It's quite common now -- and desirable -- for turbo bearing housings to be
water-cooled (hot coolant on passenger cars). Conventional wisdom is that
a water-cooled turbo will last twice as long as one without -- reduces oil
coking. Of necessity, they're still plumbed for oil -- to lubricate the
bearings.
The idea behind water plumbing is to draw some heat out of the bearing area
-- for longer life -- and away from the compressor -- for denser inlet air
-- because the exhaust turbine housing is running as much as 1600 F.
There's a lot more water volume running through a bearing housing, and the
water is cooler, than the oil.
Richard Nichols
San Diego, CA USA
rnichol1@san.rr.com
86 Ford Mustang SVO (61B) - 1C
(The Thinking Man's Mustang)
72 Ford Pinto 2.0 (62B) - 3J
(Over Three Million Served)
----------
> From: Mtnman3620@aol.com
> To: autox@autox.team.net
> Subject: Volvo Turbos
> Date: Tuesday, January 26, 1999 2:46 PM
>
> No, don't laugh yet. It's for my brother...we are debating a point about
his
> 87 740 Turbo. He says a mechanic said that the turbo is "coolant
cooled". Is
> there such a beast? I'll be quite honest and say that i do not know as
much
> about cars as I should, but I thought that the only way they were cooled
was
> oil.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Daniel Ledford
> #94 GS
> 99 Mitsu Eclipse GSX
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