So as the title says I am doing a 2.5L turbo build on my 97 TJ. I'm currently about 90% done. When I started this build I never planned to put this to the forum, however after seeing a recent turbo question on the forum and the very limited information and parts out there for a 2.5 turbo I figured I would share my experience.
First off I'm sorry about the photos. Again I was not planning on sharing this so I did not have education on my mind when taking these photos. These are simply photos that I randomly took through ought the build.
It all started at Windrock Park in TN. A buddy of our group drag races and has played with turbo's before. I kept throwing around the idea for a few weeks about slapping a turbo on of winter, but it wasn't until the 8 hour drive home from are wheeling trip to where I decided I was going to do it. My goal was simple. Build a BUDGET turbo kit for my jeep for under $600. I was going to ebay turbo it, use a Fuel Management Unit to richen the air fuel ratio, and not doing any real tuning as far as timing, because I was under the impression that you could not tune our ECU since the MAP sensor could not recognize boost (positive pressure) but only vacuum. This is prolly a good time to mention I have ZERO knowledge about turbo's, correct AFR, or timing. But hey it was our last trip of the year and my
jeep was going in the shop for the winter for its yearly upgrade/ maintenance.
Enough with the story. Straight to the info/pics.
As soon as we got home from Windrock Park, TN I washed it, parked it in the shop and pulled the radiator and cut off the down pipe. This was my way of commiting even though I did not have everything planned out. I had a general idea where I wanted the turbo to be located. At this point my only knowledge was the 8 hours of youtube video's I watched on the way home from TN.
My general idea was to place the turbo in the left lower spot in my engine and run my exhaust between my battery and engine.
Next I had to pick a turbo. At first I was gonna get a used small turbo off a older talon/eclipse, but after several hours of reviews I said screw it and decided on an Ebay turbo. Off hand I cant remember the name of the company or exact specs of the turbo. (will post later) A couple things to keep in mind. This jeep is my toy, not my daily, I put about 4-5K miles on it each year, this was suppose to be a BUDGET build, and with no tuning and using a FMU I'm only going to run 5lbs at most. EBAY TURBO IT WAS!
I went ahead about bought all the plumping. For the oil feed it was very simple. Our oil pressure gauge is a 1/8'' NPT. I simple just bought a T block and was able to keep the same oil gauge and tap right in with the feed. For an oil return I welded on a bonge to the oil pan. (funny story, mark where you want to weld it BEFORE you remove your starter) I welded it in and was unable to install my starter. Had to cut it off and weld in another
This specific turbo did have water cooling lines. I believe this common with most turbo's that use journal bearings. For water lines I tapped right into coolant hoses near the core. I believe they were 11/16 maybe 5/8.
So... I bought some 2.5 pre bent exhaust, some 2.5'' V band adapters, grabbed a buddy and slapped a few nasty welds to just hold it in place and BOOM its kinda in place. I used some 1/2 round stock and a plate mounted where my AC would be if the original owner wasn't cheap and skipped that option, to hold the turbo/exhuast in placed...but still able to flex/move with the engine.
I did have to buy multiple flanges/mounts simply because I did not under stand turbo lingo. Several "ebay special" parts were VERY cheap, and I get why. I had a couple wrapped flanges, that I had to have sanded down, and a few V bands that did not match up, so I had a buddy of a buddy tig weld the correct one on for me.
Next I started working on my intercool. Again you'll notice a pattern here.. Not knowing what I was doing, it was WAY easier to mount the very small intercool behind the radiator. Why not?? it lined on perfectly. So I did. I later found out that it could actually be WORSE than not running a intercool at all, since all that hot air coming from the radiator is no heat soaking into my intercooler. You will see in later photo's that I did change that location.
You can see on the above image where I ran my downpipe from my turbo. I did have to trim the batter tray a little, and move a few ground wires to different location so they didn't get burnt. You can also see on this picture I decide NOT to use a BOV. I personally didn't want to spend the money on one at time and really did care too much if I lowered my "life" of my $120 ebay turbo by 10% from compressor surge. You'll see in later photo's I changed my mind lol.
Now is a good time to mention my Fuel Management Unit (FMU). Fancy name for what it is. You can see in at 12oclock in the pic above. It is that round shinny blue thing. NOW.. remember at this time I though I had two options. Run a FMU on the cheap @ lower boost and don't tune OR spend lots of time and money on a stand alone ECU (which I known absolutely nothing about). A FMU is simply a way to richen your air fuel ration. It directly increase fuel pressure based off of the amount of boost it see's in your manifold. so in the case I bought a 12:1 FMU. it will Mechanically raise my fuel pressure 12psi FOR EVERY 1psi it see in the manifold. With my fuel cell and external pump I have a set fuel pressure @55. So at 5lbs of boost your talking 115psi in the fuel system. CAN YOU SAY SKETCH???
Long story short. I spent wat to much time/money and was not happy with it. I had to run completely new fuel lines AND RETURN LINES!!! which our jeeps dont have. You can see the mess of rubber fuel lines in the photo below.
Long Story short, I was so fed up with these fuel lines. They felt unsafe, VERY sketch, and not to mention I had like 25 different connections. At this same time I came across a FB page called 4.0 boosted, and soon discovered HP tuners actually had software for dodge/jeep and would be able to tune my jeep the correct way, with out any stand alone or piggy back ECU, and it not being too expensive. To be honest at this point I was already WAY over my $600 budget. SO.. I did it.
I ripped out ALL the fuel lines I put in, and went back to my old fuel system and ordered HP tuners. I can't remember what it cost exactly, but it was near $350. The nice thing about this is now I felt a little more comfortable to get up in that 7-8lb range.
Next you can see that I swapped my intercooler around and installed m BOV.
While I had the jeep down for several months I figured I would replaced the manifold to be safe, and do a DEEP clean on the intake.
I also had to install a wide band to read my AFR. I ended up welding a bung about 18" from he turbo on the downpipe. you can see it right near the battery. In this same photo you can also see where I tapped into my water lines.
First off I'm sorry about the photos. Again I was not planning on sharing this so I did not have education on my mind when taking these photos. These are simply photos that I randomly took through ought the build.
It all started at Windrock Park in TN. A buddy of our group drag races and has played with turbo's before. I kept throwing around the idea for a few weeks about slapping a turbo on of winter, but it wasn't until the 8 hour drive home from are wheeling trip to where I decided I was going to do it. My goal was simple. Build a BUDGET turbo kit for my jeep for under $600. I was going to ebay turbo it, use a Fuel Management Unit to richen the air fuel ratio, and not doing any real tuning as far as timing, because I was under the impression that you could not tune our ECU since the MAP sensor could not recognize boost (positive pressure) but only vacuum. This is prolly a good time to mention I have ZERO knowledge about turbo's, correct AFR, or timing. But hey it was our last trip of the year and my
jeep was going in the shop for the winter for its yearly upgrade/ maintenance.
Enough with the story. Straight to the info/pics.
As soon as we got home from Windrock Park, TN I washed it, parked it in the shop and pulled the radiator and cut off the down pipe. This was my way of commiting even though I did not have everything planned out. I had a general idea where I wanted the turbo to be located. At this point my only knowledge was the 8 hours of youtube video's I watched on the way home from TN.
My general idea was to place the turbo in the left lower spot in my engine and run my exhaust between my battery and engine.
Next I had to pick a turbo. At first I was gonna get a used small turbo off a older talon/eclipse, but after several hours of reviews I said screw it and decided on an Ebay turbo. Off hand I cant remember the name of the company or exact specs of the turbo. (will post later) A couple things to keep in mind. This jeep is my toy, not my daily, I put about 4-5K miles on it each year, this was suppose to be a BUDGET build, and with no tuning and using a FMU I'm only going to run 5lbs at most. EBAY TURBO IT WAS!
I went ahead about bought all the plumping. For the oil feed it was very simple. Our oil pressure gauge is a 1/8'' NPT. I simple just bought a T block and was able to keep the same oil gauge and tap right in with the feed. For an oil return I welded on a bonge to the oil pan. (funny story, mark where you want to weld it BEFORE you remove your starter) I welded it in and was unable to install my starter. Had to cut it off and weld in another
This specific turbo did have water cooling lines. I believe this common with most turbo's that use journal bearings. For water lines I tapped right into coolant hoses near the core. I believe they were 11/16 maybe 5/8.
So... I bought some 2.5 pre bent exhaust, some 2.5'' V band adapters, grabbed a buddy and slapped a few nasty welds to just hold it in place and BOOM its kinda in place. I used some 1/2 round stock and a plate mounted where my AC would be if the original owner wasn't cheap and skipped that option, to hold the turbo/exhuast in placed...but still able to flex/move with the engine.
I did have to buy multiple flanges/mounts simply because I did not under stand turbo lingo. Several "ebay special" parts were VERY cheap, and I get why. I had a couple wrapped flanges, that I had to have sanded down, and a few V bands that did not match up, so I had a buddy of a buddy tig weld the correct one on for me.
Next I started working on my intercool. Again you'll notice a pattern here.. Not knowing what I was doing, it was WAY easier to mount the very small intercool behind the radiator. Why not?? it lined on perfectly. So I did. I later found out that it could actually be WORSE than not running a intercool at all, since all that hot air coming from the radiator is no heat soaking into my intercooler. You will see in later photo's that I did change that location.
You can see on the above image where I ran my downpipe from my turbo. I did have to trim the batter tray a little, and move a few ground wires to different location so they didn't get burnt. You can also see on this picture I decide NOT to use a BOV. I personally didn't want to spend the money on one at time and really did care too much if I lowered my "life" of my $120 ebay turbo by 10% from compressor surge. You'll see in later photo's I changed my mind lol.
Now is a good time to mention my Fuel Management Unit (FMU). Fancy name for what it is. You can see in at 12oclock in the pic above. It is that round shinny blue thing. NOW.. remember at this time I though I had two options. Run a FMU on the cheap @ lower boost and don't tune OR spend lots of time and money on a stand alone ECU (which I known absolutely nothing about). A FMU is simply a way to richen your air fuel ration. It directly increase fuel pressure based off of the amount of boost it see's in your manifold. so in the case I bought a 12:1 FMU. it will Mechanically raise my fuel pressure 12psi FOR EVERY 1psi it see in the manifold. With my fuel cell and external pump I have a set fuel pressure @55. So at 5lbs of boost your talking 115psi in the fuel system. CAN YOU SAY SKETCH???
Long story short. I spent wat to much time/money and was not happy with it. I had to run completely new fuel lines AND RETURN LINES!!! which our jeeps dont have. You can see the mess of rubber fuel lines in the photo below.
Long Story short, I was so fed up with these fuel lines. They felt unsafe, VERY sketch, and not to mention I had like 25 different connections. At this same time I came across a FB page called 4.0 boosted, and soon discovered HP tuners actually had software for dodge/jeep and would be able to tune my jeep the correct way, with out any stand alone or piggy back ECU, and it not being too expensive. To be honest at this point I was already WAY over my $600 budget. SO.. I did it.
I ripped out ALL the fuel lines I put in, and went back to my old fuel system and ordered HP tuners. I can't remember what it cost exactly, but it was near $350. The nice thing about this is now I felt a little more comfortable to get up in that 7-8lb range.
Next you can see that I swapped my intercooler around and installed m BOV.
While I had the jeep down for several months I figured I would replaced the manifold to be safe, and do a DEEP clean on the intake.
I also had to install a wide band to read my AFR. I ended up welding a bung about 18" from he turbo on the downpipe. you can see it right near the battery. In this same photo you can also see where I tapped into my water lines.
