Did I just kill my G Turbo? (1 Viewer)

[arnott1t]

So here is the deal:

Hzj47 with a gturbo. The gturbo was bought years ago originally intended for a 13bt. It sat on behemoth 60 shelf for quite some time. I eventually bought it from him for use on my 1hz after consultation with Graeme. I'm not at all looking at Graeme as at fault or anything here or behemoth or anyone except maybe me...

Anyway... I swapped a 1hz into a troopy and recently got it going and driving. Love the truck and love the turbo.

Turbo is fed via -3 line right from pressure sender on left side Of engine. Drain is tapped into block and is -6 or -8. It's only. 4" long and goes straight down and in.


I'm running an hdt cross over pipe.

Exhaust is 3" down pipe about 24" long.

Intake is a 3" cone filter right of the turbo. Well there is an elbow and 6" riser to the filter.


Since install I noticed some oil out the tailpipe on occasion. Doesn't happen every time. Only sometimes and it usually quits but when it was first doing it a steady drip was visible.

Other than that turbo was happily boosting to 12psi and making the truck a ton of fun. I couldn't leave it alone though and wanted to turn up the boost to 18psi so I started shimming the easy gate. This is what I was fiddling with tonight. Prior to this egt was 1000-1200 on hard pushes. I'd back out at 1200. My probe was in a s***ty spot so I moved it and saw better temps. Not so much hotter but faster moving. Now it is in the typical spot in hdts.


First go round I added too many washers and the turbo was climbing up to 25 psi at wot. It did this maybe twice. Back to the garage and removed some shims. Next trip out boost was sloppy. Crisp to 14psi and then would lazily climb to 17 or so. Back to the garage add another shim back. Bingo!
18 psi crisp and a little creep up to 20 at wot and high rpm.

After doing a run up a hill boosting 18 I stop to make a turn and notice significant smoke. Hmmmmm. Limp home and smoke isn't as obvious. Breather tube is open to atmosphere and is puffing like it has been since I've had the engine. Nothing excessive I'd say.... Egt never above 1200. Had a hard time making 1100.

Pull intake and feel compressor. Spins freely but not as freely as it was before. Has zero axial play. Has major radial play like in excess of a 1mm. I can move it to the point it feels like it may be hitting the housing. I compare this play to another stocker hdt turbo I have kicking around. Much more than this 'spare' and this is a used in rough shape turbo.


So what did I do?

Pics...

Thoughts? What's next? Can't drive it I guess? Sad since it is our
Cruiser club meeting tomorrow and this has been a year in the making...

Am I just a worry wart? No odd noises or screeches but the play is troubling?

Look forward to your feedback.

 

[amaurer]

Pull intake and feel compressor. Spins freely but not as freely as it was before. Has zero axial play. Has major radial play like in excess of a 1mm. I can move it to the point it feels like it may be hitting the housing. I compare this play to another stocker hdt turbo I have kicking around. Much more than this 'spare' and this is a used in rough shape turbo.

So what did I do?

Am I just a worry wart? No odd noises or screeches but the play is troubling?

I don't want to get too technical, but it sounds to me like you made your turbo sad and now it has a boo boo.

 

[arnott1t]

sucks to be me and this turbo....

 

[amaurer]

Oh holy balls, yes, that is trash.

How long were you running the setup before you tweaked the boost? How long did it last with the new setting?

 

[arnott1t]

I've driven 400km on the original set up and 1.2km on the tweaked

 

[Wheelingnoob]

Rebuild time, hard to say what killed it though.

 

[arnott1t]

Ya I'll wait to hear if Graeme has a special kit or just a 360 bearing and typical kit.

Hope
My wheels are ok.

Thinking maybe lack if lube. Bearings should tell me that though when I look

 

[gerg]

Wow. What oil were you running and how dirty was it? BB turbos don't like dirty oil much. Very tight tollerances with them. Any chance it could have starved for oil? Did you check and measure flow from the line when running? All I can think of other than that perhaps some dirt or junk got into it while it was sitting? Sucks man sorry. I feel for ya.
g

 

[wrongway around]

Drag man . First g turbo that has failed that quick .odd . Im sure he will good you . Maybe get the anti surge housing upgrade. Did you have any surge issues?

 

[ForealBoreal]

I have only heard of one other gturbo failure and it basically blew up.
Looks kinda like you snapped a shaft? Looks like you touched a the housing.

 

[arnott1t]

Rotella 15 49 oil that was installed after BeB were done.450km old. I only have been driving this truck a few days.


I'm hoping it was oil flow. I didn't measure and assumed, I know I know, that I would be ok following the best practices for oil supply and return. I did confirm it had some but didn't measure flow or pressure.

I'm looking forward to hearing from Graeme on what I should do. I don't want to replace this unit but do need a reliable turbo.

Just seems to be the way things go for me. Tinker tinker boom. Tinker tinker boom.

Anyone have Canadian vendors for rebuild kits. Looking for one quickly. I miss driving this thing already...


Assuming the shaft is ok.... And the compressor wheel only held hands with the housing instead of a true kiss I should be ok with a rebuild.... Right? Right??

 

[wrongway around]

Bd diesel in langley bc has built a couple nice ct26 for me. I think something is not right somewhere. Oil ? Surge? Not to insult but do know what surge feels sounds like? Doesnt forealboreal have a kit for that . I would think it would be a huge upgrade from that one. Then you could boost 25 easy.

 

[amaurer]

I'm hoping it was oil flow. I didn't measure and assumed, I know I know, that I would be ok following the best practices for oil supply and return. I did confirm it had some but didn't measure flow or pressure.

I was under the impression that BB turbos did not need as much oil as journal bearing turbos did (thus the use of a restrictor)? LOTS of 3B supply oil exactly like it sounds you have, hard to imagine what went wrong there.

Could it have been damage due to surge, rather than lack/dirty oil?

Assuming the shaft is ok.... And the compressor wheel only held hands with the housing instead of a true kiss I should be ok with a rebuild.... Right? Right??

Looks like a lot of clearance in there to me...

 

[arnott1t]

Ya I'm not certain what surge feels or sounds like. I never saw any oddities in boost levels or odd noises and believe I was within the typical performance abilities of the turbo. If I strayed it was only once or twice and not for long. I really don't think I did though.

Will this turbo use a carbon seal or dynamic?

 

[Wheelingnoob]

Is this turbo ball bearing if it is its mostlikely a paper weight. Also the compressir wheel to housing clerance is excessive.

 

[arnott1t]

Pretty sure it's a journal bearing. Didn't think gturbo made bb turbos.

 

[Hulsty]

That return line size, -6 or -8 is only 10 or 12mm correct? Thats a tiny size for return, could be part of the issue.

 

[ForealBoreal]

I have a -4an feed an a -8an drain
These turbos are journal bearing. Graeme has talked that BB does not do well on diesels. I'll take his word

 

[gbentink]

Hi Rusty, ok first this is built by me but not a GTurbo, second the turbo is toast.

My guess is, since it's one I built probably 4-5 years ago, it's not ok at more than 20psi and went out of balance on overspeed or it's a lube issue and the clearances of the bearing increased to the point that the turbine or comp wheel contacted the housings - then it's game over.

A rebuilt kit won't be sufficient, it will need a new shaft and comp wheel. I would send you a core but too many things have changed since "back in the day". And I can't be sure it will fit.

I tell you what though, since you sound like you got zero miles from it, if you pay the freight both ways (send dead turbo to GTurbo on cheapest slow mail), for $500 I will supply you the latest Grunter Extreme.

In addition, as a show of gratitude I extend an offer of "50% discount" to any customers who believed in me enough back then to send me their hard earned $ and buy one of my first series Grunters or Bad Boys. In return you will get the latest version. You will need to slow mail back the old one and pay the freight of the new one.

I have been wanting to do this for a while, it's because of you guys that I have been able to build Gturbo into a "real company" designing the best turbos we can and source the best equipment - like our vsr balancing equipment. Things have changed a lot. A new website will be up soon that will have pics of our facility, equipment and people.

 

[arnott1t]

I ordered a ct26 plumbing kit and that was the sizing it came with.