My car went 25 psi (wastegate failure), my engine blew.
Is the stock apex seal does a lot of damage to the housing?
I have not open it yet. I know the housing is very expensive.
Worse scenario, can the housing be saved by resurfacing?

thanks

 

won't know until opened

 

It's very rare that a housing can be saved if the apex seal was dislodged after detonation. In rare cases I've seen seals crack and lose compression without becoming loose and scoring the housing, rotor, and damaging the turbine wheel.

 

Its hard to say without opening it.

In theory, if the seal dislodged, all it takes is one revolution of the engine for the seal to whiz around and score the utter $%^&* out of the housing, in much the same way as a lathe cutter.

And if you're extra unlucky, it can then spit it out after a few revolutions of the super happy fun cutting action (that's a scientific term BTW) and straight into the turbocharger turbine wheel, continuing on its happy path of destruction as it munches the fins on the turbine wheel and then exits the building out the exhaust.

How badly the housings are damaged, nobody will be able to give you an answer until you crack it open. They may be salvageable, they may be destroyed.

 

ok....on the way to open it. thanks

 

Oh...last question: when you break apex seal - is it always ruin the housing?

 

Pretty much.....you can go from little damage (little piece of apex) to massive damage to housing+rotor if apex completely dislocate or shatter (or if broken piece form apex is "big)

 

so, the survivability of the housing is very low or to zero huh?
anyone here who broke the apex seal and was able to salvage the housing?

just worried about the cost of the housing.....

 

Wait.....imho.you can find used housing.in good condition...

Here in europe.i found 2xhousing that I can.istantly put on my stock.car for 350 eur

You have to see if you need.1 or 2 housing and in USA probably.you can find better price for used housing...

 

ok...i will keep that in mind - i will borrow a cherry picker today

 

I would not recommend opening the motor yourself, if anything you should send it in to a reputable builder to professionally assess what is salvageable.

 

Tearing an engine down isn't difficult

 

if it makes you feel any better if it had more than like 80k miles on it, it was probably worn out anyways

 

Teardown is easy. But then getting what is salvagable to a builder and not losing or mixing too much stuff up....slightly different story. Unless you have someone within short driving distance. In that case, tear it down and clean and spec out everything.

 

Well, I don't want any surprises specially if your budget is limited. Once you send it and they tell you it's done - you have to make a decision. If I can see it... it will be nice & no surprises. At least i can allocate the money.

 

90% of the time when you crack a stock apex seal, you will have damage to at least one rotor housing and the turbo. The stock seals seal great, but I don't recommend them for modded cars. Apex seal technology has come a long way and there are plenty of seals out there that will not break and damage the motor. RX Parts, ALS, etc. Both will warp before breaking leading to a cheap rebuild because the housings are spared. That being said, pull the motor and tear it down to see.

 

i'm half way....i will be able to pull the engine this week.
I pulled the the turbo T76 and so far...no problem in the turbine blades.

 

You will have to look at the *sides* of the turbine blades, that's what chips if an apex seal heads out the exhaust port. Many times you can do it without dismantling the turbo with a VERY bright LED flashlight. If not, pull the turbine housing off.

Yeah, it's normal to lose a rotor housing, SOMETIMES the rotor is useable, but that's a real toss up. No sense worrying about it until you have it apart and have real answers.

Dale