Jeff's Turbocharger Rebuild Thread

[Jeff]

I have decided to rebuild my turbo myself instead of paying someone $300 to do it for me. I have called every "trucking service" place here locally to try to get my "turbine shaft and wheels balanced" and I have had 15-20 rednecks laughing at me saying "why the heck would you need to do that!?" What should I do here? One place was real bad I could here the whole office laughing and the woman tells the service guy who is coming to answer the call "thats what he said, really, balance the turbocharger HAHAHA!!" So yeah, this sucks. I have the rebuild kit coming and the only piece of the puzzle missing is the balancing of the wheelsI forgot to mark them when I took them out. Ill post some pics of the tore down turbo when I get back from lunch. Anyone know of a place who wont laugh?

[Mike]

didn't silvia tell you to send it away?

[Jeff]

Well...then it turned into "lets at least take it apart and see what crapped out." I explained to her that doing that would likely ruin the chance to send it away because TU dosn't like to do them after they have already been pulled apart. So we decided that we would get a kit and do it ourselves because it wasn't hard to take apart. Anyone ever done this before? I was wondering if it might be good to take a brake-cal piston hone to the bearing surfaces before I put the new ones in.

[PDenbigh]

Ignore the rednecks. A turbo spins at 60,000+ rpm. F=MV, M is small, but V is huge. Based on that, I'd get it balanced. It will run fine for a little while unblanced, but your busings or bearing will live a much shorter life.

Turbonetics is expensive, but they'er so dull that they will definately not laugh. There are several other places, but unfortunatly I cannot remember their names at the moment. Perhaps Travis or one of the other turbo guys would have some suggestions.

[KPWSerpiente]

forcedperformance.com

slowboyracing.com

agpturbo.com

All of these places either do their balancing in house, or have someone that does it for them. Start making some calls.

-T

[Jeff]

It is being sent to TurbosUnleashed for a complete HD rebuild. Any thoughts on turbine wheel cliping?

[Dave]

do it if its cheap

[Jeff]

$40

[KPWSerpiente]

Don't clip it.

Sacrifices spool for a little more top end movement.

-T

[Jeff]

Ok, here is the other option. Do we think BS? or is it worth the $$?
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://turbosunleashed.com/shop/product_info.php?cPath=21_24&products_id=147">http://turbosunleashed.com/shop/product ... cts_id=147</a><!-- m -->

[Jeff]

PICTURE TIME!!!

Here is my cleaning method. I was trying to flush out the bearings but instead I just blew the oil seal. A normal turbo is designed only for 15-20psi of oil pressure...I gave it about 150psi. :roll:


However the bearings did come clean...this is the nasty crap that came out and there were tons of nice little shavings in it... hock:


So yeah...here is the cool picture 8)


Didn't brake a single bolt!!!

Here is the wheel assembly you can see the bearing with the scaring.


And lastly...my bling bling lines...

[Chris]

nice work, wish I knew more about what you are doing.

[ScottyB]

nice work, and i'm mad jealous of your shop

[Dave]

that 'trooper is gettin down y0.
Good work Jeff. You should try to cram a bigger/more aggressive wheel in there while it's apart.

[Jeff]

Did we ever figure out what we want for the XR turbos? I would like the worst one. If the wheels are ok I can put them in my turbo and that should be a major upgrade.