Hi everyone,

I'm not sure if everyone has seen my twin charged build or not, but part of that build is the rebuild of my current turbo, the Greddy T78. The previous owner blew an engine while using it, and when I put the new engine in and got it tuned, it was laggy and down on power. So I've known for a while there was something wrong with it. But it wasn't leaking and was working ok so I just left it.

At the end of last summer it started leaking oil out between the CHRA and the Turbine Housing. Finally time for a rebuild.

The compressor side looked fine. There was a little side to side play on the shaft (minimal). And I couldn't get the turbine housing off to see the damage. The small part of the turbine that I could see (I think exducer?) looked fine.

So I sent it off to Dave at Midwest Turbo Connection, a rebuild shop with great prices and a great reputation (I checked tons of places out, this looked to be the best).

They got the turbo all the way apart and here is the description of whats wrong:
They had warned that if I have to replace the turbine shaft and wheel then it would cost additional money, they have stuck to their original price quotes for the normal rebuild and this additional material. So I'm very pleased with that.

However, this does put me north of $700, and in the zone where I'm debating on just getting a different turbo. The T78 is a great, tried and true turbo. And I could have it like new again in 2 weeks.

Is there anyone out there that knows of anything comparable, that's easy to find used in good condition? Maybe sitting around at one of our great vendors on here?

Needs to be as follows:
compressor: at least 67mm
A/R: at least .9, preferably over 1.0
T4 divided housing

Anyone have anything?

Also, even if you don't have anything, if you were in my situation, would you rebuild or would you get something else (keep in mind, I don't need better response, so reducing the size of the turbo is not an option)

 

I have a rebuild kit thats I got one yrs after I got my T78-33D Trust turbo.Never had to use it.I run dash -3an line for this turbo oil feed and never had a issue....well the exhaust propeller is a little chipped but nothing so dramatic.
They are jounal bearing and I would rebuild mine.I love my t78.

 

What I've never liked about Greddy/MHI turbos, especially the big ones (not some DSM turbo), is that they are more expensive and troublesome to rebuild or service.

 

Here are the pics I have, you can't see too much and they are sending more, but you can get the gyst of it from these:

 

And 2 more:

 

edit: i didn't read your post accurately enough. apex seals etc went thru that. that turbo shop must not deal with rotary turbos alot...

 

...you might as well get something new man.. the 78 is a descently big turbo. But if your doing the whole twin charge thing.. you might want to look into something that'll compliment the SC. Maybe a GT42 size and up etc... I'm assuming you'll want the turbo to come on right around the point where your sc starts falling off... You might need to do some math. Which i'm sure your capable of..just by reading your threads haha.

 

Go with something new. The t78 and t88's are quite old and hard to get replacement parts for. You should have sent it out to someone with spare t78 parts if you had intentions of rebuilding it. LMK what you decide to do and I'll get you pretty good price on your next turbo. I'm always here to help but I know you know that first hand already

 

Thanks Lance, I'll shoot you a PM.

My main concern is that I have a turbo at least as big as the T78 and fits without a new exhaust manifold (or modifying mine). It's already a pretty tight fit.

I was looking around last night at GT42's and the larger BW 300 series, possible 400 series.

The problem I'm having is that I could have this T78 acting like new for under $800. And it meets my power goals. The twin charge thing is still an unkown, it should work in theory, but who knows if I'll ever get all the kinks out once it is working. So going up to a GT42 might really suck if end up with the turbo and no supercharger.

Also, I can't find anything that big in decent shape for under $1000. So with all the extra costs I'm incurring to do the twin charge thing, my budget is getting tight. I could live with the T78, so anything else would need to be close to the price range of rebuilding what I've got while still being a good improvement.

I saw a few great deals in the classified section a few months back, but it looks like they've dried up, I really which I had jumped on one of those deals.

 

So, to wrap it up, I'm not rebuilding the turbo, and have almost decided on a replacement.

T78 had:
Bad seals, I knew that, because oil was leaking.
Useless turbine wheel, I was hoping this wouldnt be the case.




The cost for a rebuild quickly escallated, couldn't even find a turbine wheel/shaft in the country. There was one in Japan the rebuild shop could get for $415 (the turbo is no longer in production), they showed me the quote straight from the supplier and were going to give it to me at cost. So that put the rebuild cost to around $900. Way too much. The shop was Midwest Turbo Connection. Even though I can't vouche for their work, their customer service was excellent, and got back to me extremely quick with multiple updates while they were trying to track down the wheel, and also sent tons of pics for me. Customer service like that is hard to find.

So I've been shopping around, and the only thing I could find that's roughly the same size and decently price is a BW S366. So I'm going to try to pick one up next week. I couldn't even find anything used for decent price

 

I knew parts were getting really scarce. There's only a couple companies that have good used parts and they hike the price up...

 

Go with something new. My ITS 74mm was rebuilt but only lasted 2 months and had to rebuilt again

 

The parts arent really that difficult to find, Mitsu Turbo NA should have them. I had a friend who needed a rebuild on his T88 awhile back and sourcing the turbine and compressor werent much trouble.

However, sounds like you are best just selling it and getting the BW.

 

It's official, I'm now a Borg Warner S366 owner.
Here is the link: http://www.diesel-plus.com/dd_turbo.cfm?npid=9784


Basically, it's a little larger than my old T78, and will perform better. This is actually on back order and will be hard to get until May, but Mike at Southeast Power Systems (Diesel-Plus online) was able to get me hooked up and its on its way. Great customer service, and great prices. Every place else I tried just said it was on back order from BW and they wouldn't be able to get it until May. But Southeast Power Systems figured out how to get one to me quickly.

It's a 66.1mm compressor, with a T4 twin scroll housing, .91 A/R. I would have liked a little bit bigger A/R, but its not really available yet from BW. I've heard the 1.0 and 1.10 will be coming out in a few months. If I need to, I'll upgrade later on.

The T4 inlet configuration looks slightly different than my T78, so I'm not sure if I'll have to modify the exhaust manifold at all. I'm hoping the new housing doesn't touch the LIM.

Also, thanks to ScorpionT, I was going to purchase from him for a great price, but it became hard to source for him as well. Even though I didn't buy from him this time, he did provide a good deal of info and help.

 

Turbo is in, it fits with tons of clearance on the Greddy manifold Now i just need to cut the 4 bolt flange off the down pipe and weld on a Vband.

I'll also be coating the hotside with DEI high temp coating.

 

Very interested in the results you get from this setup. Please post up any datalogs, movies anything you can.

 

There will be tons of videos and results posted, but please keep in mind I'm attempting a twin charged setup. Please see my thread in the 3rd gen section for details on that.