What are some things that I can check that will tell me if my turbo is dead or not? I just did a test drive in it and I didn't get any positive boost pressure to my guage. I didn't feel it boost either. Should I take the tid off and spin the turbine and see if it spins freely? Any help would be great thanks!

 

Yeah, try that, check all hoses related to the turbo also. Check for exhaust leaks.

 

hey just looked at my turbo and I'm seeing an ht18s-2s on the turbo and it looks like the turbine fins on it look alot bigger than a regular s4 turbo is the ht18s-2s the s5 or what? Thanks.

 

oh yeah and the turbo spins freely I bought this turbo from someone off of thepartstrader.com who said they rebuilt these turbos and upgraded them. At the time (when I was young dumb and full of ***) I bought it and had the mechanic through it in. However I never got any boost out of it well I threw a bigger fuel pump and bigger injectors on and still no boost. The tubo spins freely just no boost. I don't know if it was like a series 4 or 5 cause at the time I had no idea what s4 and s5 was. Any help on how to determine if its s4 or s5 would be great. thanks!

 

^ please

 

can I take the tid off and run my car in nutral to see if it will spin up? Will it hurt anything? Thanks.

 

Probably won't run if you remove the TID, no airflow sensor.

 

what will no airflow sensor do? THanks

 

The car won't run. Even if you blow off a small portion of your intercooler piping that un metered air causes the car to stall. The same will happen if you try and start the car with no TID or airflow sensor attached or in place. You will be forcing alot of air in via the turbo and the ecu will not compensate for that air, so the car won't even start is my guess. If you are using a standalone engine management system then it's a different story.

 

Hey before you go about assuming that the turbo is bad have you checked your exaust system?? A clogged cat can allow for little to no spool up of the turbo. Its like trying to suck through a pinched straw. What about the rest of your car in general, has it been running normal? Are you sure that boost gauge is working ?? Is your factory boost gauge showing any movement??
Just check the basic **** first its a good place to start.
No the car wont run with this off, its like having one giant vac leak. You need to have the AFM attached and working to run your car.

 

crap thanks for the help man here is the hole story. I used to spool up quite well with my old turbo however like most people I wanted more power so I descided to get another turbo "upgraded". I looked on thepartstrader.com and this guy was selling them for like 4 or 5 hundred bucks for a stock turbo that he had done something to to make it upgraded. I don't remember because it was like 4 years and 1000 beers ago Anyways I had had the car for about 6 months when I got this turbo. I had the mechanic put it on but the first thing he said was man I got it on however it doesn't spool. Right off I was like oh ****! So I figured I would get larger injectors and fuel pump. Well about 1 week later I had a wreck in it messing up the front bumper a little as well as the passenger side fender. Well I sold the car to a friend for a grand and he had it for about 2 weeks on the road however with no boost. After about 3 years I finnaly got my baby back and just restored about 80% of it and got the engine running great however still no boost. I really need to find out what was done to this turbo to make it upgraded because it hasn't spooled since it was put in. Thanks

ps i have hks turbo back exhaust with huge dp. The only thing there is is a pre silencer so I don't think that can be clogged. Thanks.

 

well this may be a painfully obvious thing but check to make sure that the wastegate accuator arm is accually attached to the wastegate flapper door.

If that is attached take off the tid and check for shaft play that is up and down movement of the shaft and or ware on the blades or housing. These would be the first two things i would check short of clogged cats.. which you have none of so that eliminates that!

 

Hey, check and see of there are fins on the exhaust side. ???

 

I've checked for shaft play and if it was free spinning and man this turbo looks new! no problem the other day I got under the car and looked at the turbo before I knew if anything was wrong and the waistgate was attached fine. um......are you serious abou fins on the exhaust side? Thanks for the help guys.

 

here is the thing, if you have excessive shaft play it might be possible that your exhaust side is quite chipped away not allowing you to boost but if it doesn't have excessive shaft play that would be one of the last things i would be looking at! also is your wastegate accuatorhooked up to the compressor housing, or did you have to reroute the vacume house to some other source if that is the case make sure you have it to one of the more preferable for the WGA.

 

Really tho, check the clearance between your intake fins and the housing. If the clearance it too large then you will have major problems with spooling. A friend of mine has a GSX Eclipse. The guy who had it before him had problems with the turbo and somehow ended up having an automatic turbine fins in a manual housing (the two turbos are different for manual and auto cars, manual being better) the gap between the fins and housing was still small when looking at it but huge compared to was it was supposed to be. Long story short, he couldn't make any boost till like 5-6K rpms. Now that it's fixed, he's boosting at around 2.5K rpms

If the guy "upgraded" your turbo, there should be almost zero gap between the fins and the intake housing. Only a few thousandths clearance.

Craig

PS, ya, i was joking about checking if there were exhaust fins...

 

small clearance for sure not alot at all. Everything with this turbo is good. I woundering how I can take out this turbo so that I can take pictures so maybe you guys can tell me what it is? Have any of yall done this? Thanks. oh yeah and there is no shaft play and it is free spinning. I need to go to turbo 101 class or something because I am brand new to messing with turbos.

 

don't worry about the class we all were at one time or another.
You can take the turbo off by simply jacking up the car. disconnecting the dp, and tid, and intake and simply unbolting it and let it drop through the hole where your dp was... it is easy as it sounds but to better help you check the factory sevice manual. DL it if you haven't already or don't own one... it will help you more than you think!

 

thanks again for your help this week will be that project. Thanks again.

 

^