Coolant mystery ...... or perhaps not?

[Cuppa]

Is your turbo water and oil cooled or just oil cooled?

I am 99.9% sure that is your water feed for turbo and if your turbo is oil cooled only and you can get that bolt off then happy days Cuppa.

I have no idea how the turbo is cooled.
Can anyone advise please . 4.2TDi.

Fingers crossed.

[AB]

I have no idea how the turbo is cooled. Can anyone advise please . 4.2TDi. Fingers crossed.

Can you please take a photo of your turbo for me, one underneath looking up would be good too.

[AB]

Can you please take a photo of your turbo for me, one underneath looking up would be good too.

If it's just oil fed you will only have 2 lines coming out of turbo, one on top and one underneath.

The water lines will be coming out of each side of the turbo.

[Cuppa]

Can you please take a photo of your turbo for me, one underneath looking up would be good too.

Here's some pics AB, hopefuly they will be useful in clarifying things, but let me know if you need better angle shots. Not the easiest thing to take pics of.

From above:
You can see the pesky (& slightly butchered) coolant drain plug. I reckon it's seized & the exhaust makes it impossible to get a socket on dead straight.



Another shot from above.



And a couple from below. Second one shows the other end of that pipe.





No sign of water cooling for the turbo that I can make out??

[AB]

Ok, so it looks like you have an oil cooled turbo only so that fitting I showed you will now be your coolant drain now Cuppa, go for it.

I thought all Nissan factory turbos were also water cooled, do you know what turbo that is?

@nissannewby

All Nissan factory turbos water and oil cooled?

What turbo does Cuppa have?

[Cuppa]

If it's just oil fed you will only have 2 lines coming out of turbo, one on top and one underneath.

A second pipe, running parallel to the block & of similar or same diameter as the one at the bottom goes into the top of the turbo. Hadn't seen it when originally taking pics, as it's largely hidden by the exhaust manifold heat shield.

A bit easier to make out if you click on the pic to enlarge it

IMG_8301.jpg

So I guess this means I have an oil cooled only turbo then???

Googling is very confusing as there seem to be opinions that the factory intercooled models had oil cooled/water cooled/ oil & water cooled turbos (take your pick).

EDIT: Just read your last post. Good news! Being ex Telstra (& me the second owner) I can't imagine that it would be anything other than factory fitted.

[AB]

A second pipe, running parallel to the block & of similar or same diameter as the one at the bottom goes into the top of the turbo. Hadn't seen it when originally taking pics, as it's largely hidden by the exhaust manifold heat shield. A bit easier to make out if you click on the pic to enlarge it <img src="http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=69599"/> So I guess this means I have an oil cooled only turbo then??? Googling is very confusing as there seem to be opinions that the factory intercooled models had oil cooled/water cooled/ oil & water cooled turbos (take your pick). EDIT: Just read your last post. Good news! Being ex Telstra (& me the second owner) I can't imagine that it would be anything other than factory fitted.

Yeah that's oil feed mate. That's good for your situation though Cuppa haha

[Cuppa]

Thanks heaps AB.
That bolt you were 99.9% sure about has just been removed (with ease) & you can now be 100% sure! I suspect that the reason that the 'standard' drain plug is seized is that there has never been a need to remove it.

Normally I would have bought some more coolant before taking the bolt out, but as I wasn't sure if it would have a sealing washer I thought I'd take it out first to check before going into town to get more, & yes it has a copper washer so I'll get a couple of new ones too. Luckily I have the use of MrsTea's car whenever I want it at the moment as she is on the other side of the planet visiting family for a month.

[dom14]

Well I've been back out to the shed but as of midnight I have accepted defeat. No way is it possible to get a spanner onto that bastard of a drain bolt. Other's set ups must be different. I stripped off the exhaust manifold heat shield & turbo heat shield & removed the egt probe from the exhaust , all to no avail. Even if I took off the exhaust manifold (which I have no intention of doing) I still couldn't get a spanner on it - & I have a fairly decent selection of spanners. Impossible to get to it from underneath too. Not sure if the aftermarket exhaust makes things more difficult than with a stock pipe. I did manage to get a good grip on it with a 1/4" drive socket & extension, but it's that solid in there that the tool would have broken before the bolt would move. It's also slightly rounded now! Grrrrr!.

All is not lost though, (I hope). I found that from underneath I can get onto the bolt that Andy identified in post 3, though I'm not sure why it might be called a banjo bolt. No banjo, just the bolt like in Andy's pic.
Just to be certain, you are talking about the one a 19mm socket fits arent you AB?. (see pic) I hope so as I managed to crack that one open ....... but decided that at that hour it was best to leave until the morning, that & the fact I didn't want coolant all over the shed floor ...... so just nipped it up again.

Attachment 69598

I did mine with a socket, but I made sure it was a hex socket, not a 12 point one. You simply can't afford to round the bolt, 'cos the bolt head is not that thick(in mine).
Ratchet couldn't do it. I had to use the longer lever to loosen it up first, then use the ratchet. I didn't have any access issues from the bottom 'cos there's no turbo gear on mine but standard stock exhaust. It's still impossible to access it from top. It had to be from the bottom.

[dom14]

Yes, coolant will come out and fully drain your block of coolant.

Yep, it's a great spot isn't it!

I have a cut spanner I keep and go in from the top, I'm sure you can get to it from under though.

I have a braided line on my turbo going there so for me it's easy as I can take off the braided line from the turbo and put the braided line into containers. Did that multiple times when diagnosing the turbo so I could reuse the coolant.

I'm happy to be proven wrong but laws of physics do not allow the coolant to be fully drained from engine with the two radiator lines higher then most of the block.

When I removed the drain plug on mine, the water didn't come out. I put my finger in to find out what's going on. I felt something like a "coin" stuck to the drain hole inside that prevented water from coming out. It came loose and apparently fell into the bottom of the water jacket or moved down a bit, which allowed the water to gush out. I wondered what that thing was. I thought it might have been an old welch plug somehow fell inside and moved near the drain plug and got stuck there, and decided not to bother with it.
There wasn't anything I could possible do anyway. Whatever it was, it would've been impossible to get it out through the drain hole.
Sorry for the hijack. I thought posting it here might help everybody.