Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Three questions about turbo rebuilds. Sorry if they have been answered previously but I did a search and could not find anything on the first couple of pages.

1. I know that you can't rebuild ball bearing turbos, but can you keep the old housing and put all new internals in? Even if this saved me only $50-100 on a new housing I think I would prefer to do this.

2. I don't know if my old turbo is sleeve or ball bearing. Does anyone know the rough price differences to rebuilding a sleeve bearing turbo and putting all new internals into an old housing, assuming question 1 is possible?

3. If there are no identifying marks on my old turbo, is there a way to find out what size the turbine and compressors are? Just for curiosity's sake, especially if I can rebuild it with the same wheels.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/20699-turbo-rebuilds/
Share on other sites

With HKS turbos you need to buy the cartridge complete, then fit your own compressor and turbine housings - not too sure about putting the wheels you have on a garrett centre, sorry. A HKS cartridge expect to pay from about $1400 direct from japan.

Bush bearing rebuild kits are only a few hundered dollars by comparison, so alot cheaper.

As for identifying your turbo - wouldnt have a clue if its got no markings.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/20699-turbo-rebuilds/#findComment-433867
Share on other sites

Tony, pm me details.

I don't know what I did to the turbo, it just gradually started making more and more noise over the past 6 months or so. The guys at Hills said it could be either the wastegate or turbo bearings, but I'm not losing any power so fingers crossed it's just the wastegate. I'm planning for worst case scenario regardless. He said the whole thing looked like a bodgy job so they might not have installed any of it properly.

Steve, the turbo is Garrett, is there something similar you can get for Garrett turbos? Whether locally or from Japan.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/20699-turbo-rebuilds/#findComment-433891
Share on other sites

How much does it cost to remove and replace a turbo? If it can be done in an hour, I'll pay that to have the old one put back in until I can find a replacement. But if it's a 4 hour job or more, then I'm in trouble.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/20699-turbo-rebuilds/#findComment-434309
Share on other sites

You should give GCG a call. I too have a damaged HKS GT3037S ball bearing turbo, and was under the impression that BB turbos could not be repaired - until recently. My turbo have a damaged turbine wheel and I have talked to GCG and they said that they have repaired several (over 100) BB turbos in the past with 100% success rate. I am hoping to send my turbo to them (or Garrett in Sydney) soon to see if it can be repaired. There seems to be some hope in repairing BB turbos. The initial thoughts were that it wasn't possible to buy trims separately, but some companies have said that you can!? Not really sure, but I will send my turbo to Garrett (dealer in Australia) to see what they say. Hope it can be fixed...

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/20699-turbo-rebuilds/#findComment-434344
Share on other sites

Do you have a ballpark figure for how much they cost to repair? If it's over a grand, I'm tempted just to buy a near-new second hand unit for around $1k to save on delays on getting the car back on the road. But if it's only half that, then that sounds like a better option.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/20699-turbo-rebuilds/#findComment-434353
Share on other sites

I did ask them for a rough quote but they won't quote you until you actually bring the turbo in. Then they'll strip the turbo down and see if it can be repaired, if it can be then they will give you an accurate quote.

They will however provide a free quote, and as you're in Sydney it would be worthwhile to drop the turbo in to GCG or even better Garrett to see if it can be repaired.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/20699-turbo-rebuilds/#findComment-434378
Share on other sites

Originally posted by EVOIV

I guess you could measure the compressor and turbine trim to see what size they are? As for the A/R ratio, that's a bit more difficult :)

Hmm, I was lucky and found the AR ratio stamped onto the housing :) But you can also work out the AR ratio (roughly) by measuring the diameter of the intake and the distance from the middle of the turbo to the middle of the intake. Probably hard to do very precisely but good enough for a rough idea.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/20699-turbo-rebuilds/#findComment-437920
Share on other sites

Ok, bit of an update.

Since the turbo is Garrett, I took it to Garrett in Chipping Norton. The guy there had a look and told me that the small side-to-side play was completely normal, and that the axial play was the only direction in which there should be no movement. He checked the housing for evidence of the wheels touching and there was none.

So he went to the wastegate, and found that at some point in the turbo's life someone had welded it shut. Presumably after they decided this was a bad idea they cut the weld off. But because of the welding dags still present on the pivot, it was sticking open and rattling around. I believe that this is the noise (it made the same noise I heard when he moved it around), so I asked them to fix it. I should get the turbo back on Wednesday.

He also said he could do a full rebuild for only $345 because it's a sleeve bearing turbo. While this is pretty cheap, I've decided that it only takes me a couple of hours to get the turbo off so I'll rebuild it when I start getting axial play in the bearing.

Now that I know how to check a turbo for wear, I'll include the check as part of my regular servicing.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/20699-turbo-rebuilds/#findComment-439049
Share on other sites

I think they make both types. The guy at the workshop knew at first glance that it was a sleeve bearing. Either way, I'm sold on sleeve bearings now. The price of rebuilding them is ridiculously cheap.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/20699-turbo-rebuilds/#findComment-439148
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Yep, so far most have said that it looks like corrosion on the wall from piston not moving. Which then has probably damaged the oil rings and caused those vertical marks. The longest the engine was still after the rebuild, was the winter of 2018 - 2019, plus the boat trip to Japan. When I shipped the car, it had normal gas in the tank but before that winter pause, it had E85 in tank.  In any case, even if either one of those was the cause, it happened close to 6 years ago and the car has been driven something like 30 000kms after the fact. Again, apart from the plugs and the dip stick, there is nothing in the way the car runs that would indicate what has been going on in the engine. I am going to consult a shop and ask their opinion, what would be the best approach. I do have some access to a garage I could use to diagnose further myself, but time is very restrictive. Might end up buying another engine that could be used while this one is being remedied. Without pulling the head, it will be impossible to find out if it needs another bore, but here's to hoping a hone would suffice.  Goddamnit, I would really have preferred this not happening.  
    • Boot is going to be replaced eventually. I just wire brushed what I could and rust converted. Then painted in rust kill primer. the spoiler also got repainted and plugs replaced on the ends. The under side of the bonnet is going to be black also, currently white. But red on the top side, same colour code as the silo to begin.
    • Hi guys, has anyone either purchased or built themselves a rotisserie for their car before? I can only just justify the need for one hence why I should just make one but at the same time, if I make one I can kiss another 4 weeks of potentially productive car working time goodbye because I'm building a bloody rotisserie....  I mainly want it for the application of the body deadener.  Cleaning the old stuff off, priming and then colour over the deadener doesn't worry me, it's just the application using the Schutz Gun that I feel would achieve a significantly better finish painting it side on and keeping the Schutz Gun upright.  I don't think they would work well on the side let alone almost upside down for some areas.  If the product I use (Terosun, etc) could work through a HVLP ok then it might be ok to apply without the rotisserie.   I can get one of these style ones for about $1200 which is pretty good value-     I reckon if I made one it would cost around $500 but it's more the time that it would take is more of a killer than the cost.  They look to hold their value pretty well second hand so I could always sell it after using it and realistically only lose $200-$300 at worst.  Or keep it and buy another project when this one finally sees the light of day... Anyone selling one...? Cheers!  
    • While it is a very nice idea to put card style AFMs into the charge pipe (post intercooler, obviously), the position of the AFM and the recirc valve relative to each other starts to become something that you really have to consider. The situation: The stock AFM is located upstream the turbo, and the recirc valve return is located between the AFM and the turbo inlet, aimed at the turbo inlet, so that it flows away from and not through the AFM. Thus, once metered air is not metered again, neither flowing forwards, or backwards, when vented out of the charge pipe. When you put the AFM between the turbo outlet and the TB, there is a volume of pressurised charge pipe upstream of the AFM and there is a volume of pressurised pipe downstream of the AFM. When the recirc valve opens and vents the charge pipe, air is going to flow from both ends of the charge pipe towards the recirc valve. If the recirc valve is in the stock location, then the section between it and the TB doesn't really matter here - you're not going to try to put the AFM in that piece of pipe. But the AFM will likely be somewhere between the intercooler and the recirc valve, So the entire charge pipe volume from that position (upstream of the AFM, back through the intercooler, to the turbo outlet) is going to flow through the AFM, get registered as combustion air, cause the ECU to fuel for it, but get dumped out of the recirc valve and you will end up with a typical BOV related rich spike. So ideally you want to put the AFM as close to the TB as possible (so, just upstream of the crossover pipe, assuming that the stock crossover is still in use, or, just before the TB if an FFP is being used) and locate the recirc valve at the turbo outlet. Recirc valve at the turbo outlet is the new normal for things like EFRs anyway. In the even of a recirc valve opening dumping all the air in the charge pipe, pretty much all of it is going to go backwards, from the TB to the recirc valve near the turbo outlet. But only a small portion of it (that between the TB and the AFM) will pass through the AFM, and it will pass through going backwards. The card style AFMs are somewhat more immune to reading flow that passes through them in reverse than older AFMs are, so you should absolutely minimise the rich pulse behaviour associated with the unavoidable outcome of having both a recirc valve and an AFM in the charge pipe.
    • Yep, in my case as soon as I started hearing weird noises I backed off the tension until it sounded normal again. Delicate balance between enough tension to avoid that cold start slip and too much damaging things.
×
×
  • Create New...