Turbo flip

[David Diener]

Hi guys,

Sorry to beat a dead horse. But I’ve been looking at ways to get some more height above the waterline on my turbo without having to chop up my engine box. I’m wondering if I can flip my turbo. Currently it exhausts out the port side of the boat and of course rocking at sea can cause issues due to straight shot to turbo and questionable height above waterline. Looks like if I flipped my turbo I would gain about 5 in of height. Plus by putting a 180 turn out of the turbo to connect to existing exhaust the water would have to change directions to get to turbo. Looks like I would have to shift heat exchanger back and shim it outboard, and Get a little clever with locating air filter but it appears doable to me. Any reason this wouldn’t work? Thanks for the help!

David.

Topic

[David Diener]

more pics

First, whenever I upload pics they seem to get rotated. They were straight when I uploaded them but when I view them on here they are sideways or upside down. Strange.
Flipped the gear cooler. Not sure its going to work low might have to move it high but hard to tell without having elbow. I’m just guessing till I have that. But biggest challenge will be to move it to location where don’t have to do crazy bends with hose from after cooler to gear cooler. Its doable
Also made a air manifold out of PVC just to have a mock up. Have way more bends then I would like but its the only way I can make it work.
Looking at exhaust elbow and thinking its going to be tight. Figuring about 12.5 inches from turbo exhaust centerline to exhaust centerline moving opposite direction. Hope its not a deal breaker!

[Rob Schepis]

Post some good pics here and also send all pics and dimensions you have to tony direct ([email protected]) and he will have see what can be done and what timeframe you are looking at if Seaboard can get involved….

[David Diener]

Rob

Thanks
I’ll get some pictures to you. What kind of time frame do you think to get an elbow made? I have all the dimensions I sent to other exhaust place I could send those too?

1 user thanked author for this post.

Jack Cheetham

[David Diener]

Sorry pic didn’t make it. Here it is.

[David Diener]

Hi John,

The measurements I took had me between 10-10.5in above water line. Flipping the turbo gets me to 15-15.5. The picture I added tells the whole story. You can see the 45 degree exhaust elbow that the exhaust mixer dumped into. When the boat is in the water that 45 elbow is full of water. It doesnt flood buts it maybe an inch or two from coming over the top of the elbow. From there straight shot to my 45 degree mixer elbow. The picture is with turbo flipped. So it’s normally over sitting 5in lower.

[Rob Schepis]

Wow, tight, , not a lot of perimeter room to work with, I thought maybe you were gonna throw in the towel and consider top mount but it sounds like you are going to make it work.

As to your exhaust fabrication Seaboard should be able to get involved as long as not time critical as many critical jobs are in the works at the moment. But it sounds like that won’t be an issue since your gonna put it all back together while you get all of your parts sourced and fabricated.

For starters get the gear cooler re-mounted as you say and then take a “boat load” of pics of the engine bay, turbo area, etc to include all involved with the exhaust routing, some close up shots and some standing back, all angles and perspectives.

As to sourcing custom random molded hoses – what I find works and is cheap is to get a good understanding of the bends you need and the hose diameter and go to a big auto parts star and walk through the land of hanging hoses and you should find candidates that you can cut to length to include what you need as to bend, etc. Engine seawater circuit hoses are nothing special so as to temp or pressure so anything you find would be a start..

John, yes Albin had issues with the seawater backing up into the turbo due to low spillover.

[john]

I know this will be going backwards but What is the current exhaust height above the waterline? They built a lot of these boats with the same designs. Are there problems? I’ve worked on a few albins and they do a pretty good job. Maybe there are options if you paint a picture why you think you need to go the route your taking

[David Diener]

follow up

Hey Guys,
Been racking my brain all day and I’m 75 percent sure this can be done. Thinking i’m going to flip the gear cooler and mount it on the underside of bracket it is on now with everything reversed. Think I can use same mounting brackets but bolt it in from underneath where it sits now. looks like it will be underneath and clear of exhaust elbow there.
For my heat exchanger I’m thinking I need some L brackets with long feet to mount to exhaust manifold. Can use rubber “nests” that heat currently is secured with on bottom of L brackets to make a seat for heat exchanger to sit in.
I’m currently working with Marine Exhaust Systems in Palm Beach, FL to make me an exhaust elbow. Although after I sent them my dimensions they were less than enthusiastic. Supposed to be going to their engineers to see if it can be done. Would you guys be interested in taking on this job? Funny, originally guy at exhaust place told me they didn’t think turbo could be flipped. Said I better check with Cummins. Asked him if he knew Tony Athens. He said he didn’t. Told him he knows Cummins better than Cummins.
The issue I’m having the most problems with is what I’m going to do with the air filter. Thinking I need to fabricates an S tube or go with an air box. S tube would be tight. If say I had a 10inx10inx2in wide box with inlet and outlet cylinders at strategically placed locations. Don’t think I would have airflow restrictions and could get filter to a advantageous location. Also have environvent system that needs to be considered.
Well thats all for today. Hopefully get this all figured out then was planning to put everything back to original configuration until I can get all my pieces and parts fabricated. Reminds me, anybody know where I could get custom hoses fabricated? Some hoses i’m sure I could get off the shelf. But others I’m sure I’ll never get to work. Would be nice if I had someone to build hose to dimension. Thanks all.

[David Diener]

I don’t think there are any easy solutions. Really not any room for a riser the way it was configured. Not sure about airbox yet. Haven’t gotten that far to see if there is anything I could buy off the shelf or else I might have to have something fabricated. Right now I was just putting in place to get some measurements and figure out what I need. Was going to make what I can with PVC and fit it so I have a “blueprint” I can take to a fabricator.
Yes its an Albin, like the boat but would like it more if I can fix the issue!

[john]

Seems to me you are going through a lot of work to keep a engine hatch in tact. So is that a albin? A good fabricator could make a new hatch out of diamond plate and just get a new riser made to the correct height you want. No one would know the difference. curious what your kind of air intake your going to use.

[David Diener]

Started the process

Well I pulled the turbo and flipped it over and looks like it will fit. but definitely going to have some issues to work through. First of which is getting a custom exhaust elbow/mixer. Going to have to reverse direction in relatively small space. The other issues I have are where to put the gear cooler and the heat exchanger. The heat exchanger needs to shift back but the hose that comes off the exhaust manifold is in the way. So I need to shift heat exchanger outboard to give me room to put an elbow on exhaust manifold to reroute the hose. That of course requires lots of re plumbing of hoses and water manifold. and last but not least what to do with air filter. No room for that either. thinking I’m going to need to get a box fabricated to put on turbo intake so i can have air filter come out in a good location. I’m thinking I need to find a good fabricator. Anyone know anybody in Tampa, Fl area?

I’m still working through these issues any advice would be appreciated! Thanks

[Tony Athens]

Let’s work together and share all with good pictures from you as we move forward…………………………………… Its all about sharing and learning along the way..

Show me exactly what you are doing and I will not let you make any mistakes………………………………………………..You can do this!

Tony

[David Diener]

Thanks Tony

I’m going to pursue this angle. Would like to work with you on it. I was thinking the turbo oil lines would not be an issue. Thought I could just swap inlet and drain sides on the turbo. Definitely would have to get a modified turbo air manifold and would have to modify the air filter side also. Also would have to modify some coolant hoses. The difficult ones would be gear cooler to heat exchanger and heat exchanger to exhaust mixer. Also think I would have to raise my coolant tank. If I understand correctly it needs to be the high point in the cooling system?

Going to start by actually flipping turbo and making sure it will fit under engine box. Looks like it will work but will be tight.

Thanks

[Tony Athens]

David,

100% for sure you can “flip the turbo” ..The WET QSM has a “flipped turbo” that comes from a 450 Diamond.. ………The turbo does not care, but with said, you will have a lots of custom fabrication to do for oil lines, turbo air tubes, exhaust mods, etc., etc., etc., to do it right so the engine and the turbo noes know difference. .. It that the best solution? Maybe?..

Tony

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