Picked up my turbo today...

[CaptainHenreh]

So I bought myself a turbocharger for me birthday. Came off an '87 LeBaron.

Water Cooled Garrett T3.
.48 A/R (exhaust)
40mm inducer
60mm exducer

I had to pull it off the engine, and lemme tell ya, what a pain in the ass. The 2.2 Chrysler engine wasn't cross flow, which means there was absolutely NO ROOM to work. The engine was out of the car, but it was still a HUGE pain in the ass, as the engine side water and oil lines were rounded off, and Chrysler saw fit to just sort of cram everything in there as tight as it could.

I didn't know the turbo was watercooled until I got there. Alot of people look down on water-cooled junkyard turbos, cuz it's such a pain in the ass to hook everything up.

Still, this is probably the best Junkyard turbo I can find. Saab, Volvo, and Z31 turbochargers all go for way too much money. And since this turbo was the only chrysler one with a blow-off valve (!!!) AND it's water cooled, AND it seems to be a decent size for my engine (maybe a tad on the small side) AND it was 50 bucks, I think I got a pretty damn good deal.

Problems: The exhaust housing has a wonky bolt pattern, so I'll have to get a custom flange for my downpipe. No fears, JGS Tools just happens to sell those. It also has the intake pipe for the turbo sticking straight up. I don't know yet if I can rotate it. If I can, it's not a big deal. If I can't, guess what JGS Tools sells. It's also going to probably need a rebuild. So I guess I get to learn what rebuilding a turbo is like. YIPPIE!

I also got the stock manifold with it. Maybe I can 'blast it, and sell it on Ebay for 15 bucks or whatever.

So, yeah. Hooray!

[Feersty]

Nice dude, document that junx with pics. :thumbup:

[CaptainHenreh]

Oh, Also, if anyone who is as sadomasochistic as I am wants one of these turbos, the guy has 3. He's just north of woodstock, and as long as you remove it from the engine, he's really nice.

He also has a MkIII Supra Turbo for sale, 3K, but if you want one of those, I know where you can get the hottest little red supra on the PLANET for cheap.

[KPWSerpiente]

Sounds like an excellent find thought I'm confused when you say the bov is on the turbo? Are you talking about the wastegate? And this thread really is worthless without pics so clean it up and let us see it.

-T

[Mike]

Jessica used to have a Lebaron Turbo. She didn't notice the temp gauge reading "a bit hot" one day and blew that thing to all hell She still rants and raves about what a fun car it was...

Oh yeah, congrats on the boost.

[CaptainHenreh]

Sounds like an excellent find thought I'm confused when you say the bov is on the turbo? Are you talking about the wastegate? And this thread really is worthless without pics so clean it up and let us see it.

-T

Pics tomorrow night. When I say the BOV is on the turbo, I mean the BOV is on the turbo. The wastegate is too. The BOV is attatched to the compressor elbow and vents (get this) to the DOWNPIPE. Gayest. Setup. Ever. The compressor was POST throttle body, (no IC) which sounds to me like the most dangerous layout for a turbo system in...well...history. Pipe between TB and turbo busts? What happens? Guess. BUt all that shit's all going to go.

Anyway, I'm going to take it aaaaallll apart tomorrow evening maybe, and so I'll take pics along the way.

[CaptainHenreh]

Pictures, BitcheZ! So after alot of bolt blaster and whacking some wrenches with a hammer, I got it all off.

First step was to remove the stock manifold. It sucked ass anyway, so... off it went.

Then, I took off the BOV/AIV thing. Then I removed the exhaust elbow, then the compressor elbow. The fins seemed in good shape, but there's loads of shaft play. Not enough to hit either of the housings, but enough to require a rebuild. So looks like it's time for maybe a BB center section?

Yes indeedie. So, I promised pics. So here they are.


That's the whole turbo. Craptastic Exhaust Manifold and everything.


There's the compressor before I got the AIV/BOV thingie off.


There's a second pic of the compressor side, post AIV.


There's the turbine side.


And there's the whole thing, sans manifold.


And it's all thanks to:

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[Maengelito]

And it's all thanks to:

thats one of the best qoutes ever. a common excust among many of us.

[KPWSerpiente]

Looking good thought that is one funky set up.

-T

[Mike]

Hehe he said there is a lot of play with his shaft...

Looks good Rex! How much does a turbo rebuild cost anyway? Not that I'm getting any ideas...

[CaptainHenreh]

Hehe he said there is a lot of play with his shaft...

Looks good Rex! How much does a turbo rebuild cost anyway? Not that I'm getting any ideas...

Glad you asked! I know I can send it off and get it rebuilt for 200 bucks. Which is pretty reasonable. 250 bucks for a freshly rebuilt watercooled T3? Yeah, that's not too bad.

But I'm pretty sure I can get rebuild kits from MJMTurbo, and do it myself for much cheaper. It's really just a bearing and seal in there, and I've seen step-by-step rebuild how-to's, and it looks reasonably simple. And it's not something i have to have done tomorrow. So, I'll start shopping for some rebuild kits here in a month or two.