I seriously hope this works out for you this time around. That's a lot of wasted cash to be throwing down the drain for turbos.

it could be the cartridge. the bearings could be slightly out of plane for whatever reason and when that is the case, no amount of balancing or toothbrush cleaning or anything else for that matter will save the turbo.

i had this happen on a bnr to4e hybrid. nut fell off. tore everything up. replaced/rebuilt everything. balanced.. broken in a few weeks. rinse repeat..

finally got new turbo cartridge and built another hybrid, never had the problem again. i say replace the cartridge and watch your problems disappear

it could be the cartridge. the bearings could be slightly out of plane for whatever reason and when that is the case, no amount of balancing or toothbrush cleaning or anything else for that matter will save the turbo.

i had this happen on a bnr to4e hybrid. nut fell off. tore everything up. replaced/rebuilt everything. balanced.. broken in a few weeks. rinse repeat..

finally got new turbo cartridge and built another hybrid, never had the problem again. i say replace the cartridge and watch your problems disappear

d-d-d-double post!

I actually did replace the cartridge.... twice.

And Jerry, this turbo seems to work out just fine for me. I've boosted this thing numerous times now, and it'd have done it by now if it was going to. And yes, it was a lot of cash... going down the drain :(

Let's go through the list of turbocharger components and decide what it was, shall we?

-Compressor housing - Not it. I even swapped over to the original compressor and that one chewed up too.
-Compressor wheel - Nope. 3 (or more, I can't remember now) different ones got eaten up, can't be it.
-Turbine shaft? - Nope. 3 different ones got used.
-Gpopshop rebuild kit? - Seriously doubt it. With all the good feedback they get, and on top of that I got right at .0035" radial end play and between .0005" and .001" axial end play, right in spec.
-cartridge? - I used 3 different cartridges. Not it.
-Backplate? - no - remember, I had the same problem with a rebuilt stocker, so the backplate is ruled out.

So what else is there? Either a cursed turbo, my rebuilding skills (which I'm VERY meticulous btw, but I'm not ruling myself out) or the balancing shop is screwing me.

did you happen to watch any video tape of a black turbo covered in burnt royal purple oil crawling out of a ancient well recently? :P

Speaking of shit being cursed, this has nothing to do with a turbo but follows the same guide lines. Roughly 1yr ago i had a very close friend that had a decently built civic. Made a little north of 600whp. Anyhow the car was awesome and never had any troubles besides one. 1 flywheel bolt kept backing out. 1st time- casually driving down the road, coming up to a stop light, push in the clutch and nothing. Pull tranny, bolt is stuck to the back of 1 clutch plate. Needs a new clutch, messed up pretty much everything. 2nd time- doing a pull on the highway and it shuts off and does a "endo" type act. Obvisously you shit your pants when your doing well over 100 and your car instanlly starts skidding. Pull tranny, the same bolt backed out and did the same exact thing. Another New clutch needed. Now were thinking, maybe it wasnt tight enough or something. Clean bolt and crank hole really well, change type of thread lock and put it back together. 3rd-time- felt it coming, you could feel the clutch was funny, pulled the trans, started hitting clutch plate but nothing to bad, Sweet!!. Decided it was time to to try a new bolt. Orderd one from honda and installed. Went to the track, made a few passes on pump gas to get the feel of the track conditions. The car traps 130's on pump. On the last pass the car just kept going couldnt stop it. Double footed the brake pedal till it stopped. Bolt backed out and destoryed the another clutch.

3 excedy twin disks later and 1 disk pack, it was time to call it quites. Parted the car out and sold the engine. needless to say it was one hell of a ride when they stuck:lol:

Every time there was loctite used, and started tighting the bolt a tad tighter. The thing that might have helped is a lock ring.