Turbo Charged Engines - Avoid or Buy?

[DiezNutz]

On another note, a lot was discussed regarding turbo HP or not, but nobody really discussed the torque rise improvement of a turbocharged diesel. If you look at the torque curves for NA and turbocharged similar engines, that is where you see the big improvement. Turbochargers were added to diesel locomotives in the 1930's if I am not mistaken and it had nothing to do with EPA, but it did have something to do with torque gain.

Exactly. And I really didn't understand all the discussion about HP, given that we should all know it is a useless figure of merit other than for a singular point of reference/shopping comparisions.

If you go with a turbo, run synthetic oil in the engine. It will withstand the extra heat of a turbo better than dino oil.
Aaron Z

I agree, but I wouldn't switch to synthetic until after the engine has been broken in (these weren't designed to break in on synthetic).

I would especially recommended synthetic to the folks that said it's OK to just shut a hot turbo off without thinking about it. Sure, you might get away with it for a really long time, but it's hard to argue that it's better to let it idle unloaded for a minute first. One big reason synthetic is used in turbo applications is it doesn't break down as easily under heat soak, which is how turbo bearings get coked.

 

[ecoslik]

I finally made a deal on a great used Kubota after much hunting.

Private seller is having the tractor and implements serviced (400 hour) at his expense by the original dealership, and then the dealer will supervise all of it being loaded on a truck that I have arranged for delivery (2000 miles).

Bought the L5740 with all the tricked out bells and whistles. 447 hours on the meter.

I'll start a new thread and describe more. Woooooohooo .... am I excited.