is Synthetic essential in Turbo engines?

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Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
Originally Posted By: Jetronic
The vast majority of turbos in passenger cars are NOT watercooled.


Ford's Ecoboost are. VW's 1.8T engine the turbo is water cooled. The Chevy Cruze 1.4 turbo is water cooled. And the list goes on and on. Look on most any modern gas engine turbo and you will see both oil and coolant lines going to the the turbo(s). This is for a number of reasons, mostly to keep turbo temps moderate and to reduce heat soak problems at engine shutdown.


I am almost certain the turbo in my girlfriend's Volvo (low output) is water cooled. It has an intercooler line running over the engine for one and that is only found in the turbo models. Not sure if it has any oils lines running to it or not.

I do know that her car tore Valvoline Maxlife 5w30 up pretty bad and the engine was starting to sludge up. After using M1 0w40, the issue is slowly starting to go away.
 
15w40 is good for turbos because it is an HDEO. I really wouldnt trust a non synthetic (Perhaps the PYB if i knew it contained GTL basestock) in any sort of turbo, but I can be a bit too anal retentive at times.

Back it by a UOA and go from there if you want to experiment.
 
If you have a car like a Saab 9-3 or 9-5 (in particular, although the 900 and 9000 showed the earlier signs of what was to come), then fully-synthetic as specified is probably a wise idea - as would be dropping your mileage on each oil change by more than "some."

Oil pan is next to hot exhaust manifold, and is low-capacity. Hot oil from engine therefore has practically nil chance of cooling, compared to other euro makers with big sumps.

Turbo is obviously hard on the oil, as was the PCV system at the time, although Saab did eventually deal with that issue.

Saab's specified OCI was 7,500 miles. Not really uncommon at the time, although maybe a little adventurous on an engine whose mechanics were still pushing semi-synths at the time, when the engine itself was very hard on the oil.

Neglecting oil not only caused sludge buildup, but caused timing chain issues, turbo issues, oil-sump strainer blockage and then failure of the engine. Sound like any car thats neglected, no?

If someone wanted to try conventional, then I'd suggest either short runs and/or a UOA just to make sure the oil is actually holding up. The suggestion for a HDEO wouldn't be bad, given that they run in diesels where a lot more soot and blow by is produced, never-mind higher pressures and turbos.
Otherwise I might suggest an A3/B4 style of motor oil just for peace of mind in the Saab. Wouldn't really want "Energy Conserving" oils in an engine prone to breaking down motor oil.

Seems as though these (the old Saab H engine) are great motors, just need some TLC so they can be what they were meant to be. Have absolutely no clue on the "Ecotec" motors that found their way into the cars later on, although I'd be wary of those and try and get a H-powered 9-5 from the same timeframe.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: wemay



Hyundai/KIA is also Oil/Water cooled.


Are you sure about that? I thought the Hyundai 2.0T was oil-only. I was looking at my turbo when I did the last oil change and I thought I only saw oil lines to / from the turbo, but I could be mistaken.
 
Hi Robster, that information was given to me by a Service Tech at a local dealer. Anything is possible but that diagram (posted on a Hyundai Turbo forum) came with this ledger...

1. Heat protector
2. EWGA(Electric Waste Gate Actuator)
3. C-ring
4. Turbo manifold module
5. Turbocharger stay
6. Trubo adapter gasket
7. Turbo adapter
8. Turbo adapter heat protector
9. Oil drain pipe assembly
10. Turbocharge oil drain gasket
11. Oil feed pipe & hose assembly
12. Oil drain gasket
13. Exhaust manifold gasket
14. Turbocharger water feed hose
15. Turbocharger water drain hose
 
Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
I think he's planning to do 1 year oci's on conventional or 1 and a half or 2 years on synthetic


Then he is FAR better off using conventional.
 
Originally Posted By: Robster
Originally Posted By: wemay
Robster, Look at numbers 22-25...

http://hyundai.findlayauto.com/a/Hyundai...TS/1063222.html



Thanks! I stand corrected! --Rob


thumbsup2.gif
 
So despite VR1 having a higher flash point , overall which one would be better for him? remember it's an oil cooled turbo with a blow through carb setup very old school, it does have a failry modern oil cooler and the cooling system is very strong
 
Like I said. I have used VR1 in some of the most thermally challenging environments that engine oil has ever seen, and never seen coking or oxidation issues.

It was designed with nasty harsh hot rod and drag race engines in mind, as well as turbochargers.

M1 15/50 "red cap" the old formula was a close competitor, but new M1 15/50 isn't even close to matching VR1 conventional.

One of my neighbors has been running VR1 in his Venom 1000 since 2005, and and his turbos are excellent to this day. Plenty more locals run it in ridiculous turbo V8 outlaw cars, turbo Harleys, turbo Hayabusas, turbo Mitsubishi Evos squeezing out 700hp from a 2 liter engine, 1300 HP turbo offshore boats, etc.

The very idea that a lukewarm Ford engine is going to coke out its turbo running VR1 is nothing short of insanity.

If we were talking Valvoline GTX vs. Amsoil Z-rod, I'd have something different to say about conventional vs. Synthetic.
 
I would use synthetic only because of varnish. I would regularly encounter a turbocharged gasoline Volvo, and they always had major varnish if conventional was used. These people would change the oil every 3,000 miles but that wasn't enough.
 
Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
The very idea that a lukewarm Ford engine is going to coke out its turbo running VR1 is nothing short of insanity.

Absolutely. Aside from that, on that side of the pond, there should be some 15w-40 A3/B4 and E7, E9 choices, which would be just fine, too.
 
Well it's a pretty serious motor for what it is, it's got a forged bottom end and a steel crank , it makes 305 HP and nearly 400 lb/ft , these engines make 144 HP and 182 lb/ft stock, this is Ford's British Essex 3.0 V6 engine I'm talking about, it doesn't run a lot of boost though, under 20 psi
 
This is the wiki page : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Essex_V6_engine_(UK)
Another thing i also wanted to note is that Broadspeed which is the company that converted these engines with Turbos originally said that any quality 20w50 could be used , conventional or not
 
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