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It was time to start thinking about boosting the big blue suburban's 6.2L. It had nearly 20,000 naturally aspirated miles on it, and was begging for more power. There are few after-market options for turbocharging an older 6.2L; the only company still making a bolt-on system is Gale Banks Engineering in Azusa California. The general issue turbo from Banks is a non-wastegated Garrett T04B, and while an excellent choice, there was a member of The Diesel Page using a Mitsubishi turbo with great success. The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries TE06H wastegated turbo, Banks pn 24010, is a high efficiency unit that was originally designed for use on the Ford 6.9/7.3 Banks Sidewinder system. The four bolt flange on the impeller side is identical to the T04B as well as the GM 4 through 8 turbos, so swapping is a relatively easy matter. This article details the acquisition, inspection, and necessary modifications to adapt the MHI TE06H turbo for use in conjuction with standard Banks hardware for the 6.2L Sidewinder turbo system. A friend of mine was junkyarding, and ran across this little gem.
When dealing with used parts, it's necessary to check the condition and quality especially when dealing something as sensitive as a turbo. The best advice is to find a reputable turbo shop, and take it there to have it checked, but here are some tips for initially evaluating pieces in the field. Some things to check for when dealing with a used turbo: - contributed by Neil Beadle, Diesel Page member #8666
After getting the turbo professionally check at Majestic Turbo in Irving, TX, it was given a clean bill of health, so we set it up on the workbench, and went straight to work. The first thing that we noticed (aside from the damaged heat shield) was the orientation of the compressor housing is 180 degrees off from what is required using a Banks exhaust manifold. Also, the oiling block on the center section has two inlets. The T04B has provision for only one oil inlet. After removing the oiling block, and removing the inlet fitting, the two oil inlets feed to a common input port that lubricated the unit bearing, so adapting to a single input is no problem. After disconnecting the wastegate linkage and heat shield, you can pull off the impeller housing. There's a full circle clamp connecting the impeller housing the center section. There's a 10mm nut holding things together. Undo that, and gently seperate the housing from the center section. It's a tight fit, and there's probably some corrosion, so be careful not to damage the impeller blades. With the impeller removed, we took the chance to clean things up a bit. A wire wheel attachment on a drill takes care of the corrosion, and really makes the cast iron look like new.
The main difficulty with adapting the MHI turbo for use on a Banks 6.2L is the downpipe. The T04B has a six bolt flange that allows the downpipe to connect with the impeller housing. The TE06H uses a V flange and clamp. It will be necessary to change the downpipe to match. V flanges are easy to find, and most any turbo shop and even some NAPAs will carry the part. They usually come in 3.5" diameter, so some modification will be necessary.
If you happen to have an old downpipe from a 93+ 6.5TD, then things are even easier. It just so happens the pipe diameter is 3", and the flange will fit with a little grinding. we have taken a series of measurements of the 6.5TD downpipe and impeller outlet, and they're available here.
Set up the downpipes to be cut. Since the 6.5TD downpipe begins to turn quickly, it was necessary to make the cut as close to the flange as possible. Not wishing to change the overall length of the downpipe, make a similar cut to the Banks piece. Once the flange is separated, fit it against the impeller housing and take note of the difference. Grind the perimeter of the flange until the outer diameter matches that of the impeller housing.
It's now time to start fitting the flange to the Banks downpipe. we took the pipe and flange down to a local fab shop and had them TIG welded together.
Now that all the parts are coming together, it's time to install things on the truck. The actual turbo fitting is deep into the whole process of turbo installation, so these next few points do skip some important details. Those details are covered in the upcoming Banks product review. Install the oil block on the center section. For a standard installation, block off the shown inlet port with a generic brass plug from most any parts store. It was also suggested to me by Neil that the spare oiling port can be used for an oil pressure switch (handy if you're installing an electric pump and want to control it), oil temp. or oil pressure at the turbo. Now it's time to reindex the center section. There is a very large C clip holding the compressor housing to the center section. With the turbo on the workbench, we removed the C clip, and reversed it so the tapered edge does not fit into the groove. That keeps the compressor housing from locking into place. With the turbo unit on the manifold, rotate the center section to line up the oil inlet and drain ports. Then, rotate the compressor to line up the boost tube. Make some indexing marks to keep track of the changes when you go back to the work bench. If everything else has gone well, then before too long you can hook up the downpipe with a V flange available from Banks.
As it was mentioned before, this article was written in conjuction with the installation of the rest of the Banks turbo system hardware. Look for that review coming soon.
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