Its rainy season, so traction is minimal, thought id open her up , well since not much traction, its basically like running the car with no load, and not caring much for watching boost, was seeing it spike up and not thinking much about it. Got a manual boost controller (this is where an electronic boost controller would have saved me since they usually have a peak safety feature.

Anyways, car wont start. She cranks but wont start, I am praying that it didnt inject anything into the engine. Would a blown turbo cause the car to not start? Im thinking it could be restricting air flow ?

If im lucky I can just pick up a used turbo and be back in the game. I have to figure out if the block is ok. Can I try bypassing the turbo by hooking the maf up to the intercooler?

 

A bad turbo should not prevent it from starting. Have you done a compression test? Hopefully the motor didn't let go, but i would elimate the worst possibility first.

If the compression test looks good, have you checked for spark? Will the fuel pump run if you jump the check connector? I know your well versed so I'm sure I'm not telling you anything new, but sometimes I get to working on a car and forget to look at the easy stuff first. IE: Minivan won't start, getting rpm signal, but no 24X crank signal, and security lamp is on. Started checking the security system and relearn. 30 mins later, decide to open the hood and squirrells hate ate the crank sensor wires....

That turbo looks like it ate something though, maybe it came apart under excessive boost? If there is a lot of shaft play, an oil change would be in order as debris would be in the oil pan. I would also inspect the tubing going into the intercooler to see if the turbo sent any metal shavings or flakes into the intake path.

I would think replacing it with a known good turbo should be enough, along with an oil change, and cleaning the intake piping. Hopefully no large debris made it to the intercooler.

Good Luck!

Vince

 

I'd have to agree that it looks like something hit the impeller. Excess pre-turbo water injection can do something similar, and that's just water molecules eroding the aluminum.The edges of the blades (or at least what I can see in the pic) look to be ok, so it doesn't seem like it contacted the housing. Checking play would tell you that right away however. If it can touch the housing when you press on it, it's going to do it while spinning at 100,000 RPM. That bottom blade looks like a large chunk of metal broke off, so you'd better hope it's lodged in the intercooler.

 

yeah it should still run even with siezed turbo. were you running a filter on the intake?

I dont think its problem with contacting the housing. I have a blown s4 turbo that the shaft had bent, and the compressor was making contact with the housing, but it just slowly wore away at the blades. it doesnt break apart like that

 

+3 on it ate something. your air filter isn't very good either, turbo is kinda dirty.

step one is compression test...

 

Compression test for sure... I don't like where this is going

 

Pictures like this make me cry

 

Really fearing the worst. Ill have to pick up a compression tester after the holidays.
I tried starting it today and it really sounds like low compression.

My non-rx7 buddy happens to have a pair of FD turbos with the manifold he said he would give me, I wouldnt mind trying to run that but if it was possible then im sure people would have done it already.

 

i think the twins hit the LIM

 

its possible, some have done it (a gold fc in canada comes to mind) but I'm not sure what you have to do to get around the clearance issues w/ the LIM...

 

pull the plugs for now and listen for it, compare rear rotor to front rotor, 3 even strong pulses

but if you trashed 3 faces you will get 3 even, but low, pulses that can almost sound normal- ask me how I know this

 

Yikes... I know some people said that the turbine didn't look like it hit the housing, but It looks to me like you ate some of the turbine.... Thus chipping/desimating an apex seal....

 

Damn, I'm willing to bet you ate a pebble or something similar... Sucks man.

But now it's upgrade time!

 

Some object hit the inducer. If you are lucky the debris didn't make it to the engine. With your no-start condition, however, it is likely the debris went through it. A compression test will tell you if the block is OK. Even if you just had the turbo rebuilt, the cost of an inducer repair or more than likely a new impeller will make you just want to upgrade. If you are considering the "upgrade" to the free twins, look at the cheap options to run a hybrid on the fc. Any competent turbo shop can build one from your existing turbo.

Josh

 

personally I would caution against a turbo upgrade on a original motor unless you are going to do everything right

 

turbos don't naturally fail like that, something went in through the intake and chopped up the compressor wheel.