what ever u do i recommend all arp hardware, and doing as much as you possibly can to make the head flow, i believe that is one of the biggest hurdles on these engines, small valves and ***ty port design(mostly on the exhaust side.) as far was what turbo is good, theres many different ones, depends what you really want and what your power goals are.
TREVOR!! just who i was looking for..
i need your turbo wisdom.. my VNT is dead.. probably not going to replace it with a VNT unless i get one for a song..
anyways, i have at my disposal:
a T2 off a nissan gasser
a T3 off a 2.5 CHRY gasser (much larger T3 than the stock diesel unit)
a T3 off a 2.3 Pug TD
a TD04 off a 2.2 CHRY
a K24 off a VW 2.0TD
a K26 off an Audi quattro
a T4 off a 4-53 Detroit diesel..
i know that doesnt tell you SH## without numbers and stuff, but what do you think would be the best turbo(s) to replace mine with?
i was just getting ready to go compounds.. now my VNT is not rebuildable.. over 1/4" of radial shaft play, and almost 1/8" of axial play..
it grinds, scrapes, spools and unspools on its own, and even seized up at one point.. and MAN, did it puke its guts all over my engine bay..
t2 probably be fine for a small turbo but that is all
dodge t3 is the same as powered by spearcos turbo except for that it has the newer turbine wheel(same as vws and basically any car that got a t3 starting after 1983 or so) the new turbine wheel had a smaller in and was lighter so it spooled up faster this what a turbo company told me. its a 45 trim t3 with .48 a/r exhaust housing
pug t3
http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=689 assuming this forum is correct then this turbo is a 40 trim t3 with a .36 a/r exhaust housing(same as vw but vw is a 35 trim compressor) and this turbo has the older larger turbine wheel.
td04 do u mean te04? if some my friend has one on his rabbit it runs really well but he doesn't have a governor mod or anything and he was having trouble with the wastegate and clutch, so aside from that it is way faster now but still nothing really conclusive, from the compressor map tho it looks like a good mid sized turbo, but the dodge t3 compressor looks way better.
k24 from audi, from what i understand its the same as vw, good turbo for a 1.6 but we all know its limits
k26 off an audi, good turbo but not on a diesel cause its not efficient at high boost pressures only at lower boost higher flow.
t4, u know that things too big haha.
if i were you i'd go with the dodge t3 or the pug t3, dodge has the bigger compressor so better flow and better compressor map, but the pug has the smaller a/r turbine housing so it would spool faster assuming the larger turbine wheel doesn't hurt spool that much. u could even do a hybrid, and slap the dodge compressor on the pug exhaust side, easy as well. or even try the dodge compressor on the t2 exhaust side. i don't know the specs of the t2 but if u look how much hp they can get from them stock u can get an idea of how much the t2 exhaust flows, if its around 200hp then itd be a good match on the dodge compressor.
but i will warn you, i just understand turbo sizing, i dont have experience trying all this stuff. so no real world reviews(except on te04 and k24) we all know that not much research has been done in the way of vw diesel turbos, so it still all up in the air and an experiment