[Diy_efi] Re: [jyturbo] No drag racing tomorrow - tubo shot - baghhhh!

[David Allen]

  Damn that sucks.  I really hate to hear that!!!!!
As for the bearings, I would not worry.  The metal from failed turbo 
bearings is fine enough that it should not pose a problem. Just change the 
oil and filter, and replace/ repair the turbo. I would stick with the same 
type turbo if I were you. That way you don't have to re-fabricate 
everything. You probably only need bearings and a compressor wheel anyway?
  Was your turbo from a Cummins 5.9? If so please e-mail me off-list.
  It sucks when things like this happen.  My incident was not as bad because 
I already had several years out of my setup.  Anyway I broke a 1/8" drill 
bit mounting some headlight relays under the hood.  The hot tip of the 
broken bit landed on the flex hose between the intake pipe and air filter. 
It melted through.  After months of laying in the intake pipe, that piece of 
a bit finally went through the turbo.  I heard what sounded like brief 
pinging in the engine, then after that I could only build 5 or 6 PSI boost. 
And the turbo sounded really sick.  It destroyed the compressor wheel and 
the imbalance wrecked the bearings.  I was a Rajay turbo from the 70's. 
Could not get any parts for it and had to buy a new/ different turbo and 
re-fabricate the system.
  I only changed the oil and filter, and put a new turbo; and that was 
10,000 miles ago or better. No engine problems.  In the end I ended up with 
about  50 more HP because the new turbo was actually spec'd out for my 
motor. So all's well that ends well.
Thanks,
David

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Daniel Nicoson" <A6intruder at myo-p.com>
To: "Jyturbo" <jyturbo at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 9:20 PM
Subject: [jyturbo] No drag racing tomorrow - tubo shot - baghhhh!


> Ken Campbell,
>
> I guess this is why you do your first turbo project with a used unit. 
> Less
> money shot when you realized how inept you can be.  I have my "music
> therapy" headset on while I type.  Lots of work to crapped out in three 
> days
> of driving the turbo install.
>
> Everyone,
>
> I jacked the front of the car up tonight to check everything out after 
> three
> days and about 200 miles of driving.  The track is 60+ miles away. I 
> didn't
> want stupid things like loose bolts to bite me on the drive over.  Turns 
> out
> there was several loose bolts.  One was from a muffler clamp, heard that 
> one
> on the way home tonight when it hit the road and bounced up to hit the
> bottom of the car.  No biggie.  I had suspected that the two bolts holding
> the oil return fitting might be loose since on every shut-down there was 
> 15
> minutes of light smoke while it cooled off but again no great problem, no
> measurable loose of oil, just tighten them up.
>
> While trouble shooting the oil return I noticed how the compressor 
> discharge
> pipe was quite loose and in-fact from below the car I could see the
> compressor scroll move slightly.  That's not good...
>
> I looked at the turbo from above the engine, the big-ass snap ring is
> sitting there completely loose on the turbo, doing nothing to secure the
> compressor scroll!  How the heck was it still running?  Only thing I can
> figure is that my tight packaging allowed the infeed ducting to hold the
> scroll in place.
>
> Well, I took it all apart and the compressor wheel did scrape the inside 
> of
> the scroll.  I could overlook that but I can't overlook the chunk of
> compressor wheel that is gone...
>
> I think this thing ate itself the first night when the throttle jammed 
> after
> 5 miles of use and has been eating itself since.  It turns out the big
> rubber o-ring that seals the scroll to the center section must have been 
> the
> black rubber that I found in the throttle body jamming the throttle plate
> that first night.
>
> Axial run out has to be a good 1/16" on the compressor so it must have
> totally eaten the new bearings.
>
> I'm not too worried about the little bit of aluminum that DID go through 
> my
> engine (from the compressor wheel).  I will do a compression check before
> running again and if all checks OK I'll run it.
>
> A bigger concern is how contaminated might my oil system be from these 
> turbo
> bearings eating themselves.  I guess that might explain the low oil 
> pressure
> at idle.
>
> 96,000 miles on this motor.  If good compression check, do I really need 
> to
> disassemble the engine to replace all bearings?  I'd be inclined to flush
> with fresh oil and keep running it.
>
> Thoughts on oil contamination?
>
> Any good turbos out there comparable to a Holset HX35W?  I am using an
> external waste gate so I can consider other similar models.
>
> I think I will let the car sit a couple nights before I tear into it
> again...
>
> Later,
>
> Dan Nicoson
>
>