i have been curious about this for a bit, there have been "ceramic ball bearing" turbos all over recently supposedly in the T3/T4 trim level but i have yet to see one dissected to verify if it is a hoax, lies, sales hype or what. so, has anyone actually seen one of these turbo internals to see if someone has made a ceramic bearing set for the T3/T4?

i don't really care if its a chinese turbo or not, i am more curious if they exist aside from paying turbonetics $1k to modify one.

i ask why? simple, because T3/T4 shaft bearings drop right into a Hitachi HT18s turbo.

it is also important because all small to mid frame garrett turbos could benefit.

the part that baffles me though is that there is 0 rebuild kits for "ceramic ball bearing" and "T3/T4", leading me to believe these turbos are all lies.

input needed.

 

I am also interested in this. Would be nice to see some solid info.

 

 

Yes, they exist and China wants to sell them to you.

Beware.

Ball Bearing Turbo Turbocharger T3 T4 - Buy Ball Bearing Turbo,Ball Bearing Turbocharger,Rb20 Rb25 Turbo Charger Product on Alibaba.com

As you can see and as they state, it is like the Turbonetics set-up where it is regular journal "floating bearing" main bearing section and a ball bearing section on the front side to take the thrust loads from the compressor.

 

Should it be a little worrisome that in the picture of the ball bearing, there is a huge air gap between two of the ball bearings? Looks like a quality product...

 

i have been looking for an angular silicon nitride bearing so it could be set up similar to how the GTxxR bearings are set up, granted these turbos were designed more to work off the airflow dynamics of the backpressure created i still think it is worthwhile to test something.

i suppose the chinese didn't realize that there should be no need for a thrust bearing when using a dual angular type assembly.

perhaps, however i have not seen a cage in the bearing of the Garrett ball bearing CHRA either, but then again i have seen numerous Garrett units eat their bearings. Granted one failure was due to no lubrication and another from over lubrication with fuel dilluted oil. BB assemblies are quite picky about how much oil and what kind of oil they need.

 

i suppose the chinese didn't realize that there should be no need for a thrust bearing when using a dual angular type assembly.

I am sure they just got a hold of one of the dodgy Turbonetics single ceramic ball bearing turbos and copied it.
It is kind of a hybrid turbo where a single ball bearing is added behind the compressor cover area where the thrust bearing would normally live (not exactly, but I am sure that is how it started and evolved.)

I think the rear/center journal bearing helps absorb resonant frequencies that would shake apart a dual ball bearing turbo without proper VSR or dynamic balancing.

You know, like how the China charger GT dual BB knockoffs typically don't last long before the bearings **** themselves.



Here is a thread where dude disassembles Turbonetics single ceramic ball bearing turbo (for pics)-

Rebuilding turbonetics T3/T4 stuck.. - Honda-Tech

 

It sounds like you are trying to rebuild a stock turbo into some sort of BB turbo?

The stock center housing would need to be replaced/modified to hold the ball bearing.

Have you considered just putting a GT3xxx supercore into the stock exhaust housing?

You have to bore the exhaust housing to match the rear hat and exhaust wheel. This is what others have done/do (like BNR turbos).

GT3xxx for FC HT18 and GT2xxx for FD HT10s.

You can use a $400 China charger or an authentic Garrett for $800.

I would use a BW EFR7163 supercore for $1,000.

 

i have a blown GT35R chra that i was going to take some measurements on and see how everything translates. building everything off of it wouldn't be cost intuitive since it costs more to piece together one than to buy complete new.