Suspected turbo failure

[Poker Face]

I was driving home yesterday when my turbo kicked out a load of oil resulting in a cloud of smoke behind me and in the engine bay. It looks like the oil has shot out of the bov and quite a bit over the manifold, it resulted in a small but easily put out fire a melted dipstick,which is now stuck and coolant going all over the drive. I'm guessing a pipe has melted and burst. From the filler cap it looks like I lost a lot of oil.

So part of me feels like jacking it in and then part of me says keep going. Going to get the car recovered to and get it checked out.

If it is just the turbo that has failed , I will need to figure out why so it doesn't happen again etc but I'll need to get it repaired. It's a gt3076, where would be a good place to send it? I'm also thinking this could be a good time to upgrade it with a gtx billet wheel.

This might also be a good time to go for a forged engine build if I do decide to keep going.

[craig]

Universal turbos for refurb. Great service.

[Poker Face]

Thanks, definitely worth giving them a call on Tuesday.

[bobhatton]

I was driving home yesterday when my turbo kicked out a load of oil resulting in a cloud of smoke behind me and in the engine bay. It looks like the oil has shot out of the bov and quite a bit over the manifold, it resulted in a small but easily put out fire a melted dipstick,which is now stuck and coolant going all over the drive. I'm guessing a pipe has melted and burst. From the filler cap it looks like I lost a lot of oil.

So part of me feels like jacking it in and then part of me says keep going. Going to get the car recovered to and get it checked out.

If it is just the turbo that has failed , I will need to figure out why so it doesn't happen again etc but I'll need to get it repaired. It's a gt3076, where would be a good place to send it? I'm also thinking this could be a good time to upgrade it with a gtx billet wheel.

This might also be a good time to go for a forged engine build if I do decide to keep going.

Take the inlet hose off the turbo and check for any free play in the turbo shaft.

[Poker Face]

Cheers Bob that's a good idea, I'll do that when I get back in later.

[2mad]

Sounds like the turbo compressor side oil seal has blown .. its just a little c-clip washer type thing probably costs next to nothing .. as bob said check for play, if there is non have it rebuilt with new seals .. probably costs $$$$$ to do .. not unless you really have your hart set on a new chra .. might end up cheaper .. sort of because you could swop over the chra at home on the bench , long as its balanced

[craig]

For comparison, a full refurb on my CT20b turbo complete with new seals, 360 degree thrust washer and steel shaft cost me £612 by Universal Turbos.

[Poker Face]

Thanks for the input guys, just been out and had a look and a feel and there is little or no play in the shaft, it pretty much feels like it did when I bought it. I'm still going to have to send it to a garage to get it looked at as I just don't have the time to work on my car at the moment.
Universal turbos sound reasonably priced.

[bobhatton]

Thanks for the input guys, just been out and had a look and a feel and there is little or no play in the shaft, it pretty much feels like it did when I bought it. I'm still going to have to send it to a garage to get it looked at as I just don't have the time to work on my car at the moment.
Universal turbos sound reasonably priced.

Is there a lot of oil in the inlet?
That is a ball bearing turbo so apart from the kits from China there is no way to rebuild it.
A replacment core is the only way to repair but from the sounds of it, with no play it is not the turbo that is the problem.

[mr2magic]

Don't the garretts always require an oil restrictor? Could maybe have been forgotten and thus blown oil seals......
just a thought

[2mad]

Yep this ^^ seen so many fail on forums .. getting the restrictor wrong was always my thought .. it happens so often with these bb turbos.

Plus , My ct26 blitz hybrid popped its turbine side oil seal and play was well within spec .

[bobhatton]

Yep this ^^ seen so many fail on forums .. getting the restrictor wrong was always my thought .. it happens so often with these bb turbos.

Plus , My ct26 blitz hybrid popped its turbine side oil seal and play was well within spec .

The CT26 just have piston ring seals so nothing to pop.
If the return is not letting all the oil out of the turbo because of a kink in the hose or too much pressure in the sump then the oil will find its way past the ring seals. That is not a turbo problem

[2mad]

There was nothing wrong with the oil supply or return (used with other turbos for a further 4 years) .. i blew the oil seal bob .. i actually removed the b-pipe so i could see into the downpipe and saw it spitting oil .. oil seal goosed mate .. still have the turbo but theres no way i'd sell it to someone as a working unit . it is toast .

[mr2magic]

Even a piston ring seal can collapse!

Here the statement from garrett:

Common Causes of Oil Leakage

A properly installed turbo should NOT leak oil. There are, however, instances where oil leaks occur. The most common causes, depending on the location of the leak, are:

Leakage from compressor and turbine seals

-Excessively high oil pressure
-Inadequate drain, drain is too small, does not go continuously downhill,
or the location of the drain inside the oil pan is located in a section that has oil slung from the crank causing oil to back up in drain tube. Always
place oil drain into oil pan in a location that oil from crank is blocked by windage tray.
-Improper venting of crankcase pressure.
-Excessive crankcase pressure.
-Oil drain rotated past the recommended 35°.


Leakage from compressor seal

-Excessive pressure across the compressor housing inlet caused by:
- Air filter is too small.
- Charge air tubing too small or has too many bends between the air filter and compressor housing.
- Clogged air filter.

Leakage from Turbine seal

- Collapsed turbine piston ring from excessive EGT's.
- Turbo tilted back on its axis past recommended 15°.

[Poker Face]

I thought I'd post some pictures as they paint a thousand words if I can do this from my phone if not I'll boot up my laptop and try again.



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[rev3turbo]

id say youve cracked a piston ringland, you're on stock internals arnt you?

I doubt the turbo is at fault.

[2mad]

id say youve cracked a piston ringland, you're on stock internals arnt you?

I doubt the turbo is at fault.

Awww that would suck .. hope not

[2mad]

[/URL]

Lots of oil in the intake .. hope its the turbo and not ring lands .. if you see what i mean .

[Poker Face]

Hi guys, yeah I know what you mean but I'm thinking possibly piston ringland failure now.
I had it in the back of my mind to go forged for a little while now and this may force my hand.
The old calibration which was locked out was making 220 bhp on 1.2bar of boost and the new cal was making 280 bhp of 1.1bar going past this it was det so maybe I over boosted when on the open road and something let go. I won't be able to get it in to the garage around here until next week. They do a forged package for the 3sgte which seems to have everything for about 3.5k Inc vat. I'd change the pistons they have on the package though as the ones listed are 9:1 compression ratio and they have some at 8 .

There's never a good time for your car to go pop but I'm having to do a lot of running around at the moment as my wife is on crutches for 6 weeks so I'm just going to get it recovered and let them look.
Just glad I didn't pay for a respray yet, that can wait now. Tbh even if it's the turbo I might just go forged anyway I've done everything with this car back to front Inc buying a rev2 turning it to a rev3 and then some. Duplication of labour and not reaching goals and being disappointed and there is enough info on here to tell me all of this.

Thanks everyone for your input and I appreciate no one has said told you so

[2mad]

I would never say i told you so .. about to do something very similar with my st205 .. sure it will end in tears too