Sandbagger

Has anyone had this happen to them or know of someone this has happened to?

Here's a little short background story:

I'm driving home from a friends place, a few days before xmas, cars is boosting fine getting on the freeway. As i am cruising a few minutes later, I hear my turbo spooling. "WTH" step on the gas some more same thing. WIERD. after a minute or 2 it goes away. Here comes a hill, step on the gas, no boost; step on it some more. same thing! WTH!. Cruising is fine. Get here home, go to sleep. next day start the car a little smoke from oil. Drive down the street, same thing, no boost. WTF. Park the car smoke is gone. rev the car starts to smoke again, huh. Turbo bad, motor bad, seals, compression?

Seeing how it's the holidays, I wait until today. Start pulling things off, hey there is oil in the intake and turbo. Bad seal? Man just got this thing rebuilt. As I pull the intake pipe and filter out of the car, this falls out on the ground:



WTF!!!!

Finally get the turbo off:



WOW!!! How the Hell... So tomorrow I am headed back to the shop with receipt in hand to get things handled. Will update in a few days.

This is why I prefer dealing with ppl and shops that are local and in the area! It would be a major PITA if I had to ship it. Wait. Phone Call. Wait. What's going on? Wait... You get the picture.

turbo10th

iTrader: (6)

Hasnt happened to me but heard many cases of it. Problem was the right handed threads instead of left and or not using thread lock.

Trots*88TII-AE*

iTrader: (11)

Happened to me. All of the above + incorrectly installed BOV. Whoops! I was lucky, minimal damage to the compressor wheel, none to the exhaust wheel or either housing. Check your BOV, compressor surge will definitely contribute to that happening.

What kind of turbo is it?

bob13bt

iTrader: (9)

What brand turbo was this?

Islander

iTrader: (6)

I had the same thing happen to my fc. I was told it was due to the turbo back spinning and unscrewing the nut. But mine was much worse, ate the blade pretty bad.

fastboy2468

I would make them replace the whole thing. Metal bouncing around in the turbo can only mean one thing. un for seen problems. You have no idea what long term damage may have been done.

(JMO) = Just My Opinion

fstbckgt

iTrader: (1)

good luck

rx72c

iTrader: (8)

ROFL incorrectly installed bov hahahahahahah


Seriously any person who thinks that having a non working bov or no bov causes any turbo damage what so ever let alone a loose front nut on your turbo needs help.
35psi of boost and 700rwhp+ and no bov and no issues.

take the turbo back and tell them you want new compressor wheel and id be taking the motor out and getting it rebuilt. Probably scored to the **** house. That happens because turbo is built by "a not so smart person"

Trots*88TII-AE*

iTrader: (11)

Well, I definitely fall into that category! When a compressor surges though, is it not trying to push backwards against the compressor wheel? That combined with the right-hand thread and not using loc-tite was the reason I figured mine came loose

arghx

iTrader: (3)

a lack of a blowoff valve is not going to make the nut on the compressor wheel fall off. I say that from personal experience, as I don't run a blowoff valve and I've run as much as 21psi that way. That doesn't mean that everybody should remove their blowoff valve, it just means that you should take the blowoff valve out of the equation here. There's a difference between compressor stall (air venting out of inlet when you let off the throttle) and actual surge due to the turbo not being matched properly to the engine.

I have a Garrett turbo that has not been rebuilt (OEM build quality). You need to find a better rebuild shop.

Trots*88TII-AE*

iTrader: (11)

I never said missing a BOV will cause this. I'm saying in my case it more than likely contributed to the turbo's failure, along with my inability to properly build a turbo. Lesson learned...

Foxtrawt

Ouch. I would for sure get a full replacement.

rx72c

iTrader: (8)

Hey Trots mate. The BOV did not affect your wheel coming off what so ever. The noise you hear on back is not compressor surge and your compressor wheel is not bending or trying to go forwards or backwards etc.

and i recommend to anybody to rip off their stupid bov. Youll notice so much more response between gears.

Nick_d_TII

iTrader: (6)

Rx72c... I don't understand how you or anyone can recommend that. I've never tried it or know anyone who has. But everything, I mean every single thing I've read clearly states that compressor surge or compressor stall is bad for the turbo charger. And that a bypass valve or blow-off valve is there to prevent it from happening.

From Garrett Website,
"Blow-Off (Bypass) Valves
The Blow-Off valve (BOV) is a pressure relief device on the intake tract to prevent the turbo’s compressor from going into surge. The BOV should be installed between the compressor discharge and the throttle body, preferably downstream of the charge air cooler (if equipped). When the throttle is closed rapidly, the airflow is quickly reduced, causing flow instability and pressure fluctuations. These rapidly cycling pressure fluctuations are the audible evidence of surge. Surge can eventually lead to thrust bearing failure due to the high loads associated with it.
Blow-Off valves use a combination of manifold pressure signal and spring force to detect when the throttle is closed. When the throttle is closed rapidly, the BOV vents boost in the intake tract to atmosphere to relieve the pressure; helping to eliminate the phenomenon of surge."

From Turbonetics Website,
"Q: Should I run a Blow-Off/By-Pass Valve (BOV) on my turbocharged car? What does it do?
A: Yes, all turbo cars can benefit by running a BOV on their vehicle. A BOV works by relieving the compressed air pressure trapped in the piping when the throttle body closes. The turbocharger continues to spin from the exhaust gasses exiting the engine and the compressed air has nowhere to go. The BOV opens and prevents the compressed air from "backing up" onto the compressor wheel causing surge. By venting or re-routing the trapped air, the BOV allows the turbocharger to spool up quicker between shifts and prevents long term damage from continual surging of the compressor wheel.
NOTE: If your vehicle has a Mass Air-Flow Sensor, it is important to re-route or By-Pass the air back into the inlet of the turbocharger (behind the MAS) so that the vehicles computer does not raise/alter the air-fuel mixture, causing the car to potentially run rich between shifts."

OP: I've heard about a compressor nut backing off and it chewing the shiz out of the compressor. I would assume its from an improperly torqued compressor nut. You got lucky it didn't do more damage.

Good luck.

DI2CCO

iTrader: (1)

BOV is required for surge, {timebomb} you will distroy your turbo without. smaller BOV are better.

from I know my **** .

Sandbagger

Got the chance to bring the turbo back to the shop, just before NYE and there was a lot of damage not visible in the pictures. Basically the compressor and turbine wheels were trash, as they worked their ways into the housings.

The guys at the shop were totally cool and covered everything, as it should be! All I needed to provide was a spare turbo, so we could use the turbine wheel out of it. Definitely looks like there was no locktite on the first rebuild, cause when I picked up the latest turbo I could see the red stuff on the threads.

Here are a couple of shots before installation:





The turbine looks to have a little less clipping than my last one. I wonder how much of a difference this will make to my spool up time?

Old turbine

BigTurbo74

iTrader: (4)

Looks like your running a 30 year old turbo..?

Sandbagger

Big: Yeah, living in southern california sucks! With how the cops hassle enthusiasts, I've tried keeping my car as low key as possible. I'm only using a T04B hybrid, which allows me to pass smog here in cali. If It wasn't for the cops and smog, I would be running a GT35.