Holden Rodeo Turbo Upgrade

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turbocab
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Location: Central coast nsw

Holden Rodeo Turbo Upgrade

Postby turbocab » Mon Oct 03, 2005 11:11 am


so far both jay and i have done this conversion

you will need:
an ihirhf-5 turbo from a 2.8l deisel holden rodeo
a drill to enlarge the bolt holes on the exhaust side
an angle grinder or a file if you like a bit of hard yakka
a bunch of tools for removing turbo etc

the serial no on my turbo is:02245d
and the parts no is:8971397242

you should start by taking the old turbo off to compare the flange that bolts to the manifold,then old turbo in hand go visit some 4wd/ute and van/comercial vechle wreakers to find a turbo(calling first is good too),when you have the new turbo in hand put the manifold flanges together to compare the two,the holes should be the same distance apart but a tiny bit smaller on the rodeo.make sure you get the dump pipe with it and any other bits and peices they want to chuck in like watter,oil lines etc
now that you are back home with both turbos side by side you will notice that the rodeo turbos compressor housing is facing the wrong direction.this is easily rectified by undoing the metal clamp bit holding the exhaust side to the compressor side,and pulling off the exhaust snail housing bit,there is a little pin sticking out that needs to be ground off you will see it.then rotate the exhaust housing around to match the t2 turbo.while your there its a good idea to give the whole turbo a good clean espicially the compressor side mine was covered in filthy black crud but some crc and throttle body cleaner+an old tooth brush soon fixed that.my turbo had those pesky tamper proof star head screws holding the compressor cover on witch i replaced with allen headed cap screws for future ease of removal.
now you want to drill out the holes on the flange that bolts to the manifold to the same size as the old turbo.

i blocked up the watter cooling holes with a little plate i made up out of 2mm thick sheet metal use the water cooling lines you should have got with the turbo to trace the shape onto your sheet metal

then take the turbo and put it on the manifold and bolt up loosely you will notice the larger than normal aluminum flange that the compressor housing bolts up to touches a steel coolant line that appears to come from the intake manifold(this can be seen from above)then take a marker pen and put a mark on the turbo where it touches,pull the turbo off and use the angle grinder to grind away the offending aluminium,then test fit again ::) if all seems well bolt up to manifold tightly using the stock metal gasket inbetween

the stock oil feed line wont bolt down hard to the new turbo(wich i discovered the hard way) you have 2 options here you can do what i did and pack up underneath the "bango bolt" (hollow bolt that allows oil to pass thru it) with a bunch of washers ::) to gain the necisary clearance,or do what jay did and have a custom oil line made up(the more sensable option)

the wastegate actuator in its stock position will be in the way of the oil drain so it need to be moved,i would recomend a performance workshop that reguarly plays with turbo cars does this but having said that the butchers that did mine did it real dogey so if you have half a clue and a welder have a go your self.the oil drain on mine was cut in the middle by the same scumbags and extended using a piece of flexable hose also prety dodgey but it works and wont be seen unless you clamber under the car

then go have a new dump pipe made up to fit,to save cash have them use the flange from the stock cast dump to weld a 2.5 or3 inch pipe to and your away

jay you are the pioneer of this whole operation so please fill in enything i have forgotten or add picks of your own
picks can be found in my gallery in the members rides section of the gallery they are fairly self explanitry
cheers matty

Jdmcity
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Posts: 26
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2018 8:00 pm

Re: Holden Rodeo Turbo Upgrade

Postby Jdmcity » Tue May 29, 2018 6:08 am

Hey Guys, have just done this upgrade on a City T1, and would like to add a couple of pointers from my experience, correct me if i am wrong.

this is all from my experience and my opinions, so take it how you like.

i am new here i just thought i would give back something to the community (if theres many people with citys left these days!)

Mine is the RHF-5 off of a 4BJ1

--Useage Notes/Compared to Standard Turbo--

there is a higher boost threshold and a lot more lag in these rodeo turbos (the original ones are really fast spooling), doesn't begin showing positive pressure until around 3000, and around 10si by about 5500rpm.

Obviously the rodeo ones are designed for a 2.8L not a 1.2...

unless you do other mods such as intake/exhaust manifold/fuelling, you will find that the rodeo turbo won't have enough flow from the exhaust to make any boost below 3000,
Would work better with highflowed intake and exhaust and most likely cams or head work too...

so if you are thinking of rodeo turbo vs city turbo with otherwise standard-ish engine, the city turbo is better imho, has that fast spool that makes them so fun, just maybe runs out of top end over 18-20psi.

A BOV is your friend for reducing lag, this will allow the turbo to continue to spin when you close the throttle as it vents the excess pressure rather than stalling the compressor with a shut throttle plate

this turbo takes a lot longer to spool down too, so after driving with boost, let it idle for a bit to let the oil circulate through and the compressor to spool down before shutting off the car...


--Installing--

if you put a 14mm spacer between the turbo and the exhaust manifold, you can get the old oil return line to fit by drilling out the bolt holes 1mm bigger

this also brings the turbo away from all the intake lines, you still have to grind the housing a little, but it is easier to fit in.

you can make the spacer out of flat plate to hang down another 20mm past the bottom of the turbo flange, and make holes to mount the wastegate actuator off

this spacer also means you need longer studs, these can be made out of bolts, i used 50mm M10 x 1.25 FINE THREAD ones, they were perfect length, cut the heads off. remember to use loctite on the manifold side

to get the studs out, just apply WD40/CRC and let it sit, then use vise grips (studs will be unusable after, but hey i had new ones (see bolts above). unless you can get them out without damaging threads)

you'll need to rotate the exhaust housing a bit to fit as mentioned above, undo the metal clamp, seperate turbo (carefully) remove the roll pin, reassemble, then rotat housings at will.
this will take a bit of adjusting to get it right, but if you get the clamp in the right orientation on the turbo you can adjust it once its on the engine. (will need to to get the oil return line to fit)

the intake compressor outlet is bigger than the one on the original turbo, but if you get the correct size hose for this, cut about 30mm of the original hot pipe and put it on the PGM FI inlet pipe, the other hose will fit over the top and can be clamped up mint.

to get all the turbo bolts off, use WD40 or CRC and let it sit then apply more... use two spanners, one on the end of the other to get enough leverage... to get the bottom right nut loos you will need a shortened "Honda" 14mm spanner.

standard wastegate size is fine to control the boost perfectly even with a ported 2.5 mandrill exhaust after it (ensure the wastegate can open freely and does not get stuck while exhaust is on)

wastegate actuator will need to be moved, i shortened the arm on mine (almost 40mm) and moved it between the intake side compressor housing and the wastegate (under the oil line) i bend one of the original legs, drilled it and bolted it to the turbo spacer which i left long enough to do so.

when installing a BOV, there is not a lot of room for the extra piping with a side vent due to the larger size of the piping doesn't have as tight a bend to the intake PGM FI bit if that makes sense

you will have to enlarge the holes on the turbo where it bolts to the exhaust manifold flange to fit the 10mm studs

to blank off the water lines in the turbo, I used the little plate with pipes coming out of it already in there, cut the pipes off and welded the holes shut. otherwise just cut a small piece of plate.

when putting the turbo on for the last time, put the wastegate actuator line on the compressor outlet fitting before installing - it will be far harder after its in!

Happy boosting! :D :lol:

Arne

[edit to correct stud replacement bolt specs]
[Edit 2 to update turbo characteristics]
Last edited by Jdmcity on Sat Jun 09, 2018 5:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
spike10000
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Posts: 137
Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:21 pm
Location: NSW

Re: Holden Rodeo Turbo Upgrade

Postby spike10000 » Tue May 29, 2018 12:07 pm

Great post mate, well done !

Jdmcity
Forum Participant
Posts: 26
Joined: Wed Apr 11, 2018 8:00 pm

Re: Holden Rodeo Turbo Upgrade

Postby Jdmcity » Sat Jun 09, 2018 5:17 pm

Thanks! Have just updated some of the notes about performance comparison between stock and the rodeo...


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