Ok, i removed my intake today to get some room in my engine bay to do some basic work, and what did i find? My turbo compressor fins are all messed up! Now it would seem logical that a bolt or something went through them to mess them up, BUT....

No engine sounds or problems in the last month that lead to something going through the turbo and into the intake. (last time i looked at the turbo was a month ago, it was fine then)

Nothing in the intake

Turbo spins beautifully like it was new

Turbo shaft has no excess play

So how did this thing get all messed up, and yet nothing else is damaged or weird? All i have for an intake is a 45 degree metal tube, and a K&N filter. Im always very careful that everthing is clean before i put it back on ( For instance, no turtles randomly floating around in intake). Car runs and boosts fine, but i guess the flow characteristics of my turbo are all fucked now. Any guesses to all this????

Graham

 

Have you been running a filter on it (As opposed to a screen mesh, or open pipe)? If not, it's very possible (well, very probable) that it's been sucking in dust, pollen, bugs, rocks and whatever else has been flow through your engine bay.

You may not have noticed anything because this might have been happening over the past few weeks/months/years.

Assuming that it still spins fine and builds boost like it's supposed to, slap a filter on it and count your blessings. Otherwise... time for a new compressor...

 

Ouch, thats pretty serious. I'd suggest replacing the compressor wheel. Also, I'd suggest pulling your IC and cleaning it out cause its probably full of compressor wheel bits in the bottom.

STEPHEN

 

Ouch, thats pretty serious. I'd suggest replacing the compressor wheel. Also, I'd suggest pulling your IC and cleaning it out cause its probably full of compressor wheel bits in the bottom.

STEPHEN

 

 

Do you have a good BOV? This could be an example of heavy compressor surge damaging the compressor fins.

 

Yo! I've had the same thing happen to 2 of my turbos!!!!

Just recently I put one on in December, and in March is was already looking like that!


The thing is, my engine runs fine, which rules out large chunks breaking off. Also, when I cleaned my Intercooler out there was a very fine powder of metal... obviously from the turbo. I have a picture but I'll put it back up when I get home.

Anyways, I have a K&N Filter on my AFM, and I was using the homemade TID.

My headlights were stuck up for most of the winter, and I believe that snow/ice was accumulating on top of the filter. I had popped my hood last time it snowed, and there was a HUGE pile of snow (3 or 4 inches tall) right on top of it. This is what I think happened.... I always let my car warm up 15 minutes or so before school in the winter. I would drive to school, sometimes never going into boost. I believe this gave the snow/ice time to melt and go into the AFM/filter, collecting. Well, when I was at school I would just start the car and leave, and not let it warm up. When the car was fully warm on the way home, I would usually get on it.

I'm imagining that ice that had not thawed yet broke loose and hit the turbo, and that this happened many times. I had a gradual loss of boost as I drove on this turbo (remember, it only lasted a couple months). When I took off the TID to look, it was screwed like yours.


And YES, I had an airfilter, and no leaks... that is a pretty dumb assumption for people to say... if someone wasn't running a filter I think they would know that is what caused the turbo damage. (I've been asked this many times).

 

Oh yeah, and I wouldn't just "slap a filter on and count your blessings."

Look at that thing, it's unstable, and if a big piece DID break off (these things spin at around 100K RPMs give or take 10K or so) that WILL gouge the hell out of your rotor and housing. Say hello to rebuildville.

Here's my thread. I'll put the pictures back up.

http://www.teamfc3s.org/forum/showth...threadid=10266

 

listening to this, I get worried.

ON my 82 TII swap, from the BNR 60-1 I have a 4 inch flexpipe from RS/akimoto to a very large cotton gauze filter, right behind the right headlight lid.

I was planning on cutting a vent in the hood right above the filtet and making a heat sheild around it also.

Would this pose a problem

 

ok...

Here are mine.

Now I'm wondering if YOU had snow being from Cali. This is very odd, and no one could figure it out on the other forum. I just went outside to check on mine; it has been a month since I put my new TID on. It is just a silicone 3 inch hose going from the turbo inlet to the back of the AFM. The turbo is in the same shape, no damage, but there is some air filter oil residue around the rim I wiped out.

Anyways, I had the home depot TID and I was cheap and used rubber couplings. I thought maybe chunks were breaking off of that. My AFM and TID also had a good amount of dirt and junk in it. I cleaned the AFM out with a can of carb cleaner and a bunch of paper towel.


http://homepages.wmich.edu/~m1goebel/turbo.jpg
http://homepages.wmich.edu/~m1goebel/turbo2.jpg

 

Piranha, is it just me or is there no bolt on your compressor wheel??? Did you remove it or did it come off and to thru the wheel???

STEPHEN

 

Holy **** that sucks.

 

There is a nut that goes there? I didn't take it off, and I don't remember seeing one, but of course I didn't pay attention. I figured that oval thing was the nut.

The only thing is, if a nut came off, then it either went down the BOV or disintigrated, because had it gone through the rest of the intake, my motor would be trashed. WTF?

 

The oval thing may be the nut and maybe not. BTW the threads are usually reverse on the compressor.

Not necessarily-----
If the aluminum retaining nut was pulverized by the blades they probably be heavy enough to precipitate out in the IC. Take the IC off and see if you can get the pieces out of the IC.

 

I already checked my IC and nothing was in it. This was about a month and a half ago. All I had was a fine dust of metal.

 

THAT IS FROM FOREIGN DEBREE. CHECK FILTER AND INTAKE PIPE WELDING IF YOU HAVE IT.

 

how does Foreign Debris get through your filter/intake?

 

I have a 45 degree mandrel bent pipe, and a K&N Filter on the end of it. There is no airflowmeter since i have a wolf 3d engine management.

Good ideas on the potential rebuild and cleaning out the intercooler. There is no snow and the car is well taken care of out here in california. I still dont understand what is causing this though, seems really wierd. Thanks for your posts so far, this is helpful

Graham

 

By the way, my turbo is the stock 89-91 turbo, but with the $700 Turbonetics turbo upgrade (bigger compressor wheel and such). Any ideas on how much to fix this? Do i have to pay the $700 all over again?

 

I would guess that one of the tips on the compressor wheel has failed and caused the damage you have now

 

I'm going with this for the first turbo and the nut fell off the shaft on the second turbo causing it to get eaten by the compressor.

 

Ok, first a bit more info.

I have a full FMIC kit that i specially built for my car. I also have and HKS BOV so i know that there wasnt a problem with compressed air hitting going "backward" and hitting the compressor wheel. The motor does not ping and runs perfect. I run about 10psi on this turbo since i dont have enough fuel for more boost (wideband shows that it starts leaning out after 10psi, so i like to be careful)

Now to assess the damage...

Can i just buy a new compressor wheel and install it? Or do i have to just send it back to turbonetics and they install it? I would think that i can just buy the compressor wheel, not a whole new rebuild since everything else feels perfect. Anyone have any thoughts on this?????

Graham

 

It has to be rebalanced with a new wheel so unless you have the machine then you'll have to send it out.

 

A tip fail? Which one? Dude, this makes no sense. I've had this happen to 2 of my turbos, although my first one isn't nearly as bad. *shrug*

 

They both look like some debris got in there.

The second one seems very likely to be the nut that holds the compressor wheel on.

The first one looks like the nut is still there, but it's possible that something came off the AFM or something along the way between the filter and the turbo. Perhaps a boost leak or something could have caused the turbo to overspin and damage the compressor wheel from the centrifugal force or something, but it seems more likely that something got in there and smashed it up. I've had boost hoses fall off before under boost (and I am sure many other have, too) and it never caused any of my compressor wheels to fly apart.

-Max