I recently turbocharged the 3b in my BJ73. The turbo failed prematurely which I mostly attribute it to being a poor quality/faulty turbo. I am posting this thread to both gain knowledge and perhaps prevent future failure.
First the Turbo was a TD04L-13T-6 unbranded made in China bought off Ebay. I know that cheap from China is a gamble, but China makes good products as well sometimes from the same factory it's just hard to tell what's what. This is the 3rd cheap turbo I've bought and the first to go bad. Some people have suggested "Buy a better turbo". I have ordered another turbo that was a little more expensive with a decent warranty that will hopefully take care of that. Still a cheap turbo, but the warranty is long enough for them to take it back if it is deffective on install.
My install was weeping oil into the intake from the start and not making full boost due to improperly shut wastegate. I was only getting 4-5psi so the turbo wasn't spooling up full speed. I read on the forum about people installing a 1/16" restrictor hole to prevent too much oil from going into the turbo. It did not help with the oil seepage.
My install did not utilize water cooling. I read a number of posts and other information that turbos do not really need water cooling if you shut down the engine properly by letting it idle long enough for the turbo to spool down before shut down. There is some serious debate on this, but there are engines out there that do not have water cooling on the turbos. I wanted a simple install so I chose not to water cool and just paid attention to shut down. I am curious if this may have exacerbated my oil seepage/failure: high heat thinning the oil so it seeps out, heat changing tolerances between CHRA and bearing surfaces increasing wear and tolerances?
I did not utilize the wastegate activator. I had read that the 3B wouldn't be able to make too much boost with the stock IP. At first the wastegate was held shut but not in the full shut position. Only getting about 4-6PSI and EGT's approaching 700C maintaining highway speed full throttle uphill. I drove it like that for about 3 weeks still with oil seepage. Once I figured out the problem and got the wastgate to shut properly my boost went up 5-6PSI driving around and 12-15psi under load. I experimented with the fuel screw a few times and was able to get 20PSI under load, but my EGT's would go over 650C when pushing it. So I set the fuel screw for 12-15 PSI max and less than 600C on a full throttle 0-60 run through the gears. 350-400C normal driving. The turbo started heavily leaking oil into the exhaust and intake in less than 100 miles of driving once the wastegate was shut properly..
At 12-15PSI it is possible I was spooling the turbo faster than it would have been with the wastegate actuator causing it to fail prematurely.
Having the 1/16" restrictor hole in the oil line to prevent seepage may not have provided enough oil to the bearings causing failure soon after I got it spooling up properly with full boost.
Excess heat through lack of water cooling lowering my oil viscosity and changing tolerances may have exacerbated issues and caused failure.
I was seeping a bit of oil from the start so I really believe it was simply a junk turbo from the beginning. I bought a rebuild kit for the turbo and put it in with all the parts, but with the kit in there was still a slight amount of wobble in the turboshaft(less than before, but it was there). After rebuild it was seeping on the exhaust and on intake within a few minutes almost as bad as before......I've never had a turbo seep/leak oil like this one.
New turbo will have a warranty and water cooling, but I am not sure if I should keep or remove the 1/16" oil restrictor or not?
Does anyone see anything horribly wrong with my setup that likely killed the turbo before it's time, or do people just agree "it was a junk turbo from the beginning"?
First the Turbo was a TD04L-13T-6 unbranded made in China bought off Ebay. I know that cheap from China is a gamble, but China makes good products as well sometimes from the same factory it's just hard to tell what's what. This is the 3rd cheap turbo I've bought and the first to go bad. Some people have suggested "Buy a better turbo". I have ordered another turbo that was a little more expensive with a decent warranty that will hopefully take care of that. Still a cheap turbo, but the warranty is long enough for them to take it back if it is deffective on install.
My install was weeping oil into the intake from the start and not making full boost due to improperly shut wastegate. I was only getting 4-5psi so the turbo wasn't spooling up full speed. I read on the forum about people installing a 1/16" restrictor hole to prevent too much oil from going into the turbo. It did not help with the oil seepage.
My install did not utilize water cooling. I read a number of posts and other information that turbos do not really need water cooling if you shut down the engine properly by letting it idle long enough for the turbo to spool down before shut down. There is some serious debate on this, but there are engines out there that do not have water cooling on the turbos. I wanted a simple install so I chose not to water cool and just paid attention to shut down. I am curious if this may have exacerbated my oil seepage/failure: high heat thinning the oil so it seeps out, heat changing tolerances between CHRA and bearing surfaces increasing wear and tolerances?
I did not utilize the wastegate activator. I had read that the 3B wouldn't be able to make too much boost with the stock IP. At first the wastegate was held shut but not in the full shut position. Only getting about 4-6PSI and EGT's approaching 700C maintaining highway speed full throttle uphill. I drove it like that for about 3 weeks still with oil seepage. Once I figured out the problem and got the wastgate to shut properly my boost went up 5-6PSI driving around and 12-15psi under load. I experimented with the fuel screw a few times and was able to get 20PSI under load, but my EGT's would go over 650C when pushing it. So I set the fuel screw for 12-15 PSI max and less than 600C on a full throttle 0-60 run through the gears. 350-400C normal driving. The turbo started heavily leaking oil into the exhaust and intake in less than 100 miles of driving once the wastegate was shut properly..
At 12-15PSI it is possible I was spooling the turbo faster than it would have been with the wastegate actuator causing it to fail prematurely.
Having the 1/16" restrictor hole in the oil line to prevent seepage may not have provided enough oil to the bearings causing failure soon after I got it spooling up properly with full boost.
Excess heat through lack of water cooling lowering my oil viscosity and changing tolerances may have exacerbated issues and caused failure.
I was seeping a bit of oil from the start so I really believe it was simply a junk turbo from the beginning. I bought a rebuild kit for the turbo and put it in with all the parts, but with the kit in there was still a slight amount of wobble in the turboshaft(less than before, but it was there). After rebuild it was seeping on the exhaust and on intake within a few minutes almost as bad as before......I've never had a turbo seep/leak oil like this one.
New turbo will have a warranty and water cooling, but I am not sure if I should keep or remove the 1/16" oil restrictor or not?
Does anyone see anything horribly wrong with my setup that likely killed the turbo before it's time, or do people just agree "it was a junk turbo from the beginning"?