Hey guys -

Just got one of these the other day -


$18 with free Prime shipping.

Hooks up to your laptop with a USB cable and has a tiny camera and LED lights on the end.

I am currently rebuilding an engine for a local guy, and I was suspicious of the turbos since the front rotor blew an apex seal. Many times a piece of the seal goes through the turbine wheel, chipping the edges. The turbo will work, but you'll lose spool and response, and over time the imbalance will kill the bearings.

In the past, I've had to take the turbos VERY much apart to be able to see in there to inspect the edges of the turbine wheel. Mind you, this is the VERY outside edge, you have to look in between the blades to see the edge, and there's no way you can see that with the turbos together.

I just went in through the hole the downpipe connects to and had a look. The brightness of the LED's is variable, which helps - too much can wash out the picture. Took a while to manipulate the camera into place to see it, but it did the trick.

I can see this being a worthwhile tool for examining other hard-to-reach places. Hard to beat for the price.

Dale

 

$18 for a borescope! I just added it to my wish list.

Thanks

 

Nice find. I'll add this to my wish list. looks pretty useful for a lot of applications.

 

I have this and would use it as a novelty at best. The lack of focal adjustment and low quality image is my gripe.

 

I agree with you there, having focus and having an option to focus in REAL close would be nice. But, for the price, it did what I needed it to do.

I'll post up a pic from the camera at some point showing the turbine blade.

Dale

 

Already ahead of you on this. I did the same to inspect my turbos. The pictures are hard to get focused but it's more practical to view the live feed. Maybe more lighting could have helped too. Somehow the video quality is better than pictures. Probably could have been better if I put more effort into these as it was 10 below when I shot these.

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up76...ature=youtu.be

 

Damn I paid like $500 for my Snapon one.

 

Is the resolution/light any better than the posted one?

 

i ordered one and an adapter to connect to Android so I'll let you know if/how it works!

 

I forgot to mention mine was the Android one. Supposedly the included software is crap (virus/spyware) so you have to find an alternate from the app store. I took these hunched over with the turbos on the ground and didn't mess with the light levels or software. Could probably get way better pics with just a little more effort (or even someone to press the button once a good picture is on screen - i did it solo).

 

The exducer of the turbine isnt normally what gets damaged by FOD. You need to be looking at the squared off fins that spin inside the scroll.

 

i've had the pleasure of having some of the nicest borescopes on the market (ranging from $40,000-$60,000), and K-tune is right, the apex seal damage i've experienced on turbine wheels has been on the leading edges, viewable only from inside the scroll or by removing the exhaust housing. in fact, the first motor I blew, I thought by borescoping from the downpipe that I was in the clear, only to remove the turbo and find the damage later.

heres the one I've had most recently:
https://www.gemeasurement.com/inspec...ideo-borescope

 

Heres damage to my precision 6266 from a chunked apex seal:

 

Here's a borescope picture with the turbo removed, looking through the manifold, into the exhaust port for the bad news. This was with one of the older borescopes. I'll try to dig up some other pictures with a newer one, but those will be of piston motors most likely.

 

Here is an example of when we used a borescope to verify starter engagement with the flywheel on a no start problem.

 

Heres an inspection of an exhaust vavle seat from the spark plug hole on a mazdaspeed3



Dont mean to derail this thread, moreso urge how useful borescopes can be

 

Those pics and videos were from trying out the borescope when it just arrived and I stuck it in the first hole I saw. I have yet to do a full inspection and will probably try to over the weekend.

 

Those pics look better than the ones my Dr. showed me from my endoscopy

 

Yes it is quite a bit better.

 

Yatek Q series #Borescope inspection aircraft engine has the following main functions:

1. Detect the burrs and residues of the main airflow passage parts of the engine, and whether there are cracks or related defects. Through the detection, the problem can be found more and the safety hazards can be solved;

2. Detecting surface defects of aircraft engine high-pressure compressors, including bumps, cracks, residues, flatness, etc. Any bubbles or cracks in any place may cause the plane to crash, not sloppy;

3. Detect cracks, bulges, bubbles, etc. of the blades of the engine turbine at all levels to ensure normal operation of the blades;

4. Detect the combustion condition of the engine to ensure that there is no debris in the combustion chamber and there are no defects on the surface;

5. Detect other conditions inside the engine.