Looking stunning as ever mate
Looking stunning as ever mate
TD04L-14t Turbo & Front mount intercooler upgrade
Rather a large tuning update this month! This all Came about as my turbo starting to get a bit noisier. After a considerable amount of research and a lot of talking to various club members and tuners I built up the confidence to tackle this job myself.
So, what have I done? In a nutshell I have upgraded the factory TD04L-11t turbo to a TD04L-14t turbo as found on the Saab aero. I have also installed a small front mount intercooler and remapped the car to stage 2/3. Remapped and set up by Karl @ Noobtune running circa 1.2bar she now has some balls: 255bhp / 280lb
I thought I’d share a few learnings on this upgrade as there are a number of myths….
On the later 06/07 Vectra 2.0ts The turbos themselves are actually Mitsubishi items, in fact quite a few components on the Vectra z20net are shared with Saab & Mitsubishi. What I have learnt about these turbos, you have two sides to them, a Hot & Cold side. The hot side is the TD04L (the lump bolted to car) and the cold side is the 14t (the turbine itself) They are joined at the waist by a double bolted banjo. Both sides have different specs but are interchangeable at the waist as it is the same diameter.
However on the TD04L, at the opposite end to the waist is the throat (where it faces the engine block) for the 14t this is 6 square cm; TD04L for the 11t is 5 square cm. This had me stumped for a while, as in essence it meant that if I only wanted to change the 11t for 14t, I would be forcing it through a smaller volume! However…. It transpires that a 14t cannot flow high enough for this to make any noticeable effect. (But the bigger volume 6cm would benefit a 19t) There is also a lot more to this as I dug deeper, how the turbine is setup, number of blades etc….. anyway!!!
What this means is, in essence you can leave the TD04L bolted to the car. In doing this, you negate the risk of snapping 1 or more of the 6 hard to access bolts involved.
So, first job, drain the oil, drain the coolant. Next it’s a case of unbolting the water and oil feeds from the turbo. There are quite a number of hoses that need removing, mostly relating to actuator and built in dump valve. There is a little clip on the end of the actuator rod to remove, then its undo the banjo and slide the turbo away from the TD04L housing.. easy! (and it is!!) At this point, it became apparent I had done the right thing, that TD04L is a solid lump, all bolted up happily between block and exhaust… why would you disturb it? If it isn’t broke….. don’t fix it!
Re assembly I found a little harder, main accessing and lining up the oil return feed nuts… with hindsight I should have removed this from the sump end and bolted to turbo first before installing. That said, a bit of swearing, a few extensions and a torch light, I managed to do this from underside of car. For all reattachments I used new copper washers and seals etc.
Next job, new coolant, fresh 5w 30 GM Dexo’s 2 and a Bosch oil filter…. Before starting you need to purge the turbo, get some oil round it! There are many methods, mine was to remove the fuel pump relay and crank the car over a few times. Then relay back in, and start.. which It did, first time and perfect. Who job took 5 hours, and not so much difficult as fiddly.
I will save the intercooler for the next post…
Photos below are before, during and after. Followed by comparissons, with 14t left and 11t right. It turned out the heat guard on my old 11t was rattling loose against back of the impella!... hence the noise.
Next… the intercooler!
My plan was always for approx. 250bhp out of this car, never anymore. I know 300bhp can be achieved, but then you are into the realms of clutch upgrades, injectors, cams and potentially a more highly strung car for my liking.
So on that note the standard intercooler should be able to handle 250bhp. Its identical part to the Vectra VXR running 280bhp! However, VXR runs around 0.8 bar for its 280bhp. Back in the day, @ 180bhp my car would have run 0.7bar boost… the new set up will run 1.2bar.
I took the personal decision to upgrade, purely for reliability, my intercooler is now 10 years old and I also felt front mounting would give better cooling. I’m glad I did, as in order to do this conversion neatly, I removed the original intercooler to make more room… and guess what? It was bowed top and bottom!
Once the factory intercooler was out… I was able to move the aircon condenser back, and mount the slim front mount under the crash bar and further back. This allows the bumper to go back on all factory without pressing on the lower honeycomb grill.
I opted to fully plumb in 57mm Silicone and aluminium joiner tubing, right back to the hard pipe. Some people opt to splice into existing pipework, but it is my opinion this is where issues start with pipes blowing off etc. I modelled pipe work route by cutting and stick old pipes together, before then building a 3D CAD model and creating a buy list of parts. I purchased all pipework from ‘Do88’ who are a Swedish Saab tuner.. the quality is exceptional. Service was spot on with a DHL shipment direct to the UK.
The intercooler and pipework is all black, save a few chrome clamps, you’d never know its there, just how I like it!
The aluminium joiners are 100mm in length, with a ribbed lip so the silicone hoses sit tight, with at least 45-50mm engagement. There is a theory that you should use T-bolt clamps. But in practice, if the pipes are engaged properly, and no bends forced, a decent jubilee is fine. Infact, that’s all ‘Do88’ supply.. nice meaty jubilees, about twice the thickness of an oem Vauxhall item. I did however use T-Bolt clamps at the intercooler as felt 30mm engagement was not enough.
So.. its in and all plumbed. I had the Car Remapped by Karl @ Noobtune on Saturday………. All I can say is wow! It pulls like a train, much longer legs, feels like a larger capacity engine. Longer in gear acceleration, no Turbo lag, torque everywhere. We have set up at 1.2 bar which I giving me circa 255bhp and 280lb. I have not changed the downpipe… doing this could get me toward 300lb, but then, I get close to clutch limit, so im happy with the mix.
Car sounds awesome and now goes awesome…..
Bit of a running report on the turbo upgrade. Had a few teething problems with some water line seals and a dicky bypass valve. But new parts once again have cured this... and we have been fine for a good few hundred miles.
So? How does 255bhp/280lb drive? Its a different beast, the torque is very noticable, and statisfying. I find i can now do the lazy grunty driving i did in the cdti (the torque is slightly less, but more sustain with no peak) The boost comes on so smoothly, no flat spots or lag...... but then if you press on harder, all hell breaks loose.... she likes a wheel spin nowadays!!!!
Yes, its massively quick now, possibly at is best 3rd gear onwards on fast A roads.. the pickup between gears is epic. I did a standing launch on sunday and it shocked me.. it gets off down the road really ****** well! However, I find im not ringing its neck out, in yet im going faster now than i used to do when i 'was' ringing its neck out on the old turbo. Defo feels like a bigger capacity engine, very solid, not strained and the turbo and built in BOV sound stunning... real theatre that i was missing. Engine temps look the same, fuel economy may be less... time will tell.. but i dont care, its not a daily.The exhaust pops and burbles beautifully, which isnt bad consider it still has a cat.
It was always my concern that it would feel modified, and become a bit specialist and high maintenance? Well i can confirm it does not! It feels like it could have come from factory... baring in mind its now the same spec as a saab 9-3 aero lump then that makes sense.
So, there you have it.... 3 years ownership! I said i would keep it standard.. that never happened! That said, the external changes are subtle, bumpers, slight drop on original rims, vxr exhaust and AFLs... Internally its had the full wack... but mechanically... all over its had the most work, ive put alot of money into this car, and im please to say... it shows!
Couple of before and after pics... bought on 63k, now just tipped 89k
Looking well buddy.
Just some pics..... as im loving this thing at the moment...
New year.... New Projects! Got a set of powerfolds to fit, been sat in the boot for few months now, but i will get to that!
More pressing, on recent run over to Chester I cooked my piddly standard 302 front brakes.... nice tow home of the RAC as id locked on side up! So..... shes picking up more pace and quickly! What to do? VXR brakes! Thanks to my great friends and contacts i was hooked up with a really tidy set. Ive cleaned up, serviced and added new mintex pads.(note MDB2749s used... not listed for the vectra, but the same, think a sublte difference in thickness) So With the existing goodridge lines, my god! She stops! They look pretty cool to..... i will need to paint the rears sometime, so will let the pictures do the talking;
BTW: last pic is the RAC tow home.... first tow the car has ever had... as such, bumper off as too low!
Amazing, looks just so good and with it being lighter they will be even more effective than when I had them. Some history behind those brakes Glad to see my disc coating systemtm has lasted a few years so should outlast the discs, the slot pattern is a well used F1 stock car one as the machinist does his brakes the same pattern.
This car makes me leave white wee wee in my pants
Vectra VXR estate 2007 Sapphire Black
Teapot Tuned 255/300
Eibachs B8's, fully loaded factory options
Tech2 & MDI diagnostics + SPS
Very nice i missed my old black faclift sri.. I think my siggy needs to be gettong swapped soon
very nice there . and the last picture but i know why it had no bumper ( think the run over to see me in chester got you getting the bigger brakes fitted quicker )
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