Looking to improve performance....

Performance has dropped quite significantly recently and feel my turbo has had it's day. When I did the timing belt I noticed a lot of oil in the boost pipes post turbo so presume the seals have gone. I also noticed upon removing my radiator that most of the fins on my radiator/intercooler were either missing in terms of the rad or damaged in terms of the intercooler. Hence I was thinking of replacing the rad, int & turbo for new and whilst I'm at it fir an electric fan doing away with the viscous one.
My question is this: Whilst I am handy with the spanners I literally have no idea with regards to turbo setup. If I were to purchase a OEM turbo are the actuators preset to deliver the correct boost or do they require tweeking? Vehicle is currently on 143000 miles.

I'd imagine they come preset if buying the whole turbo. You can also buy just the moving parts for something like £120.

If you want performance you can start at the cheaper end of adjusting fuel and boost, buying a boost pin, larger second hand intercooler. To the expensive stuff of variable geometry turbos, allisport intercoolers and so on. With a new radiator a fan will never be needed unless towing a trailer in a desert.

I find electric fans a waste of money. Yes they appear to save fuel and give power by removing mechanical drag of a fan. But the alternator has to compensate by sapping power.

Wastegates are simple to set up as I had to set up one on a 300. I don't know the figures to set it up off the top of my head but I'm sure someone has them to hand

Fit or borrow a boost gauge, if the turbo produces about 15psi on boost then it's probably doing its job and your fault may be elsewhere. You will get a bit of oil in the pipes 'a lot' is a bit subjective (when was the last time the pipes were cleaned?). My 300 is approaching 180K on original turbo and it still works fine but then again I know it has had regular oil changes which helps.

Kwakerman said:

Fit or borrow a boost gauge, if the turbo produces about 15psi on boost then it's probably doing its job and your fault may be elsewhere. You will get a bit of oil in the pipes 'a lot' is a bit subjective (when was the last time the pipes were cleaned?). My 300 is approaching 180K on original turbo and it still works fine but then again I know it has had regular oil changes which helps.

Click to expand...

The issue I have is that there is a distinct lack of pull especially going up hill the speed sharply drops off. I have checked the lift pump and all would appear well. However, the turbo also leaks oil as already discussed but it also makes a higher pitched noise than it used to. All boost pipes would seam ok so that is what draws me to that conclusion.

I think you need to actually find the issue first, restore original performance, then look at modding for more once you are at this point.

Oil in pipes is perfectly normal, it's expected even... so that does not mean there is an issue.

If you say the turbo is nosier, in what way? Does it sound like bearings or metal on metal or are you just meaning a whooshing/hissing sound? If the latter, then it may well be you have a boost leak somewhere.

Frankly there's no point spanking money out on a new turbo, until you have eliminated the other things. Because if the turbo is working fine, then a new turbo won't solve your problem.