coupe, 289, C4.
1968 Cougar XR-7, 390, C6.
1972 Land-Cruiser FJ-40, 350, Toy-3spd.

rbohm · Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 8:34 pm Post subject:

i havent done a turbo engine yet, but i have had many plans in the past to do one. there are a number of books on turbo charging that you examine for many more pointers. turbochargers by hugh macinnes is probably the best one to read. it is available here;

http://www.amazon.com/Turbochargers-HP49-Books-Spark-Ignition-Applications/dp/0895861356/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211074029&sr=1-4

or check this book;

http://www.amazon.com/Turbo-Real-World-High-Performance-Turbocharger-Systems/dp/1932494294/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211074029&sr=1-2

both books will give you a lot of good information.
_________________
64 falcon
66 mustang
76 el camino

a mans fate is a mans fate
and life is but an illusion

66trar · Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 8:56 pm Post subject:

Thanks a bunch dude! I'll be buying these shortly! Lots of reading to do.
_________________
It's not the prettiest, but it's all mine....
"This is my El Camino, that's Spanish for........the Camino!"
1966 El-Camino 327, M22 4-speed.
1968 Mustang Coupe, 289, C4.
1968 Cougar XR-7, 390, C6.
1972 Land-Cruiser FJ-40, 350, Toy-3spd.