I own an ’88 Turbo with approx 179K miles on it. The engine was rebuilt 30K miles ago. It is now starting to burn oil (blue smoke). Mechanic thinks it may be the Turbo - perhaps the seals in it. He wants to replace it. Does this make sense?

Also, this sounds expensive. Anyone here know the approx cost to replace? Shoulod I go OEM or upgrade?

Thanks in advance.

 

If that mechanic calls himself a mechanic, he should get some fact over 'think'. A simple look at the turbine outlet for oil, and a wiggle of the turbine wheel for shaft play will determin if the turbo needs a rebuild. The turbo should have no shaft play, not even a MM.

 

to replace the turbo with a brand new one would be quite expensive, just get a good used one here off the forum. (unless u have the money to spend)

 

Just curious, but how hard is it to find a used turbo with 0 shaft play? im thinking hard, cause when I bought mine it was shifting a mm.

 

I was told by an owner of a RX7 shop that there is a tiny bit of shaft play on all used turbos, he said 1mm or less is fine but if it's 2-3mm of shaft play then don't mess with it......He has worked on hundreds of turbo rx7's.

 

thats good info, thank you!

 

any turbo (new or used) will have a little shaft play. This is because the oil hasnt gone thru up in the seals n shiet.

 

So are you saying that the only accurate way to check shaft play is to warm the car up first with the turbo?

 

well usually shaft play is when its cold to determine how far the shaft is from the sides, if it was warm the oil would make it seem as if there were 0 shaft play which would throw off someones reading

 

it is normal to have a tiny bit of up and down shaft play but when you can push it in and out(towards or away from the turbo housings) then it needs a rebuild, also if the fans contact the housing while spinning it then it needs a rebuild.