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Plain bearing vs ball bearing turbo's...

quik180sx

By quik180sx,
in Engines & Forced Induction

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quik180sx Explorer

quik180sx

Posted
Posted

Hey just wondering if anyone could give me the pros/cons of ball bearing and plain bearing turbos. I am currently in the market for a new turbo and can't decide between the TRUST T518Z and the HKS GT2530. Will the trust turbo be as durable as the HKS? And will the bearing type dramatically effect spool-up time and the lagginess of the turbo?

Any assistence would be greatly appreciated.

cheers.

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Sydneykid Grand Master

Sydneykid

Posted
Posted

Hi quik180sx, you posted "if i put in a well matched set of cams to bring the boost in earlier would the lag that may be associated with the trust turbo be eliminated".

Sure it will help, but if you did the same for a BB turbo (same compressor, turbine and covers specs) you would get the same level of improvement. Tuning, cam timing, port work all would also give improvements, but no matter what you did, as long as it was the same, a BB turbo would be better.

If I took the compressor & cover and the turbine & cover off a Trust core and could fit them to a Garrett ball bearing core, the response would be better and the boost would build faster. It's pretty simply really, 2 ball bearings will always have less resistance and lower wear than 2 plain bearings and thrust bearing.

Hope that adds to the thread

Steve Grand Master

Steve

Posted
Posted

Interesting quesion there.

I was just asking a guy I know which turbo he was planning for his S14. His last car had a HKS2530 (rb20det) and it put down 230rwkw at 1.2bar, boost hit hard and had a wide power band. He abuses his cars for drift, and is one of austalias better known drifters (well, very well know in SA and arguably one of the best drifters in Aus).

After his last trip to japan, and going for a thrash in a couple of cars there (he is pretty good mates with one of the big guys at signal in Osaka where he lived for a few years) - he has decided to go with a Trust T518Z this time around, as he believes they are a better turbo than the HKS, in his words 'they are killer', I actually asked him how they compared for lag to the 2530 and he said they (T518Z) have less.

sorry its a bit of a ramble, but as I havent driven a car with a T518Z in it, or been taken for a thrash, I am passing on what I have been told, so I thought I would qualify it a bit better.

If you want to speak to the guy yourself, his name is James and he runs D1 Garage (www.d1garage.com), he could probably do you a good deal on the turbo too;)

Kinks Grand Master

Kinks

Posted
Posted

there will be different generations of technology too don't forget. A brand spankers trust will be better than a stock RB20 turbo, obviously. So you really have to compare turbo X, for Y bucks, with what you have on the car now.

Certainly, when comparing stock nissan turbos (eg RB20 vs RB25) you'd expect the ball bearing one to spin up faster.

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