I was hoping that someone might be able to tell me if
there is any way of identifying a turbo as being ballbearing or not just by looking at it externally ? Someone was telling me that there is some sort of locking mechanism for the bearings ..or something to that effect.

Does anyone know?

 

look into the oil drain hole on the turbo, you will see a small round hole that has been machined into it, on turbonetics and innovative B/B units

 

you can hear it too...at least on mine...when the turbo spools up and down you can hear the little sing of the bearings....its subtle...but i can tell by listening now.


j

 

well, I have a T51 R KAI ..and I'm not sure if it's the ballbearing unit or not.. Do you know with these HKS turbos ???

..I'll go have alook at mine and post again.

 

As far as I know, there were only a few of the T51 ball bearing turbos made... and they stayed in Japan. People say that it is available in Japan, but I don't think it is... I think it was a one off run of just a few turbos and only the lucky ones got 'em.

 

That's not too encouraging.. but thanks for the tip