Simply put, Mitsu is to Garrett as Ford is to Chevy, at least in the DSM market anyway. Mitsubishi is an extremely diverse company that manufactures everything from commercial power plants to televisions. In order to simplify supply concerns and control costs they make several of the components that make up the products they sell. So they manufacture specifically sized turbochargers for their automotive sister company. For example, Mitsubishi Engine manufactures the TDO5 14Bs for the 90-94 Mitsubishi Eclipse.
Garrett, on the other hand, makes a universal line of turbochargers designed for a generic operating range of horsepower. They don’t exclusively make a single turbo for any specific engine on a large scale. If contracted to supply a turbocharger for an OEM, they’re solution is usually a selection from there diverse portfolio of turbos. Garrett offers a greater range of compressor wheel offerings that far surpass the flow capacities of the largest Mitsu compressor wheels.
There are exceptions to this of course
, but to keep this primer concentrated and to the point as possible I won’t go into details on every manufactures entire product line. But for a quick example, Greddy (Trust) contracts Mitsubishi to make generic (T78, T88) turbochargers for it’s own line of proprietary turbochargers for the aftermarket.
In the beginning of DSM performance modding, Garrett turbos with their square flanged turbine inlets didn’t easily bolt on to DSM engines with round flanged manifolds without complex adaptor plates or custom-made, expensive, hand-built headers. Efforts in performance gains started in modifying the stock turbos within Mitsu’s offerings.
Mitsubishi makes hundreds of combinations of turbos for hundreds of applications so it has always been possible to interchange individual components in these turbos, between platforms, to increase the performance of a turbocharger. For example, taking the stock 14b compressor out of the stock 1st gen turbo and replacing it with the factory upgrade 20g compressor wheel and housing from a Cyclone/Typhoon turbo, then clipping the turbine wheel and throwing in the larger 7cm turbine housing from a JDM Galant VR-4 makes a Buschur Racing spec 20g (the tried and true “ole school” bench mark in DSM performance). Larger turbine wheels were soon discovered in the Fuso delivery truck power plant program. These larger turbine wheels made it possible to upgrade the compressor past the size of a 20g compressor wheel and actually see benefits. This is where the “hybrid” turbo entered the spotlight.
Mitsu compressor wheels cap in size after the 20g wheel, with the exception of the hard to find and costly 25g. It was necessary to think outside the box for the greater good
. That is where Robert Young (then a turbo rebuilder for Turbochargers.com, now owner of Forced Performance) came up with the idea to put the more diverse Garrett line of TO4E compressor wheels in the Mitsu housings with minor modifications. When used in conjunction with the larger TDO6 and 6h turbine wheels found in the FUSO truck apps, these Garrett compressor wheels opened new doors for DSM aftermarket performance. This new line of turbos was deemed the “Frank” series of turbos. Several combinations of turbos where standardized as Frank 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and later 6. Each Frank turbo combination had it’s pros and cons (some more than others). It was then thought to simplify the series into one smaller more responsive turbo for mostly street use (Green) and one larger street/strip turbo that could really dish out the horsepower (Red). There have since been other variants on the hybrid idea by several different companies. Now some of the more popular ideas on the hybrid idea involve casting a new turbine housing that bolts a complete Garrett CHRA (cartridge) into a housing that bolts right up to the DSM 60mm round flange manifold. For example, the FP30 series of turbos have a custom-cast 304SS racing volute housing that plugs the latest generation of Garrett Ballistics Concepts GT Ball-Bearing turbos that bolt right to a ported EVO or 2nd gen manifold.
It has become more and more popular in recent years to have a custom tubular manifold made that can bolt a straight Garrett turbo to the DSM cylinder head. When properly made with equal-length runners and correct phasing these headers allow an increase in performance with the versatility of being able to use a straight Garrett turbo. The only downfall is the additional costs involved in the custom fabrication of the header and the O2 housing since these have flanges specific to the Garrett T3 and T4 turbine housings.
So in conclusion, the main, most important differences between the Garrett and Mitsu turbos are the turbine inlet and outlet flanges and the greater compressor wheel variety and capacity in the Garrett turbos. Stay tuned...
