R34 Gtr Ball Bearing Turbos

[Amaru]

Just to add, I blew a rear turbo on my GTR (ironically, the day I bought the car... way to start my love/hate relationship with skylines!) and replaced them with 2530's. A week later I blew a gearbox but it sounded like something had gone majorly wrong in the engine, so took it to a workshop and they reported it as a dead engine. Long story but after being stripped and taken to another workshop, was diagnosed with a destroyed gearbox (hooray for 3rd gear!).

Anyway got the engine rebuilt since it had been pulled from the car anyway, and there were only two scoring marks inside the engine which was on the top of a piston and on the bore of the same cylinder. This happened from a snapped valve guide. Aside from this the engine was in suprisingly excellent mechanical condition for 75000kms old.

Must just be a luck of the draw thing as to wether or not your engine gets destroyed by ceramic dust. The argument for it happening seems valid, so I do believe it to a certain extent, but personal experience steers me otherwise as well.

As for R34 turbos, I was also 99% sure they were still ceramic. However, that being said I have seen a V-Spec which had steel wheels and heard of another V-Spec having steel wheel turbos too. These were both extremely low km cars and unmodified. Also heard rumors floating around some V-Specs/V-Spec II's had steel wheels, some didnt (along the same lines of Nissan toying with ball bearing turbos in the S15's).

But, someone who owns an R34 has said theyre ceramic, so I wouldnt push my luck and treat them as ceramic... nothing sux more when you pop a turbo, push the go pedal again and realise you have an RB26DE.

[INASNT]

I put GTR 34 turbos on my RB25. Front turbo let go and compression in 1/2/3 is 25psi compared to 150psi in the rear 3. They are ceramic turbines, and they let go at 5psi. Not happy Jan! Haven't been able to fix the car since it died in Feb.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

snowies old turbos?? LOL he must have given them a good trashing

[djhatton]

if the ceramic "dust" issue truly does exist, then i have no problems in admitting my sources were wrong. the debate it seems will continue

and regarding the exhaust wheel materials, i'm going to do more research into this matter because i refuse to believe that its a simple wrong/right answer. it is entirely possible that nissan spec'd different turbos on different r34's but i'll try to get to the bottom of it. a safe assumption we can conclude from this debate is to CHECK before you boost your car. if there is evidence of ceramic -or- steel wheels in these turbos its better to be safe than sorry.

cheers

d

[wrxhoon]

if the ceramic "dust" issue truly does exist, then i have no problems in admitting my sources were wrong. the debate it seems will continue

and regarding the exhaust wheel materials, i'm going to do more research into this matter because i refuse to believe that its a simple wrong/right answer. it is entirely possible that nissan spec'd different turbos on different r34's but i'll try to get to the bottom of it. a safe assumption we can conclude from this debate is to CHECK before you boost your car. if there is evidence of ceramic -or- steel wheels in these turbos its better to be safe than sorry.

cheers

d

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How are you going to check when still in the car ?

.

Edited November 23, 2005 by wrxhoon

[djhatton]

How are you going to check when still in the car ?

I have the turbos that came off my M-spec 34 and they are NOT steel wheeled , i have seen 3 other sets of earlier ( series I ) 34's , 2 V-specs and 1 none V-spec and none are steel wheeled . The Nur-specs that i saw in japan had ajustable actuators as well as steel wheeled turbines .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i'm not going to "look" at them at all. i am basing my answers purely on the knowledge i've gleaned from various publications and online research. like i said, i'm happy to accept that i'm wrong IF I AM WRONG, but don't get your knickers in a knot by misinterpreting my comments as stating ALL R34 turbos are steel. you've clearly demonstrated with your own turbos that they arent ALL steel and i therefor stand corrected and indeed i am the one smoking funny stuff... .... BUT!!! what of the cars that DO have steel wheels? what numbers were released from the factory with steel-wheeled turbos? were they the same basic turbocharger or did they have different sized wheels hence different airflow characteristics??? and most importantly, WHY did nissan change to steel wheels on certain models (if they did) and what're the results. this IS a forum not a scrag-fight and should be a learning experience for all.

cheers!

d

[GTRgeoff]

Yeah they came off the dragon (R34 GTR V-spec) but he kept them under 1.1 bar so they never pushed too hard, about 260rwkw.

I discussed it at length with Benno and he suggested that the GTR turbos will mostly fail after being removed and replaced, or in cases of severe heat shock such as start up and go hard straight away, or sometimes without any real reason, so it's possible some carbon was dislodged during the mod, striking the turbine. I'm not blaming Snowie for it. Bens experience was 2/3 of GTR turbine failures would result in ingestion of ceramic dust and given the cost of rebuilding them GTSS or 2530's are a better investment. Fortunately my GTR has already had steelies installed for a nice 260rwkw on the stock computer and was a major consideration at purchase.

As for Nissan producing the 34's with odd turbos on the non-Mspec models, stranger stuff has happened on other models but I somehow doubt it on the GTR.

[wrxhoon]

i'm not going to "look" at them at all. i am basing my answers purely on the knowledge i've gleaned from various publications and online research. like i said, i'm happy to accept that i'm wrong IF I AM WRONG, but don't get your knickers in a knot by misinterpreting my comments as stating ALL R34 turbos are steel. you've clearly demonstrated with your own turbos that they arent ALL steel and i therefor stand corrected and indeed i am the one smoking funny stuff...  .... BUT!!! what of the cars that DO have steel wheels? what numbers were released from the factory with steel-wheeled turbos? were they the same basic turbocharger or did they have different sized wheels hence different airflow characteristics??? and most importantly, WHY did nissan change to steel wheels on certain models (if they did) and what're the results. this IS a forum not a scrag-fight and should be a learning experience for all.

cheers!

d

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm quoting your post number 7 i think this is what you said

"what crack are you smoking? the r34 standard turbos are steel wheeled. this is WELL doccumented " Did you not say that ?

Edited November 23, 2005 by wrxhoon

[GTRgeoff]

Before this gets further off track, I expect we have answered James original questions but to clarify: max boost, stick to 1-1.1bar and you should be safe, but note they can fail without warning at lower boost figures.

[djhatton]

I'm quoting your post number 7 i think this is what you said

"what crack are you smoking? the r34 standard turbos are steel wheeled. this is WELL doccumented " Did you not say that ?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

okay mate. i'll dignify you with a response. like i said. "misinterpreting my comments as stating ALL R34 turbos are steel. you've clearly demonstrated with your own turbos that they arent ALL steel and i therefor stand corrected"

Well the 34 standard turbos are NOT steel wheeled , i speak from experiance NOT what i read .

The only 34 cars with steel wheeled turbos are N1's and NUR's or the ones that have been changed !

And NO i'm not geting my knickers in a knot looks like you maybe .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

mate i'm not going to get into a debate over something so whimsical. you proved your point. i proved mine (that there is differences between r34 turbos disregarding n1 spec turbos in SOME CASES). your time is much appreciated in what should've been a "discussion".

so

cheers!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Edited October 6, 2005 by djhatton

[saga]

seem turbos from an r33 gtr vspec, ceramic!

but awaiting djhatton to find out the truth behind all gtr turbos!

cheers

[djhatton]

all previous turbos before r34 were ceramic. i've never heard nor seen anything otherwise. anyone seen anything (non n1) that wasn't ceramic on 32/33??

d

[SKY 34]

nop...all Ceramics...dissapointing esp teh R34..can't really jack up the boost over 1.1 ...well could but at a risk of engine replacemet hue hue hue

[GTR-Ben]

The ceramic contamination does seem to be completely random.. it would take some hard physics and experiments to prove it though I would say..

One example I remember is having a R32 GTR blow a rear turbo, did a check and all seemed fine! So a new turbo went on and it was taken for a test drive. The owner had hooked up the boost controller all wrong so the first time the car came onto boost it over boosted and POP!... another turbo wheel gone. This time the car had problems... yep 3 cylinders scored badly.

We have had people blow a turbo and replace it and keep driving only to wonder why the car never seemed right..

Some cases are bad.. some only get a slight scoring some appear to have none at all.

I love mystries

[Mik]

all previous turbos before r34 were ceramic. i've never heard nor seen anything otherwise. anyone seen anything (non n1) that wasn't ceramic on 32/33??

d

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So...I've got an idea. Maybe you should be sure about what you say before you flame someone who is right...

[wrxhoon]

So...I've got an idea. Maybe you should be sure about what you say before you flame someone who is right...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would add to that , maybe he shouldnt flame anyone , especialy when they know what they are talking about .

[wrxhoon]

okay mate. i'll dignify you with a response. like i said. "misinterpreting my comments as stating ALL R34 turbos are steel. you've clearly demonstrated with your own turbos that they arent ALL steel and i therefor stand corrected"

mate i'm not going to get into a debate over something so whimsical. you proved your point. i proved mine (that there is differences between r34 turbos disregarding n1 spec turbos in SOME CASES). your time is much appreciated in what should've been a "discussion".

so

cheers!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You are very funny dude , if you didnt start with this crack business , i wouldnt even bother commenting on your reply .

Edited November 23, 2005 by wrxhoon

[Beer Baron]

i will add that i hate all you guys! i have sleepless nights now worrying about when my poor little san-ju ni turbos will let go claiming my rebuilt RB26 with them..

hmm, i guess it's possible i already have steel wheeled turbos. When i got my car there was mention on the old rego papers of improved turbos, which was interpreted as reffering to the HKS actuators i have. but i guess they could be steelies, though to me they look stock from the outside. i guess the only way to know for sure is to pull them off and hit the exhaust wheel with a hammer. if it cracks appart they are ceramic, if it just dents the wheel it's steel. hahahaha

in the meantime i will just keep running my 14psi and praying to allah that nothing happens to my engine I don't really want to go to the lengths of replacing turbos atm.

[wrxhoon]

i will add that i hate all you guys! i have sleepless nights now worrying about when my poor little san-ju ni turbos will let go claiming my rebuilt RB26 with them..

hmm, i guess it's possible i already have steel wheeled turbos. When i got my car there was mention on the old rego papers of improved turbos, which was interpreted as reffering to the HKS actuators i have. but i guess they could be steelies, though to me they look stock from the outside. i guess the only way to know for sure is to pull them off and hit the exhaust wheel with a hammer. if it cracks appart they are ceramic, if it just dents the wheel it's steel. hahahaha

in the meantime i will just keep running my 14psi and praying to allah that nothing happens to my engine I don't really want to go to the lengths of replacing turbos atm.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If your turbos have been rebuilt they would be steel wheeled , you dont have to smash them to see if they are steelies , if you take them out you can tell .

Maybe someone just changed the actuators though .

[Beer Baron]

If your turbos have been rebuilt they would be steel wheeled , you dont have to smash them to see if they are steelies , if you take them out you can tell .

Maybe someone just changed the actuators though .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yes, i guessed it's probably just HKS actuators on stock turbos.

Jerry, i was joking about hitting them with a hammer to check if they are steel or not!

[lwells]

i will add that i hate all you guys! i have sleepless nights now worrying about when my poor little san-ju ni turbos will let go

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You and me both. Its bizarre that a couple of grand on new turbos suddenly seems like "cheap" insurance