So about a year ago I purchased a 1989 T2 with a blown engine, and I've replaced almost everything I could think of to fix it but have yet to fix it completely.

first thing I did was put a new remanufactured engine from Mazda into it. I also replaced the clutch with a street clutch. All was well but it turns out the engine was defected and had a major oil leak that surfaced. Before the leak had begun the turbo was spooling at 8 when i thought the default was 6, I bought a Fuel Cut Defender and installed it to the ECU. As time went on, the oil leak began to show and i took it to the shop i had bought it from. They swapped in another remanufactured engine. I than towed it cross country as i was moving. Once at my new location, I noticed that the car had horrible compression so i immediately took it to the nearest Mazda dealership, 72 miles away...

900 dollars later they said everything was fine and i picked the car up. I got 24 miles away and the turbo blew. I had it towed back and they quoted me 4200 dollars for a new one and installation. I than towed it back to my house, bought a S5 turbo and am currently in the process of putting it in. after removing the air pump, ABS, and all the other nice stuff that is in the way, i took off the heat shield and noticed the down pipe is missing from the turbo to the cat. I talked to the local muffler shop and they said that they didnt think that would blow a turbo unless it was cold. Plus I know that downpipe was on the car when i took it to mazda.

So what i am asking is, did the turbo blow up because it was 19 years old and had 155,000 miles on it, was it the downpipe being gone, or can it be something else. Im trying to get the car working and proper so i can sell it, almost everything on it is brand new or replaced, and its getting to unaffordable for me as I am in college. the car is in pretty decent shape and I just wanna get it running.

does anyone have any advice? I dont want the new turbo to blow up like the old one, and I would like this to go as smoothly as possible.

 

If your downpipe was missing when you picked the car up it would have been very loud. I started my car when I changed the exhaust. It had just the down pipe on and it sounded like a race car.