My exhaust wheel is wadded up pretty bad. Can't even pull it apart. The bearing and shaft appear okay.
I thought only debris can cause this, but debris from what? My engine still works. Had a filter on too. Less than 5k miles on the engine.

 

How old is the turbo?

 

Bought it in 2021 but it's got under 5k miles, probably closer to 3k but I'm not sure exactly.

 

Were you monitoring pre-turbo exhaust temperatures?

 

Unfortunately no sensor. But I'm not seeing signs of over temp.

 

do you have a picture

 

Does the wheel still spin? Your statements that it was "wadded up pretty bad" and that "the bearing and shaft appear okay" are confusing me - how can you check the health of the shaft/bearings unless the assembly can spin? At any rate, assuming it didn't die due to mechanical issues such as bearing failure and since it didn't munch any apex seals from an engine failure, the only failure mechanism left is too much thermal stress, a materials defect in the wheel itself or the combination of the two.

 

Originally when I went to spin it in the vehicle after pulling over on the side of the road it was sized.
When I got it home I removed it from the vehicle. The fins that could be seen looked fine. I was able to get free movement from the shaft by turning the compressor, but it would stop after a few degrees or movement.
I took the compressor housing off, no marks, it looked okay.
When I went to remove the exhaust housing I could not pull it free. That's when I noticed a folded up piece of metal further down behind the fins preventing spin and the ability to remove the housing. After some wiggling and probing I was able to get free movement, but still could not extract the "debris" or remove the housing since it caused a lip that trapped it.
Looking further I could see that some fins were missing and the folded up piece of metal was also a fin. So the backside of the fins closest to the CHRA was damaged and some broke, some folded and wrapped themselves up in the mess.

At that point I could see that there was no shaft play, shaft felt tight, and no bearing noise or crrunching when spinning.

I'll get photos when I get back home tomorrow.

 

most probable is that a foreign object went thru the turbine.

 

Haven't taken a photo yet, I'll most likely disassemble further to see the full extent. Haven't gotten a response from PT yet over email. Is the nut that holds the shaft to the compressor wheel reverse thread? It's been a while since I've taken one apart.

 

Foreign object doesn't look like part of the wheel. different shade. almost looks like part of the housing? Or something else?







I got the shaft to spin free again, nothing *looks* bent. I still cant get the debris out and I cannot remove the shaft, should I apply heat? Or is it supposed to slide out easier?

 

Shouldnt you just take the exhaust housing off the turbo to examine the foreign object?

 

The object is trapping it from removal. Its why im trying to get the shaft to slide out, but it wont, even though it spins.

 

O:

 

pull the exhaust manifold and look it over, also, check inside the each rotor's exhaust port

 

It does kind of look like a sleeve.

 

I pulled the manifold. Nothing looks sus. Its starting to look like part of the housing but I cant pull the shaft off.

 

 

That second picture makes it look like part of the internal scroll has broken and collapsed, certainly it's nothing upstream in the engine.

 

Definitely looks like the housing itself has failed. If the turbine and housing are toast and may have damaged bearings in the process you probably don't have much more than a paperweight. Do other suppliers even have the ability to rebuild Precision stuff? If you are getting Chinese rebuild parts probably best to buy a whole new clone or go to a different spec turbo?

 

I'm out of money from my exterior rebuild. Sucks because ive barely driven the damn thing . If it went out due to a defect and they don't help me out I probably won't buy another PTE turbo ever. I'm outside of their 1 year but I don't have many miles on it. Less than 5k miles and I'm massively over estimating.

 

Years back I wanted to put a Precision turbo on an Audi engine, because I was working for a Precision dealer and they made turbos with the Audi triple-K exhaust flanges so it'd all bolt up with no fuss. Because of the use case, I wanted to run rally style antilag. At the time (about 15 years ago) I was told flat out that Precision does not use materials rated for the ultra high temps seen with antilag.

I like their turbos on Turbo Buicks but because of this I wouldn't ever use one on a rotary. Rotary exhaust can be a lot like antilag exhaust.

 

I've ran nothing but PT turbos on this thing for 15 years. But this is the first time I tried a smaller AR, and if that's the case then I can see this having a hard time disappating the heat. They sure as **** don't say "don't put this on a rotary"

 

i did a back to back hotside housing comparison on a BW SXE 62 in 2018. .92 V 1.0.

i found 60 F hotter EGT and 4 psi more backpressure. i was surprised that the .92 made very good power at 8800.

as far as Precision Turbos... like most independent start ups, they had a learning curve but thanks to Harry and Dan and their genuine racer mindset they evolved and it isn't an accident that their tractor pulling turbos go for 40K each and teams that can't get them are pixxed, highly frustrated.

just saying that in the 21st century they make great stuff.

 

That's good to know!

Sadly the Audi project has been riding jackstands for ten years and Precision no longer makes "K26" hotsides, at least I can't find them on the website anymore.