Have You Ever Blown A Turbo?

[ausdrift]

Having never pushed the limits of my turbo R33, i got to thinking about what happens when you blow one. So quite simply, whats happens when you blow a turbo (such as the classic overboosting concequence of pushing a stock ceramic/nilon turbo to destruction)? Can you still drive home? or will you be taking a tow truck home?

And also, how many people out there changed over the turbo at home, Vs getting a shop to do it. Was it a great difficuilty, or just a lot of grunt work?

Hoping to never have this happen, but am interested to know

[Hanaldo]

Turbos are a very easy swap, hardest part is getting the nuts off if they haven't been removed before. I can get my hotside off in about an hour these days.

As for driving it, a car with a blown turbo will drive fine it will just be slow as shit, obviously. How worried you should be about ceramic particles finding their way back through your exhaust ports is another matter...

[ausdrift]

And Im guessing you would have to drain your oil/coolant to do this too, right?

[MatthewT85]

And Im guessing you would have to drain your oil/coolant to do this too, right?

yep those need draining

my bro blew a turbo, and engine, turbos easy, ended up doing 3 ish times, you get good at it... engine on the other hand, he had a mate that has done it a few times, i wouldnt do it myself

[89CAL]

Coolant yes, or most of it will come out of the water lines to the turbo.

Oil no

[MatthewT85]

oil really, hmmm now i wonder if he did that or not...

[89CAL]

You dont HAVE to drain it. The turbo sits above the sump so you will only lose a bit of oil from the piping.

If you have blown a turbo, it probably wouldnt hurt to replace the oil.

[MatthewT85]

yeah cool that makes sense

[R31Nismoid]

Shitting a turbo can take the motor with it.

Some GTS-t owners have shat turbos, and had the comp wheel come loose (same time as exhaust wheel). Comp wheel has somehow managed to make it all the way past the cooler/throttle body and lunched the motor. So you wouldn't be driving anywhere really, smashing the valves as well isn't a smart idea if there is debris/chunks in the cylinder.

So in short - Why be silly and push it?

[DJBarnstar]

Worst part is snapping exhaust manifold studs

[debusan]

The joys of blowing the exhaust wheel out the tail pipe. Good times.

[MagicMikeZ32]

Here's something a lil different...

Before:

After:

Note: Not my car, and not actual bolt, but similar bolt.

[MatthewT85]

thatll be fine....

[White GTS-T]

^Wow. Extreme F.O.D?

I pulled this off at work, it's a 2008 Mazda CX-7 turbo with 80,000km. The owner has had it since new and it was last serviced at 55,000km. The oil feed was completely caked with carbon, hence starving the bearing and snapping the shaft.

[dkbcleaner]

How did the oil feed get caked with carbon?

[scotty nm35]

Poor servicing, long oil changes or low quality oil.

[dkbcleaner]

ah ok makes sense

[Anfanee]

When i blew a turbo on my GTR the rear wheel from one of them was sitting in my CAT...Completely intact... ewps. ive got it sitting at home ill get a pic later lol

[Hanaldo]

I don't drain the coolant these days either. Easy enough to stop the water lines from leaking. Do lose about a L or so, but just top it back up and bleed it.

[666DAN]

Same thing happened to my CX-7, bought with ~75,000kms, serviced strictly and the same shaft snapping happened at 102,000kms on the dot. FYI the caking of the oil feed is due to the exhaust gas finding a new path down the oil inlet after the wheels fall out of the bearing. Caused me to dump a few litres of oil on the driveway as I returned home after hearing the turbo go pyyyooooooooongggggg!

Got a total of 500 meters from the house and it let go, crank pressure through the turbo oil feed blew the dipstick out along with the oil

Took me the good part of a weekend to replace the turbo.....longer to clean the engine bay.