Offroad-Express

Hey guys,

I have a 13bt in my BJ73 cruiser, the turbo is on its way out and has a decent amount of play. I get a big white/blue puff of smoke on start up which is a bastard because I just forked out to get the head rebuilt (warped) and was hoping the smoke was the valve stem seals.

But now it looks like it must be the Turbo seals, I checked shaft play and it has about a 1mm of sideways movement (not touching the sides though!).

It looks like at least $400 to rebuild the standard CT26.

But I don't think the CT26 is very well matched to the 3.4L anyway. There is a guy in Australia making highflowed CT26's for 1H's and they work well on 13bt's too (18psi at 1900rpm vs standard at 2900rpm-ish). Problem is they are $1270 AUD (+ shipping and probably customs GST) which is out of my budget after having some very big bills on 3 vehicles

Anyway, I know people upgrade CT26's from 3SGTE's (2L petrol turbo) with the CT20B from the >1994 ST205 GT4. Its apparently a better turbo and I'm wondering if it might be an option for the 13BT?

There are about 12 variations of the CT26 but I'm mainly wondering if anyone has tried another turbo in the same family which suits the 13BT a bit better?

CT12?
CT20?

I've made a 3" exhaust with 3" downpipe so would prefer to stick in the same family/flange types.

Any one have any experience?

Hey if the CT26 goes good why change, pay 400 get it rebuilt, and you will no you have a good turbo that will last for years to come, Ive got the CT12b on my 1kzte goes great been running over 20 pound of boost for the last 60,000 km no problems.

DDAN wrote:Hey if the CT26 goes good why change, pay 400 get it rebuilt, and you will no you have a good turbo that will last for years to come, Ive got the CT12b on my 1kzte goes great been running over 20 pound of boost for the last 60,000 km no problems.

I guess in my opinion it doesn't go all that well. After reading a few sites there is a lot of opinion that the CT26 was better suited to the 4.2L than the 3.4L. Which is reasonably obvious seeing how you don't really get good boost pressure until well after 2500rpm which is weird because 13B-T's make max torque at 2200rpm. So you'd think if you had full boost at 2200rpm the max torque would be way higher.

With a better turbo it could transform the engine, getting full boost much earlier would give a much better power band.

And since toyota used a few different CT** based turbo's there might be another one that would be better suited, like a later design with better response (like the CT20B is a way better turbo than the older CT20).

call alltech in Auckland, get your Ct26 rebuilt with garret internals, spools up much faster giving less turbo lag and produces more power... did it on my 80 and it was wicked!

09 443 6511 mention you want a turbo like Euan from Autokraft

from memory bout 1000 bux (but it bolts straight back on no other mods!)

badnuz wrote:call alltech in Auckland, get your Ct26 rebuilt with garret internals, spools up much faster giving less turbo lag and produces more power... did it on my 80 and it was wicked!

09 443 6511 mention you want a turbo like Euan from Autokraft

from memory bout 1000 bux (but it bolts straight back on no other mods!)

Hey mate, cheers for the info I'll look into it