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BUDGET TURBOCHARGER HEAT SHIELD
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After pricing turbo heat sheilds and finding them running anywhere from $50-$100, I decided to fab my own, on the cheap. Now this wasn't my idea. I hijacked it from the 'Supra' board. I just adapted it to fit the T3 turbos. Here's the original article.....................................
http://www.supraforums.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=13957
I loved the cooking pot idea but the one in the Supra write-up was way too big so I had to find a smaller candidate. The shield I'm building is for a 60/48 T3. The exhaust housing on a 60/63 is exactly the same size at 4-7/8", so this heat shield will work on both types of T3's. I went to Wal-Mart, Target, etc. but I finally found what I needed at Ross stores. If there's no Ross in your area, shop around at discount stores, thrift stores, etc. You'll find something.
I located this perfectly sized cooking utensil holder for $5.99. It's made by Steeltek. They even have a website. The I.D. is 5-1/4" which will give me 3/8" clearance all the way around the exhaust housing - perfect! It's also made of thick stainless steel and has no taper at all. Make sure you get something that's stainless steel and not aluminum. Aluminum will soak up the heat and expel it right back into your engine compartment. SS will keep the majority of the heat within the shield.
Remove the turbo elbow and make a template of your mounting holes. Drop the template inside the utensil holder and mark for the mounting holes.
Next, measure the length that you want the shield. 3-5/8" works perfectly. It clears the oil supply line and cooling lines (if you have them) yet covers the entire exhaust housing. Mark the piece and cut with a cutting wheel. Discard the top half, you're using the bottom half.
Now mark and cutout the pathway for the exhaust gasses, trim the bottom of the shield to fit and cut the mounting holes. Notice I said CUT the mounting holes. This is thick stainless and it'll take forever and a day to drill out those 3 holes! Use a pointed carbide bit and a die grinder. These are the only 2 tools I used to make this thing and believe me, the die grinder will cut mounting holes 20 times faster than drill bits!
This is what you should end up with.
Use a fine file and coarse sandpaper to deburr the edges. Keep the filing and sanding on the edges and work towards the inside. You don't want to scratch the stainless.
The shield mounts to the outside of the elbow mounting holes/bosses. There are 2 nubs that are in the way and really don't serve any purpose. Remove those with a grinding wheel. 1st pic shows the right nub removed and 2nd pic shows both nubs removed. My elbow looks a little different than stock. I had it cut and welded a 3" downpipe to it.
Now bolt the shield up, polish the stainless with some semi-chrome and you've just made yourself a dirt cheap, quality turbo heat shield that'll rival anything on the market today! Congratulations!
