Is this turbine housing damage fixable?
 

A few months ago, I was out in my FD just sort of cruising along (not driving fast). All of a sudden, I heard a bang noise and the engine got REALLY loud.

I finally had the time to look into it, and the weld broke on my turbine housing. Is this fixable by welding if I remove it from the car and take the turbine housing off? This is an XS-Engineering T04S kit if anyone is interested. Lasted a long time, so I'm not mad, but I am a little annoyed.

This is what it looks like on the turbine. Should be a flange there of course!

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1374792350

Shows the flange that should be on the turbine still bolted to the downpipe -

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1374792350

It can probably be repaired but I doubt it will be as strong as it was originally.

I would get a new one and not worry for many more years.


How many miles on it? Did you have a turbo blanket installed?

Probably ~15k miles over a roughly 10 year period (yes, I don't drive the car much!). I had a turbo blanket type thing installed. It's sort of a hard one (does that make sense?). Made out of insulation of some type with a sort of hard foil type outer shell. Not sure that makes a difference. Sort of like this one but thicker/bulkier http://www.turblown.net/store/produc...eld500x375.jpg

That usually happens from pre-stress coming from the downpipe( IE the exhaust system is forced, or not enough hangers to hold its weight).

weld a vband and call it a day :)

I just had the same thing happen today. Kit is from XS engineering also, but a TO4E. roughly 10 yrs old and 40K miles.

If you do a search on welding cast iron, its a little difficult to do properly. I would just get a new housing. I'm sure someone taking the time to preheat, peen, and slow cool the housing would charge a decent amount. After all that, check if the v band didn't get warped, and wondering if the rewelded area will break again.

Easily fixable, if welded correctly it should last a long time. Turblown is right usually it is stress on the weld while being heat cycled that will cause it to fatigue and fail.

~S~