Hose for turbo water line

[Duncan]

So the stagea developed a nasty coolant leak onto the manifold, pretty dramatic amounts of smoke(steam) and lots of lost coolant.

I checked it out today and found the braided and shielded water line had basically disintegrated near the exhaust housing

Rubber melted and line pretty much blocked.

It was shielded with the speedflow -8 heat shield.

So, the question is, what is a more reliable hose/shield combination for a water line running near a turbo core? The previous one was speedflow 100 series

[robbo_rb180]

Aeroflow Teflon stuff 200/250 series is what I've been using for years and not had issues with it. Their sleeving has done well too

[BK]

I guess that's why you can't beat the factory hard lines. I was gonna say 200 series too - because if that isn't good enough fabricated hard lines are the only option.

[Duncan]

hmmm yes but the stagea is a long way from the factory lines fitting any more

I guess I'll give 200 series a go if there are no other suggestions, speedflow rate them at 260o vs 150o for their 100 series. Incidentally they only rate their insulation to 260 as well. Aeroflo rate their 200 effectively the same at 250o

I can improve the routing from what the workshop did, the line runs within about 5mm of the unsheilded exhaust house (feed) and manifold (return) so I will try and make that a little better too. Might have to look into a turbo beanie as well because it seems to get damn hot up there.

All a bit of a pain with Easter and general supply issues atm, I guess she will be off the road for a couple of weeks

[tridentt150v]

Can you try a shield over the hose?  I know you can buy heat shields for hose applications...they use them in plumbing etc.  Just slide it over the hose before fitting it up?

Like this>>>>https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/163553025162?hash=item2614851c8a:g:zh4AAOSwK2xgRsmv

[Duncan]

Yep I'm going to try that style of sheilding in the section closer to the hose this time. Per that listing it is rated the same as the speedflow stuff I had that didn't work 260o, and for that matter the same as 200 series hose.

Since not everybody is having this issue, I think routing it further from the exhaust housing is the main thing I need to fix. Not much room to improve but the 45 was towards, not away from, the housing.

 

[Duncan]

Not much of an update, other than to say I remade both water lines in 200 series, ended up using the speedflow shielding again too because that's what I could get quickly.

The routing is still difficult for the feed at the top of the turbo due to needing to come pretty much straight out of the core to clear the turbo housings, but then head about 120o to go around the rear of the motor. Braided doesn't really bend that well so I'm still using a 45 at the turbo but pointed down a little as well as rearward to give maximum clearance in the space. I noticed aeroflow to a 25mm -6 extension so I'll add one of those when I get the chance.

Also interesting to note that 200 series -6 is much smaller outer diameter than 100 series -6 which was nice.

And I've added a turbo beanine too, hopefully all that will do it.

It's hard to see in the pic, but previously the heat sleeve was touching the turbo housing, now it clears it by about 20mm and the beanie is on too.

BTW working on the car reminded me how well designed factory stuff is. On the stagea with the highmount, everything fits, but there are lots of vacant spaces that are not accessible (perfect to drop things into, never to be retrieved) and fittings that are super hard to get a tool onto. Packaging on the GTR factory twins, for example, is much easier to work on.

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

Depending on your level of boredom, you could make hard lines.

I did this on the shit box when my position was made redundant at my previous work. Extra money and time 😂

 

[Duncan]

thanks for the pic, I think hard lines are the right choice to do a high mount properly, I'll go that way if these new lines have trouble, and I wish they had been done as hard lines in the first place....the oil drain is a hard line until it clears the manifold which was a good choice. did you have a bender for the lines?

nissan engineers put hard lines there in the first place, then we make the whole area much hotter by bigger turbos and twice or more factory power but put rubber or plastic lines on it?

[Dose Pipe Sutututu]

You know me Duncan, OEM++ methodology now 😊 not to mention the amount of times I've had things melt off/blown off/explode. 

I borrowed the bender and flare tool from my mate who runs Yez Racing. 

Took a bit of time and wastage to get there but did it in the end. The oil drain was too hard at the time but it seems you can adapt oil drains from turbo charged heavy machinery onto the turbo.

Job for next time.

[GTSBoy]

You only need to make a hard line for the bit that is worst exposed to heat, if you prefer. Just to get the 200 series that bit further away. Then you get to keep the "easier" routing offered by hose for the rest of the run, without having to bend up the hard line with the mm precision needed to put it exactly where it has to go for the whole run.

The other thing to consider with heat shielding for the existing hose, is..... double jeopardy. Add another layer of sleeve (larger diameter, natch) over the top. And another possibility that people tend to ignore is that offered by increasing airflow in that area. Grab a small bore (like, 40mm) flexible hose air supply from behind the bumper and aim the air flow to the problem spot. Just blowing the hot shit away a bit can make a huge difference. Can be hard to do elegantly, only provides benefit when moving, but adds life expectancy to the rig.

[niZmO_Man]

isn't that what the NACA duct on R34 GT-R V-Spec bonnet is for? (airflow to rear turbo)