The all-encompassing Turbo Oil drain/feed line thread

[theman53]

I am going with something like this for the return and probably stainless brake line for the feed.

[Rabbit on Roids]

oooooooooh... thats a sexy drain tube in the making.

[hamradio]

I also would advise against the long oil drain running into the vac return.  Not a good situation going on there, IMO.  I'm honestly surprised that actually works, after my oil drain experiences.


Here's what I made for my VNT15 on a 1.6.  It is the third or fourth design, after putting up for a year with marginal oil drains I had made that either leaked, didn't flow well enough, or ran into the axle. 







I tig welded a bung onto the oil pan for it.  I have a brass 90* 3/4" pipe thread elbow, and a 3/4" pipe-3/4" hose male adapter in that elbow.  The drain pipe I made from 1/2" electrical conduit, bent with the aid of a torch.  There is about a 1/8-1/4" gap between the pipe and nipple, and they line up perfectly.  I have a piece of oil resistant hose connecting the two, in the style of some of the dodge cummins trucks.  It works excellent, and does not leak at all.  I spent about 3 hours getting it bent perfectly, ha.

[Rabbit on Roids]

i cut the top half off the 1.6 line right above the flex fitting. and i had the flange for the turbo drain. so i connected the drain pipe to the flange with some rubber oil hose and put a couple hose clamps on it. works great, has yet to leak.

[TD100]

Feed line: An old paintball air line w/ quick disconnects on both ends, just because the fittings (1/8"-27) screwed into the VNT's side. I then just drilled/tapped the oil filter housing for the same threads.

Return line: Drilled a hole in the pan and welded a 3/4" coupling into it. Then used a 3/4" 90 degree fitting w/ a 3/4" barbed to accept a piece of hose w/ clamps. I used the original stainless braided line from the VNT, which I hosed clamped to the hose using the large bolt that would normaly screw into the TDI's block. Works well -no leaks. Don't have any good photos showing the return braided line though.

http://www.geistsystems.com/slides/IMG_1269.html
http://www.geistsystems.com/slides/IMG_1267.html
http://www.geistsystems.com/slides/IMG_1268.html

[Rabbit on Roids]

the return line on my turbo was really short, and a right angle. it had a block oil drain.

[arb]

i wonder if that drain setup works? im really not trying to rip on the owner of that setup, but that is nothing i would ever put on my car. i would have just poked a hole in the n/a oil pan and welded a bung on there. it would have been so easy, and probably cost about the same as all the heater hose and brass fittings. plus, probably would have taken about the same time to make it.

No slam taken. :-D  I agree it does not look the best, but it does work. I also had a couple other engineering challenges - the turbo I have has a larger oil drain flange than the stock return line, so I could not just bolt it up. Also, my CV shafts have a different length and maybe placement than in a VW, so I was not sure I'd have clearance. This weekend I will be looking at changing both of these. It could be I just keep using what is working.

[Rich_91]

I heard someone using 5/16ths brake line for the feed

I have personal experiance with using brake line, not on my VW turbo, but on a different turbo build. The brake line was cheap, fittings were fairly easy
to find, and it sealed up well.

The problem was that, in my instance, vibration caused the line to crack, right at the base of the flare. I tried putting a loop in the line to deal with it, but it just extended its life a little bit. Lasted a few weeks, but would always shake itself apart, and never at a good time 

Eventually I went to the local hydrolic shop, told them what I needed and they made up a braided line with ends that I requested. IIRC it was like $35. The brake line was cheap, but it was alot of screwing around, and when it broke the first time, I almost buggered a turbo.  .

And if you are using rubber lines for your drain / return, make sure they are silicone / some kind of oil resistant stuff, or at least of good quality. I tried that too, and used cheap heater hose. The hose swelled up after a few weeks and slid off. I cought it before I had any significant loss of oil, but it made a hellova mess of the engine bay, and the hose was hard to replace.

Just my .02

[saurkraut]

I'm going to try NAPA P/N H178 1/2" fuel line hose.  The stock steel drain line is 15mm (0.5905") so hopefully the 1/2" hose will stretch over it.  I put a 3/8" spacer under my turbo to accommodate the bigger K26 compressor, so I have to lengthen the stock drain hose.

Anyone ever removed the flex section from the stock drain hose?  If so, is there a barb in there?

[Rabbit on Roids]

no barb, just a straight fitting. take a grinder with a cut off wheel and make score marks all the way around. then that gives the hose some traction so it stays put and doesnt pop off.

[saurkraut]

Thanks!

[macka]

I'm going to try NAPA P/N H178 1/2" fuel line hose.  The stock steel drain line is 15mm (0.5905") so hopefully the 1/2" hose will stretch over it.  I put a 3/8" spacer under my turbo to accommodate the bigger K26 compressor, so I have to lengthen the stock drain hose.

Anyone ever removed the flex section from the stock drain hose?  If so, is there a barb in there?

Half inch is 13 mm

[rabbitman]

I'm going with 5/16 brake line, the local napa had the adapters to get down to 1/8 pipe.
I'll find a way to support it so hopefully it won't crack, after all, IP lines are steal and as long as the clamps are in place they last forever.

[saurkraut]

Half inch is 13 mm

Yes it is.

Actually, .5" is 12.7mm

My options for large diameter fuel line (oil resistant) are 1/2" or 5/8".  So the choice is stretch the half inch over the 15mm (.5905") or try to calmp down the 5/8" (.625").

Sucks, don't it....

[macka]

too bad they didn't make 9/16" for you. I know that there is 9/16" hydraulic hose but I'm not sure how well it would work for you.