The Dead Turbo Thread.

[Sarumatix]

After going through a lot of second hand turbos and being told they are 'dieing'. I have been told by a few sources that the stock turbos are not worth leaving on if there is any signs of wear because they can send chunks of ceramic through the engine. I have started to wonder just how tough these things can be. After some quick searching I found surprisingly few threads of people actually totaling a turbo. I'm looking for anyone's actual experience of turbo death, how long they had, what signs they saw, what they were doing when it died and whether any damage was actually caused as a result. Thinking of totalling up the results and having a some summary stats .

[whiteboy01]

After going through a lot of second hand turbos and being told they are 'dieing'. I have been told by a few sources that the stock turbos are not worth leaving on if there is any signs of wear because they can send chunks of ceramic through the engine. I have started to wonder just how tough these things can be. After some quick searching I found surprisingly few threads of people actually totaling a turbo. I'm looking for anyone's actual experience of turbo death, how long they had, what signs they saw, what they were doing when it died and whether any damage was actually caused as a result. Thinking of totalling up the results and having a some summary stats .

I will start

3 sets of R33 GTR stock turbos - no damage to enigne - both times returning on from the strip and cooling off along the straight - give it a little bit of boot and nothing. Thrid time trying to bet my PB and hammering along @ 160+ on and on the way to 160 "popped" a turbo - took out number 4 cylinder. RB30 rebuild time.

I think it is the heat and the speed that kills these turbos.

I had some GT2860 - 5 waiting to go one but i didn't have the time to put them on. Meh.

[mad082]

i have always been confused by people saying that the turbo will send bits of ceramic into the engine. how does it do it? the ceramic part of the turbo is on the exhaust, so unless it is able to throw a piece back against the exhaust flow, and have it time perfectly to pass the valves and into the chamber. it would take teleportation for it to be able to suck it through the intake.

it is possible for pieces of the intake wheel to make it into the engine though. although this is more likely to happen on the s2 r33 and r34 turbos with the plastic compressor wheel. i know someone who blew their turbo on 12psi at the drags and ended up with a small piece wedging the butterfly open a little bit so it was reving very high without touching the accelerator. but he was lucky and nothing made it into the engine. most of the large pieces will get cause by the intercooler.

[whiteboy01]

i have always been confused by people saying that the turbo will send bits of ceramic into the engine. how does it do it? the ceramic part of the turbo is on the exhaust, so unless it is able to throw a piece back against the exhaust flow, and have it time perfectly to pass the valves and into the chamber. it would take teleportation for it to be able to suck it through the intake.

it is possible for pieces of the intake wheel to make it into the engine though. although this is more likely to happen on the s2 r33 and r34 turbos with the plastic compressor wheel. i know someone who blew their turbo on 12psi at the drags and ended up with a small piece wedging the butterfly open a little bit so it was reving very high without touching the accelerator. but he was lucky and nothing made it into the engine. most of the large pieces will get cause by the intercooler.

If you think about it the compressor wheel is spinning at 10,000 RPM and is going in a out ward direction - the exhaust manifold would guide it back into the engine pretty much. That the only way i could work it out.

I could be wrong though.

[R31Nismoid]

i have always been confused by people saying that the turbo will send bits of ceramic into the engine. how does it do it? the ceramic part of the turbo is on the exhaust, so unless it is able to throw a piece back against the exhaust flow, and have it time perfectly to pass the valves and into the chamber. it would take teleportation for it to be able to suck it through the intake.

it is possible for pieces of the intake wheel to make it into the engine though. although this is more likely to happen on the s2 r33 and r34 turbos with the plastic compressor wheel. i know someone who blew their turbo on 12psi at the drags and ended up with a small piece wedging the butterfly open a little bit so it was reving very high without touching the accelerator. but he was lucky and nothing made it into the engine. most of the large pieces will get cause by the intercooler.

Drop a glass of ice onto the ground, shit goes everywhere other than further down.

All it takes is one small piece to get into a motor @ any RPM to cause major damage, hell the ceramic dust (in most GTR failures) causes it, almost microscopic pieces

It is possible for bits of the exhaust wheel to go back into the motor, most common for GTR

It is also possible for the compressor wheel to make it to the motor, even with a intercooler and throttle body in the way. Most common for GTS-t

At the end of the day, either stick to the thresholds that are 'deemed' to be safe.

10psi GTS-T

12psi GTR.

Ensure if you are flat out circuit racing with stock turbos that you have easy laps every 2 flying ones (at a rough guess).

Otherwise your motors days could be numbered.

As for the rest of the info/thread, its very subjective and doesn't prove a lot to be honest. Why you ask?

Your turbo could fail just driving home @ 2,000rpm... the damage could have been done 2 months earlier and it was a matter of time, and totally unrelated to the actual point of failure.

[Finchy33]

RB25, got tuned, overboosted on the way home. Both wheels sheared off the shaft, front wheel mostly got caught in the intercooler some made it through. No compression 3/6 pistons.

Rear wheel is somewhere on the freeway...

[mad082]

Drop a glass of ice onto the ground, shit goes everywhere other than further down.

All it takes is one small piece to get into a motor @ any RPM to cause major damage, hell the ceramic dust (in most GTR failures) causes it, almost microscopic pieces

It is possible for bits of the exhaust wheel to go back into the motor, most common for GTR

It is also possible for the compressor wheel to make it to the motor, even with a intercooler and throttle body in the way. Most common for GTS-t

At the end of the day, either stick to the thresholds that are 'deemed' to be safe.

10psi GTS-T

12psi GTR.

Ensure if you are flat out circuit racing with stock turbos that you have easy laps every 2 flying ones (at a rough guess).

Otherwise your motors days could be numbered.

As for the rest of the info/thread, its very subjective and doesn't prove a lot to be honest. Why you ask?

Your turbo could fail just driving home @ 2,000rpm... the damage could have been done 2 months earlier and it was a matter of time, and totally unrelated to the actual point of failure.

that isn't a very good analogy. i know the point you are trying to make but an exhaust wheel coming off and exploding. yes if you drop a glass it it doesn't keep going down, but how much of the glass is going to end up back in your hand? or taking into account the exhaust piping and valves, etc, how much is going to end up in your other hand that is behind your back?

how do you know for sure that the dust that has caused the engine failure in the GTRs isn't minute alloy shavings caused by the compressor wheel being out of balance and chewing up the compressor housing? because i am in no way arguing with the fact that the compressor wheel can end up doing damage. and if it was in fact dust causing damage, how did it manage to overcome the laws of physics? the lighter something is the less force it has and the less inertia it has, so for dust to be able to overcome the flow of the exhaust seems a bit hard to believe. not saying it hasn't happened before, but as with plenty of things, people have something happen then blame it on something they have heard/seen even if it isn't what actually caused it, so the actual amount of times it has happened may be a lot less than is thought.

[Sarumatix]

Which is pretty much the point of this thread. I want to know how people have actually killed turbos, with their best guess at why. I know they can die in a variety of ways so I thought it might be useful to have a thread dedicated to such fatalities to try and see just how often.. and how bad it really is. I appreciate that the information is definitely not scientific nor should any story be taken as gospel. It is potentially just as important that only 3 or 4 people can actually post up. Perhaps it doesn't happen quite as often as might be thought? I really have no idea thus this thread.

[Brezza]

i blew my rear turbo on my R32 GTR, its an 89 and was running 14psi so it was sure to let go sooner or later.

i never tracked the car, the rear wheel came off when under hard acceleration, heard a bang and a whole load of black smoke came out the back of the car. and there was a severe drop in power.

and i limped it back home which was only 500metres, it drove like a N/A.

had the turbos replaced with 2860-5's and tuned running 14psi. the car was only putting out 214rwkw which isnt much at all for a GTR i know!!

then about a week and a half later i spun a bearing in the #1 cylinder, coincidence??

seems a little strange that a bit of ceramic goodness couldve made the engine spin a bearing, i think that the motor was just really tired and i had a very unlucky few months!

now i'm stoked, full forged rebuild and a reliable 240rwkw @ 13psi, still stock ecu and injectors and pump, soon to be upgraded.

but it runs extremely smooth!

[R31Nismoid]

but how much of the glass is going to end up back in your hand?

How high do you drop it from?

couple of centimetres, you'll soon see it hit your hand

Either way, shit is flying around with immense forces

how do you know for sure that the dust that has caused the engine failure in the GTRs isn't minute alloy shavings caused by the compressor wheel being out of balance and chewing up the compressor housing? because i am in no way arguing with the fact that the compressor wheel can end up doing damage. and if it was in fact dust causing damage, how did it manage to overcome the laws of physics? the lighter something is the less force it has and the less inertia it has, so for dust to be able to overcome the flow of the exhaust seems a bit hard to believe. not saying it hasn't happened before, but as with plenty of things, people have something happen then blame it on something they have heard/seen even if it isn't what actually caused it, so the actual amount of times it has happened may be a lot less than is thought.

Well if the comp wheels are still in place (often the case when the ceramic rear lets go on GTR's)...

Then what else logically could it be? There are no other choices I'm afraid.

Add to that the fine dust that litters the piston heads and exhaust ports... its a very easy thing to deduce... and in GTR's cases - this is usually what happens.

The motor isn't actually "dead", however the scoring on the pistons totally screws it.

It is also accepted that generally its the rear turbo, being it see's the most heat.

Either way - it happens, visual evidence cannot be argued regardless of what you think you know about physics, but do not know about what is actually going on.

You are just speculating there is enough force to stop ceramic pieces going back up the exhaust manifold, you do not know for sure.

Which is pretty much the point of this thread. I want to know how people have actually killed turbos, with their best guess at why. I know they can die in a variety of ways so I thought it might be useful to have a thread dedicated to such fatalities to try and see just how often.. and how bad it really is. I appreciate that the information is definitely not scientific nor should any story be taken as gospel. It is potentially just as important that only 3 or 4 people can actually post up. Perhaps it doesn't happen quite as often as might be thought? I really have no idea thus this thread.

Well considering if the turbo dies, it does leave bits and the motor is f**ked, then its rebuild time.

Generally people don't care much beyond that. If my engine builder/tuner tells me my motor is dead, i believe them and tell em to rebuild it.

That's what most people will do.

They don't ask why, they don't want to see proof etc etc. They just know a turbo died, minced their motor, and now their account has a few less zero's

If you really want to see how widespread it is - ring places that are specialists in RB's rebuilds, you'll see soon enough there is a nice pattern.

So it's very much unimportant how many people post up IMO.

[IM-32-FK]

LOL guys, stop fighting

the turbo gasket on my r32 gts-t is nearly dead, im worried that it'll also blow my turbo....time to replace?

also a question : whats a good aftermarket turbo i can get for a r32 gts-t 1989 model for around $1000? Ive got an aftermarket intercooler and an exhaust system. I am also running 11psi (i think)

[Chris-06R]

R32 GTS-t, running at ~11psi, came onto the straight at wakefield on about the third hot lap in a row, foot flat to the floor, changed gear to 4th and suddenly had nothing...

Found (the remains of) the turbine wheel in the cat...

[MrStabby]

Rear turbo on 32 GTR. Tune was 240kw @13psi, 11.5 AFR, turbos probably 115,000kms old. Failed the same as the pictures above with the shaft broken off at the housing. Turbine pieces caught by the cat. Was at Wakefield (for about the 6th time), no noise when it went just lost boost. Engine appears to be fine. My guess is that these are the factors that contribute to death;

- Age (rebuild interval on 32 GTR turbos is 100,000kms)

- Rotational speed (more boost = more rotational speed = more stress)

- Exhaust temp (leaner AFR = higher temperature = more stress)

So it might be more interesting if ppl can include age, boost and tune AFR (or if stock computer its probably very rich)

[and3_3]

I know a guy who had an over boosting issues on his R32 gtst, was hitting 1.7 bar a few times on the standard turbo. It still runs ok but who knows how long it will last.

I think how often you service the car too has an affect on the turbo's life, cleaner oil and coolant would cool the turbine more.

[existence]

me and my mates(well 99% my mates) have just taken my rb25det out of my car with a kkr430 on it, now i dont know much about shaft play / turbos myself, but u can grab the compressor wheel on the kkr and move it forwards and backwards literally 10mm+

the car was blowing immense amounts of white smoke and when i gassed it the car wouldnt make any boost at all, just make this REALLY awful clunking/scratching sound which im guessing was the compressor wheel haha.

anyways new engine and HKS 2540 going in tomorrow night

woot

[Parag0n]

I blew my stock turbos by accident, way back had an 89 GTR and an old Greddy Profec with the dials, was mucking around with them with no boost guage and left it on some crazy setting for a couple of days, got my power FC hooked up later that week and realised i'd been running almost 2 bar of boost.

The turbos died soon after even winding them down to 10psi, I was lucky not to have blown my head gasket.

Ah well, when the turbos died it gave me an excuse to get some top end work done and replaced with some brand new HKS 2510's, tiny suckers but I managed to squeez 300awkw out of them.

[GT-R32]

Well, I found out today that one of my HKS turbos is stuffed, not sure if it's front or rear as yet. It's not totally dead, but is very noisy so the car could not be tuned without risk of failure. So it's not only stock ones that die. Sweet, another few thousand to be spent.

[unique1]

theres a pic of 1 rb26 motor i pulled down with blown turbos, it isnt melted piston or valves it is ceramic imbedded in the piston on the exhuast side only. I pulled another stock 26 down and the first 3 pistons looked like that too and guess what... the front turbo had blown the exhuast wheel off as well. The result is scored bores (some pretty deep too) and stuffed pistons, plus damaged valve seats and valves and pieces also imbedded in the cylinder head (which the decking machine tool doesnt like when it gets decked at the machine shop).

Edited August 20, 2009 by unique1

[GT-R32]

Anyone know where I can get one HKS turbo rebuilt? Front one is making a huge bearing noise.

[midnight]

ive killed 2x A'PEXi AX53b60s both were second hand when i got them in good condition.

the first one sucked a metal induction pipe spring into the wheel... lol

replaced it and a week later the second one went cos the water line was too close to the exhaust and at wakefield it got to hot, the water bubbled and the turbo seized.

I then put on a turbo with oil only...