bherd Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 I just put the first few miles on my 83ZXT after a long rebuild. I had bought a T3/T4 from a guy back when I started, who sold it with some other parts as kind of a kit. It was used and now I suspect it might have been no good to him due to it's condition. I rebuilt the engine (3.0L) along the way, the engine came to life okay and everything was normal (even flew right through inspection) until I went to run it on the road under load. No boost and above 3k the turbo made the bad kind of noise. I tore down to it and noticed the turbine had rubbed all the way around in the inlet area, when I took the turbine housing off two vanes where chipped (12:00 and 8:00 in the picture) and the shaft has .007 wobble. So is this re-buildable or should I start saving for a new one? Obviously I would need new turbine, etc. This Turbo has a water cooled center section, Can I transfer the center section to a new turbo where everything else is the same overall? I am seeing a lot of "new" T3/T4 imports on eBay for $200, anybody have any experience with the imports as opposed to the Turbonetics or Garretts? Thanks, Bil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjo046 Posted October 8, 2007 Share Posted October 8, 2007 The 200$ ones on ebay are crap. Cheap china-copies that are glued together etc. I'd rather buy a used one if you want something in that pricerange. I wouldn't have tried rebuilding the turbo you have if I were you, with that much rubbing on the compressorhousing I would think the center section has taken a beat as well, thus changing the bearings etc won't do. Contact http://www.speedshopthagard.com/. He knows alot about turbo-sizing for the L6 and what to choose, and he has good prices. He is a member here, think he's called 240Z Turbo or Turbo 240Z. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bherd Posted October 9, 2007 Author Share Posted October 9, 2007 Thanks, I was wondering how bad the $200 turbo's could be but will find a better quality replacement. Bil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clifton Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 That's not a turbine wheel and those aren't chips. If the wear on the inducer isn't too bad you can run it or get an new one. They are cheap. $30-40. Minimum, you want bearings and a piston ring, around $20-30 or if the thrust bearing is gone (fore and aft play) you may as well just replace everything and buy all the parts. It would still be have the cost of a new Ebay turbo that isn't going to bolt up. I would go with a used Holset first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TONY C Posted October 9, 2007 Share Posted October 9, 2007 I agree. rebuild it. that is af the center shaft has no bad wear. I rebuilt a stock t3 that looked like that and boosted fine after rebuild. git my kit from G pop shop for like $80 shipped. and that was with an upgraded piston ring. be careful putting the new seal in. they are easy to break. G pop's # 479-751-7966 awesome people and I got my kit in 2 days and got plenty of phone advise too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bherd Posted October 11, 2007 Author Share Posted October 11, 2007 Thanks for the reply. I circled the two areas where there are pieces of the wheel missing. The housing is pretty gouged where the wheel was off center at speed and the spindle doesn't have any fore/aft play but it wobbles from being bent. If the wheel is supposed to have those pieces missing (where you can see thru to the bottom part of teh housing) that will save me from trying to track down if the metal got sucked into the plumbing/engine. Bil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clifton Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 When the wheels are balanced they remove material from where yours is missing, the back side along the edge and around the center where the nut is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bherd Posted October 11, 2007 Author Share Posted October 11, 2007 As I look at it it would seem that there is more of a controlled radius to the pieces then I though originally. The fact that they almost line up with the material removed from the nut would tend to mean that these are balancing cuts also I assume. That takes me back to why I pulled this out. no boost and above 3k the turbo made a "raucous noise" and impeller was clearly rubbing if not slightly gouging the housing. There is a slight wobble to the shaft, .007, that I assumed meant that at any high speed it would be acting badly, the housing wasn't just worn on one side, it was all the way around. Is there a way to test for basic soundness before bolting back on the car? This turbo is fairly clean, I don't think it has a lot of miles on it and no signs of oil anywhere, I didn't think of it as a candidate for a rebuild as it acts broken, not worn out. Thanx again. (Nice silver z) Bil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrommitZ Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 According to my Hayne's manual, your radial runout is double the maximum. They specify a range of .0005" to .0036" for the stock T3. The compressor wheel should never come close to touching the housing. I would definitely not slap it back together and reinstall without rebuilding the turbo first(if it can be). Just think of the time and money you took to rebuild your stroker. You should at least tear down the turbo to find out what you can before ordering parts. Do you have in and out play (axial)? if so then you'll also need a thrust bearing. Any signs of lubrication problems? I also suspect that your center section may be too worn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clifton Posted October 11, 2007 Share Posted October 11, 2007 Do you have a .007" bend in the shaft or .007" play? If it was touching due to worn bearings that's one thing. If the turbine shaft is bent I would toss it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bherd Posted October 12, 2007 Author Share Posted October 12, 2007 Think I will dissemble the turbo an take a look, nothing to lose at this point. I have the original T3 that could go back on in the meantime. If someone knows of a good set of assy instructions (with pictures) otherwise I will be following http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?p=811606 If the spindle is bent, where is the best place to get a replacement? I was thinking to give GPOP a call. BTW, almost no back/forth play, I believe this is a low mileage turbo, barring the spindle wobble. Bil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clifton Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 IIRC T3 turbines are around $170. I don't what what you have in mind for power goals in the future but by the time you are down replacing the turbine, compressor wheel and bearings, you are aren't far from a turbo that will support a bit more power. If you do rebuild it place the piston ring with the end gap pointing up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrommitZ Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 After having a second look at your pics, the wear at the base of the compressor wheel was more likely due to thrust movement, not side to side movement. Did you have a gasket between the compressor cover and backplate? If not and if your particular turbo required one (not all do), that could cause your wheel to housing clearance to decrease significantly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bherd Posted October 13, 2007 Author Share Posted October 13, 2007 I will have to look at it from a front to back clearance point of view. I guess I didn't mention, this is a Garrett T3/T4 .49/.63 if I remember correctly. Spent about $5-600 on it originally, just didn't get to using it until recently. Any place I can get a blow up dwg and torque/rebuild specs for the T3/T4? If the guy who sold it to me lost the gasket, I would never know. Can these things be checked with an oil supply and compressed air or do I have to bolt it on to find out if it is (mostly) sound? Thanks for all of the help. Bil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bherd Posted December 24, 2007 Author Share Posted December 24, 2007 Well I sent the turbo to the good folk at G-POP Shop. They confirmed that it was pretty trashed and for a reason, the turbo wasn’t a good fit to begin with with regard to the size and ratio of the wheels and the application. Basic comment was that the bearing wear was premature due to being too large for the application (or something to that effect). They helped me size one using my old core as core. They got my water cooling that I wanted and I can swap in ball bearings later. So the moral of the story for me was that in spite of all of the research I did prior to getting a turbo (I became a car guy only during the multiyear rebuild, I didn’t know what everything under the hood was when I first popped it) that getting hooked up with a good resource can really address answers to questions I didn’t yet know to ask, especially with regard to something that needed to be “balanced” with my application. BH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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