Why Did My Turbo Blow!?

[TurboX]

Ball bearing turbo is std on RB20 so the oil feed line has a small hole in the banjos at each end.

Replace the ball bearing turbo with a Non ball bearing turbo the both banjo ends need to be drilled out to the max inside pipe dia for more oil flow.

Been there, blown that!

[salad]

Beer Baron: Sorry is 0.9L/min and this is measured at idle. Oil feed line disconnected from the turbo and flowing into a measuring cup. Done at idle.

I also have a feeling that something is not right, but I cant prove anything... Another big company have said that it has been starved of oil too though, so I dont know how it's all happened!?

MTQ have said that something may have gotten blocked in the line somewhere and then come out later without noticing when I pulled the turbo out again. I dunno though, everything seems a little weird... Either way, I'm out $800 and my car is slow again

Cubes: Never run 1L overfill before, think it would give a lot more blow by though. I'm gonna block off the rear oil feed in the 20 when I pull mine down and freshen it up. Think I might do the restrictor in the front one too. Figure it cant hurt.

I'll take some pics of the turbo soon, everything is pretty rooted...

Simon: Know of any other turbo places in Adelaide that I could get another opinion from? Still cant believe GCG didn't know how much oil their own turbos need to survive...

TurboX: GCG highflow is ball bearing It's supposed to be used with the standard lines, without mods.

Edited July 5, 2007 by salad

[1400r]

johnny from Port G

bit of a drive though

[salad]

OK, I've gotten onto GCG another way and found out that the GCG highflows need around 900cc/min to survive, which is exactly what was measured out of the oil feed line. So now I have to figure out why it's been starved of oil...

MTQ suggested that somehow something may have been stuck in the line, but then somehow, relieved itself, this seems a bit odd though.

The only other thing I can think of is the car stalled a couple of times on track, but I started it again straight after. Someone mentioned coking before as the bearings/shafts/races were all black instead of blue. I was always under the impression though that only plain bearing turbo suffered such huge problems from the car stallin unexpectedly or something.

Any help would be great

Cheers

Edited July 9, 2007 by salad

[ish]

just a thought ... with you modifying the flow rates of the oil feed line. Could it be possible that the standard oil pump couldn't keep up the constant pressure under load causing uneven oil flow rates?

Edited July 9, 2007 by ish

[TurboX]

Bill Keen at ATS may be able to help, have you tried them??

[salad]

just a thought ... with you modifying the flow rates of the oil feed line. Could it be possible that under load the standard oil pump couldn't keep up the constant pressure under load causing uneven oil flow rates?

Only modified things after the turbo had blown, but now I find out that it was fine the way it was originally, so now I need to get new banjo bolts and screw around with it more...

Bill Keen at ATS may be able to help, have you tried them??

He's the guy that did the rear seal and then have the turbo conveniently blow straight after and the guy to give me the incorrect oil flow rates for the turbo (I trust the makers of the turbo more than a guy that works on them) Edited July 9, 2007 by salad

[Beer Baron]

you are in a tough spot mate. I think the most important thing is just to find out exactly why it failed. not to point fingers or anything, just to make sure it doesn't happen again!

[salad]

Yeah, that's what i'm trying to find out at the moment, but it seems like it's a bit of an odd one. But I'm in no rush to slap a new expensive turbo on yet, gotta get to the bottom of this first...

I cant really see how it is Bill's fault, but I cant see how anything else has gone wrong either? Only thing I can think of is the stalling, but my car's done that heaps of times before and I've never had a problem with it before...

[BAMR33]

The rear seal probably wasn't installed right causing the shaft to be unbalanced, couple grams out at 100,000rpm+ isn't pretty. I wouldn't say it wouldn't be anything to do with oil restriction otherwise the standard 25 turbo would be playing up too. Was there black much black smoke when you drove it?

Edited July 9, 2007 by BAMR33

[salad]

On the dyno I did note a bit of smoke coming out and on the drive down there, my mates told me that I was blowing a fair bit of smoke when I gave it a bit. If this is the case though, how would I go about proving it??? Obviously he's denying that he's done anything wrong.

[BAMR33]

Just take it on the chin and bad mouth the shop to all your mates.

[Simon-S14]

thats all well and good but it doesnt help the situation, if the rebuilder made a mistake they should be liable to refund the money or fix it... thats how it works!

[salad]

Yeah, easier said than done when you're down $800 with nothing to show for it.

[BAMR33]

Yeah I know, but try getting the money out them...

A couple months ago a shop recked my mates wrx by carelessly cutting a hole in the IC piping for a BOV in process leaving a 50c size piece steel in the piping results in loads of damage. He's tried every path to get money out them, but they claim it was km's of the motor (150,000km) and they also said they keep no steel in the workshop of that description which is just cope out.

You can try fair trading and all that but unless the shop is willing to admit they made a mistake it's going to be hard.

[salad]

Yeah, I know it's going to be damn hard to do, and I doubt anything will come from it, but ohwell...

I'll just go with the bad mouthing

[mr_rbman]

Showza, had a very similair prob to you. when i did my rb30 i bought a vg30 and had it checked out by the same shop in question, replaced the rear seal as he said it was in need of a change. As soon as it was installed it made a slight whine on boost, didn't really take much notice as it wasn't really noticeable and didn't think it was abnormal! Turned out the rear seal was screwed from the start, and after only 1000kms i found oil in my cooler and piping!

[salad]

Hmm, well, that's no good... Yours didn't crap out though did it?

When I pulled the turbo off, I pulled the covers off to have a look and there was a dirty great big puddle of oil in the comp cover, cooler pipes were also full of oil, I'd hate to see what's inside my cooler...

When it was on the dyno it also blew smoke and tuner had trouble getting it to not ping, with 11:1 AFRs, if I'm not mistaken excessive oil in the intake can lead to an engine pinging easily.

But can just a replaced rear seal somehow cause the bearings to fail? (if not done properly, obviously)

[R31Nismoid]

thats all well and good but it doesnt help the situation, if the rebuilder made a mistake they should be liable to refund the money or fix it... thats how it works!

There is little warranty on performance, being most of it isnt factory, its all aftermarket gear.

salad - i too would be of the opinion something has blocked the line, it doesnt need to be much at all to cause problems.

Or you are getting low oil pressure due to something. Oil pressure isnt too hard to check, just get a gauge on it and watch it reasonably carefully if you arent sure there is a problem, taking the pump off aswell.

Another one, look @ the oil filter and see if that tells you any stories when you take it off, and split it down the middle and open it up

[salad]

I havn't checked oil pressure before, but the right amount of oil was coming out of the oil feed line, so I'd say oil pressure is about right. I am planning on getting some gauges soon though, how soon, I'm not sure...

As for oil filter, what should I be looking for when I open it up?