In the not-too-distant future, I plan on buying a saab ng900 turbo or 9000 turbo. One thing I would immediately do is swap the t25 for a td04 15t. My question is, would the t25 be a good match for a 1.6td?
Also, would a mild steel log manifold on a diesel crack fairly quickly? (With temps being pretty high and all)
I don't know much about the ng900s to be honest. But on those 9000s, there were four turbo options over the years if i recall correctly. The early ones had oil cooled Garrett T3, then a water cooled version of the T3, then the T25, and finally the aero (manual trans) models got the mitsubishi TD04
The classic style 900s got the T3 (oil and then water-cooled) until the '90 SPG and all later turbo models, when they switched over to the Mitsubishi TE05 (also water cooled). I think when i finally get around to finishing my caddy, I might use one of the TE05s as they will bolt onto the T3 manifold and offer quicker spool up, and seem to be better suited for the 1.6 than the TD04 or T25.
Saab turbochargers have been succesfully used on 1.6TDs and 1.9 TDs.
For example, one 1.9 TD AAZ makes 220 hp with a Garrett T3 out of a Classic 900.
Like already well described above by conor, they used a couple of different turbos on 900 and 9000 models. The 8 valve and 16 valve 900s also have different trims and wheel sizes in their turbos although they are T3 (except for LPT and Aero which have Mitsubishi Te-05 12b)
The NG900s all have T25s. Meanwhile, the Trionic 7 engine of the upgraded model (OG 9-3) uses a GT17 which is to be avoided as they have poor durability. Aero models, again, have Mitsubishi turbos, this time TD04.
Both the T3 or T25 have been proven usable in VW TDs, while Mitsubishi ones should be even better since they are better on Saab aplications as well.
As for the manifold, on a diesel engine they should last better since EGTs are lower. Someone might argue this is not the case, but if the fuelling is set correctly, a diesel engine will have approximately 2/3 of the equivalent gas engine's max EGT.
what are a/r and wheel size of this saab turbochargers?
Which ones you are interested in? I don't have the info right here but I can have a look.
Oh...I would only buy a '93+ 9k, so it would only have a t25, as aeros are usually overpriced.
A t03 would be better than a t25? I have 2 saab t03's around.
I'm just looking for something that can handle higher boost than the vnt15 I have.
The TD family is more recent than the Te-series, but that's all I know..
In fact, I haven't stumbled upon a Te series Mitsu in any other application than the Saab c900..
About T3 versus T25 : both are able to make similar power while the T25 has noticeably better spool-up. Talking about the Saab ones here of course.