Turbo life span check! For all you guys running 15psi or more on stock T3!

[Guest bastaad525]

Hey guys check in!!!

 

 

we've all heard lots of speculation mingled with actual experience as to how much the stock T3 can put up with and for how long.

 

 

now... I know there's a few guys here who run or have run 15psi + on the stock turbo... and I just want to get a little survey going, and get a general idea from real world experiences, how high these turbos can/have been pushed and how long they tend to last at these boost levels.

 

 

So check in!! If you're running or have run 15psi or more on the stock turbo, how long have you been running it or how long did you run it? How many of you fried turbos this way? How was the condition of the turbo to begin with? I mean like... was it high mileage or did it have any noticeable shaft play or anything like that that you just KNEW it would go bad, or thought it would and then it lasted forever anyways?

[EZ-E]

Well when I got mine it had 150k on it, still with the stock turbo, the po had it ic'd and was running 10 psi.

 

When I had gotten a hold of it I upgraded to bigger pipes and a better intercooler and boosted to 15 psi. Been running it like that since.

 

It now has 196k on the clock and the turbo is now spitting oil out of the compressor. Its had several runs at the track and well even though it is throwing oil, it still pulls well up until about 4k when it just dies lol, guess its going to turbo heaven.

 

Cannot complain though with the mileage thats on this stock Nissan unit.

[Bernardd]

I ran the stock t3 at 14-16psi for 2yrs. It had 150k km's when I cranked it up. At 160k I removed the compressor housing/wheel and upgraded to a t04b wheel which I ran for a year when it failed. I never had a bov until last year otherwise I think I'd still be running it.

[Guest bastaad525]

thing that sucks for my turbo is that it seems, to me at least, that I'm getting a bit too much oil in my intake pipes from the compressor outlet. But I dont really know, this is my first turbo car... I dont know if it's too much oil or what.

 

 

I did have things apart the other day and tried grabbing onto the compressor wheel and moving it around and I felt absolutely zero shaft play... which baffles me because I thought they always had at least a little, but I literally could not even feel the tiniest bit of side to side or in and out movement at all.

 

So I dont know whether to think this turbo is pretty fresh or has seen better days... I have NO idea how many miles are on it.

[cygnusx1]

Hmm, my original donor car had 110K miles on it. The turbo was probably original and I felt no play when I was doing the swap. I ran it in the 76Z for about two months at 10psi and it started whining when it was warming up. It got worse and worse to the point that it would not come up to speed anymore. I had to replace it so I upgraded and intercooled. Funny thing is, when I pulled it out, it had a Sh*t load of play in the shaft! But it was not leaking oil into the intake or exhaust. Prior to pulling the bad turbo, I removed the oil drain line from the turbo and started the car to make sure I was getting oil through. I was getting plenty of oil.

[Vintage-TechZ]

..............I ran a stock T/3 with stock size piping IC'd and ran 15-18 lbs for about two years with strong feel.

The day I went to 3" IC pipes and a 4" IC core with my larger custom intake the thrust bearing failed because I didn't have my BOV installed .Oil blew out of the tail pipe and I killed every bug for a city block...lol.

Like a dumb *** I put on an even lower mile turbo and did it within 30 minutes again.Proof that BOV's DO save turbos....at least original 80's T/3's with miles on them.

Installed the HKS sequential BOV and another T/3 and it worked great....but I realized the larger diminsions of the piping and intake would only be balanced with a turbo appropriatly sized for flow acceptance .So on went a Turbonetics T/3-T/4 hybrid and I changed the SS 2.5" exhaust to SS 3" and life is good !

hope this sheds some light ?,Vinny 8)

[Guest 260ondubs]

In my opinion, the one weak link in my set-up is the turbo. I believe it to be a T3 (pretty much the same as you American fellas). It has an IHI compressor housing though. I have no clue how many kilometres are on it. What I do know is that there is zero shaft play, the comp blades look okay and that it will be running 15psi (custom pipes). I can't contribute to the thread in a proper way just yet, but it will on the road in a few weeks and then I will tell you what I think of it and how long it lasts.

[mobythevan]

My stock T3 that I pulled this week with unknown miles on it was working great, not leaking any oil at 14psi boost. But, it has enough side to side play that I can get the compressor to rub the side of the housing. Apparently when running the oil pressure in the bushing keeps the compressor from grinding out, at least up to this point. I think it was due an upgrade.

[spork]

I ran 18-20psi on a freshly rebuilt turbo (had an entiore new cartridge installed). It started getting shaft play within a year to the point it was trashed. I looked at the exhust wheel shaft and it was the prettiest shade of blue I;ve ever seen I upgraded to a hybrid, then to a t-70

[Guest bastaad525]

heh... wow seems the limits can fluctuate pretty wildly... well in the interest of longer bearing life, I've decided to kick the boost down on mine a bit... painful as it is I've dropped boost back down to 12.5psi...was shooting for even 12 but that was close enough for me on the first try of adjusting the MBC. Of course I'm giving up some power there but you know I can't feel the difference while driving so I dont mind... it's not like I'm racing the thing at the track so if it's slower by a bit it's no skin off my nose. Hopefully this will let things live a little longer though... hoping since I dont drive the car much as it is that I can just make this thing live forever

 

parts for my 3" exhaust are being ordered this week!

[Cody 82 ZXT]

parts for my 3" exhaust are being ordered this week!

 

You'll be happy with this mod. Makes for great sound and performance

[Guest bastaad525]

Yeah the only problem for me... not really a problem just something I'm spending a little bit too much of my time thinking on I guess, is that... just how much of a difference I should expect going to full 3" mandrel to make.

 

Figure right now I'm running a bastard system, mostly 3" from the stock DP to the differential, then down to 2.5" for those last two bends then out thru a 2.5" glasspack. Now, I figure even this crappy setup is probably a step UP from the stock 280zxt exhaust... so not technically a performance 'loss' but I know the upgrade should make some difference still... just wondering how much? I'm not putting a lot of hope on a big power increase but really mostly hoping for a big difference in turbo spool up time.

[Cody 82 ZXT]

I had a similar system before the one that I have now. Biggest thing I noticed was the quicker spool up time.

 

As you know quicker spool up equals more torque and more fun.