Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Had my standard RB20 Turbo fail the other day at a speed off the streets day at Wakefield, so I thought I'd share the pics/info so you gurus might be able to tell me how/why.

It was the second session of the day and had been running beautifully up until then; going up pit straight, pulled 4th gear at about 7000rpm, power back on, then all of a sudden the power just disappeared...

I cruised around and realised the engine was still running fine, then realised it had to be boost. Brought it into the garages to check hoses and cooler pipes etc. but there was no sign of a leak, so I started to fear the worst. Trailered the car home (phew, good decision to trailer it there in the first place) and yesterday got into pulling it apart.

Now have the turbo off, and here's the result...

hmm, this side all looks good....

turbo3.jpg

Otherside - damn, thought I left a turbine wheel in there...

turbo2.jpg

Turbo1.jpg

The weird thing was I didn't even hear a noise when it went, although to be fair it was fairly loud in the car at those revs, at that speed, with the windows part way down.

Anyway, before that happened I'd always had a slight oil leak from the intercooler, and during a previous track day it was blowing oil out of the BOV. The same was happening the morning that this happened. I'm starting to think it was faulty for a long while and the oil was running out of the turbo and pooling in the cooler, only to be blown out at high boost. Thoughts? I'm running an electronic boost controller that is set at 11 or 12 psi, so I wouldn't have thought this slight increase in boost would have done it, especially on a nice cool goulburn day...

So, my next step is to decide what to replace it with - do I get another rb20 turbo and possibly have the same thing happen again? Or should I go to a rb25/high-flow rb25, GT2510, Td-06, gt-ss, other? I've been looking through this thread http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Tr...b2-t226235.html and as always everyone has a different opinion. I want response over power - something that will have a good, useable power band for the street/track. I also don't have any other supporting mods atm so will need to look at these depending on what I go for...

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/234155-rb20-turbo-failure/
Share on other sites

Pretty typical failure for a standard RB turbo. I have a RB20 turbo sitting in the shed at home with the exact same failure. Bit of boost and over time they can just let go.

Its nearly 20 years old remember.

Id say for response something like an internally gated garrett turbine would be the go. I love my TD06 but if you want around 200rwkw there are more responsive turbo's for less money than a trust kit :(

lol have 2 turbos gone, one with same problem rb20 turbo (no exhuast wheel) one rb25turbo blown compressor wheel (my fault)...

EDIT: hey why we on the talk about blown turbo's would i be able to pull both the turbo's apart, put the rb20 turbo conpressor onto the rb20 exhaust housing?

Edited by H@ME
  Chris-06R said:
Had my standard RB20 Turbo fail the other day at a speed off the streets day at Wakefield, so I thought I'd share the pics/info so you gurus might be able to tell me how/why.

It was the second session of the day and had been running beautifully up until then; going up pit straight, pulled 4th gear at about 7000rpm, power back on, then all of a sudden the power just disappeared...

I cruised around and realised the engine was still running fine, then realised it had to be boost. Brought it into the garages to check hoses and cooler pipes etc. but there was no sign of a leak, so I started to fear the worst. Trailered the car home (phew, good decision to trailer it there in the first place) and yesterday got into pulling it apart.

The weird thing was I didn't even hear a noise when it went, although to be fair it was fairly loud in the car at those revs, at that speed, with the windows part way down.

Anyway, before that happened I'd always had a slight oil leak from the intercooler, and during a previous track day it was blowing oil out of the BOV. The same was happening the morning that this happened. I'm starting to think it was faulty for a long while and the oil was running out of the turbo and pooling in the cooler, only to be blown out at high boost. Thoughts? I'm running an electronic boost controller that is set at 11 or 12 psi, so I wouldn't have thought this slight increase in boost would have done it, especially on a nice cool goulburn day...

So, my next step is to decide what to replace it with - do I get another rb20 turbo and possibly have the same thing happen again? Or should I go to a rb25/high-flow rb25, GT2510, Td-06, gt-ss, other? I've been looking through this thread http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Tr...b2-t226235.html and as always everyone has a different opinion. I want response over power - something that will have a good, useable power band for the street/track. I also don't have any other supporting mods atm so will need to look at these depending on what I go for...

Hey mate, sorry to hear about your turbo. Damn annoying when that happens in the middle of some fun!

Anyway, I have just the turbo for you - HKSGT2530 perfect for an RB20 nothing to change, fits stock dump and manifold and will give you 300rwhp+ Lots of down low response.

See

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/Hk...43#entry4064443

I want this turbo gone, make me an offer!

Cheers.

Thanks for the replies guys; I knew the standard turbo wasn't great but it seems everyone's blown one up at some stage...

H@ME- Dunno about using two halves to make one whole - I had a go at getting mine apart and seemed like it was going to be pretty difficult. Once you do have both apart tho, getting it all back together, and balanced etc. could be tough. They spin at massive rpms so unless its perfect its just going to go boom again. You'll need to consult a pro i think...

SkyDragon - Looks good, dunno if I wanted to go to the extent of a 2530 as I figured it might be too laggy. What RPM do you need to be pulling to get full boost with one of those?

Edited by Chris-06R

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

    • Hi, is the HKS  Tower Bar still available ? negotiable ? 馃
    • From there, it is really just test and assemble. Plug the adapter cables from the unit into the back of the screen, then the other side to the car harness. Don't forget all the other plugs too! Run the cables behind the unit and screw it back into place (4 screws) and you should now have 3 cables to run from the top screen to the android unit. I ran them along the DS of the other AV units in the gap between their backets and the console, and used some corrugated tubing on the sharp edges of the bracket so the wires were safe. Plug the centre console and lower screen in temporarily and turn the car to ACC, the AV should fire up as normal. Hold the back button for 3 sec and Android should appear on the top screen. You need to set the input to Aux for audio (more on that later). I put the unit under the AC duct in the centre console, with the wifi antenna on top of the AC duct near the shifter, the bluetooth antenna on the AC duct under the centre console The GPS unit on top of the DS to AC duct; they all seem to work OK there are are out of the way. Neat cable routing is a pain. For the drive recorder I mounted it near the rear view mirror and run the cable in the headlining, across the a pillar and then down the inside of the a pillar seal to the DS lower dash. From there it goes across and to one USB input for the unit. The second USB input is attached to the ECUtec OBD dongle and the 3rd goes to the USB bulkhead connected I added in the centre console. This is how the centre console looks "tidied" up Note I didn't install the provided speaker, didn't use the 2.5mm IPod in line or the piggyback loom for the Ipod or change any DIP switches; they seem to only be required if you need to use the Ipod input rather than the AUX input. That's it, install done, I'll follow up with a separate post on how the unit works, but in summary it retains all factory functions and inputs (so I still use my phone to the car for calls), reverse still works like factory etc.
    • Place the new daughterboard in the case and mount it using the 3 small black rivets provided, and reconnect the 3 factory ribbon cables to the new board Then, use the 3 piggyback cables from the daughterboard into the factory board on top (there are stand offs in the case to keep them apart. and remember to reconnect the antenna and rear cover fan wires. 1 screw to hold the motherboard in place. Before closing the case, make a hole in the sticker covering a hole in the case and run the cable for the android unit into the plug there. The video forgot this step, so did I, so will you probably. Then redo the 4 screws on back, 2 each top and bottom, 3 each side and put the 2 brackets back on.....all ready to go and not that tricky really.      
    • Onto the android unit. You need to remove the top screen because there is a daughterboard to put inside the case. Each side vent pops out from clips; start at the bottom and carefully remove upwards (use a trim remover tool to avoid breaking anything). Then the lower screen and controls come out, 4 screws, a couple of clips (including 3 flimsy ones at the top) and 3 plugs on the rear. Then the upper screen, 4 screws and a bunch of plugs and she is out. From there, remove the mounting brackets (2 screws each), 4 screws on the rear, 2 screws top and bottom and 3 screws holding in the small plates on each side. When you remove the back cover (tight fit), watch out for the power cable for the fan, I removed it so I could put the back aside. The mainboard is held in by 1 screw in the middle, 1 aerial at the top and 3 ribbon cables. If you've ever done any laptop stuff the ribbon cables are OK to work with, just pop up the retainer and they slide out. If you are not familiar just grab a 12 year old from an iphone factory, they will know how it works The case should now look like this:
    • Switching the console was tricky. First there were 6 screws to remove, and also the little adapter loom and its screws had to come out. Also don't forget to remove the 2 screws holding the central locking receiver. Then there are 4 clips on either side....these were very tight in this case and needed careful persuading with a long flat screw driver....some force required but not enough to break them...this was probably the fiddliest part of the whole job. In my case I needed both the wiring loom and the central locking receiver module to swap across to the new one. That was it for the console, so "assembly is the reverse of disassembly"
  • Create New...