Ok, so here's a quick bit of back story(apologies its so long; just want to include the details). Turbo's died maybe 2.5 years, got them rebuilt and highflowed by a reputable local firm. Several months later ethanol killed the S1 injectors and got those replaced with S2. Bout 16months ago headgasket went (stupid me didn't research and got ebay -spec HG lesson learned). Decided since the motor was out, i'd stick wiseco's in there, freshen the motor up,oem seals, gaskets, belts etc. My mate pretty much did a more intensive job on my motor than he had done on his own motor a little earlier; everything was cleaned so you could eat off it. the only thing he didn't touch too much were the turbos, he did run some oil through them to make sure there wasn't any sludge in there and since neither of us are really clued up on it we didn't take them apart or anything. Fast forward to yesterday when i went of to make sure everything was all connected and do a run in on the road. Car idles well, changes gear smoothly and pulls alright(boost turned down as far as it'd go; bout 0.6bar). Did notice a bit of squeeking, but thought it might have been the rusty/grabby brakes (in hindsight probably not). did about 12km and everything seems alright, not leaks, temps good, oil pressure etc squealing seems to have gone away, we dropped the oil and filter and replaced both. It's getting dark so i decide to get home (bout 6-7kms) away, at this point it seems to have picked up a little power even breaking the wheels loose without touching the mbc and cruise nicely to the petrol station to top up. Leaving there decide to do a nice pull for the attendants and it's not pulling as well, and there seems to be a police siren from about 2.5k rpms..i look in my rearview thinking i've just been nabbed and back off but no cops. i half throttle it up the revs but it's not really boosting and the siren (from the passenger side, now that i'm really paying attention) just gets louder. I babied it home for the last 3kms of my drive home and idle it for a little, no smoke, steady temps and oil pressure. I'm thinking my slightly goose-honking recirc has popped a line or something.left it till morning to have a look around the bay.When i let it idle in the morning it smoked a bit but cleared pretty quickly and when i pulled off the turbo->ic pipe i found myself some silver sand. driver's side its nowhere near this visible but when you pass your finger though the very thin oil film you can feel some grains. So pretty sure the turbo has decided it preferred not spinning and smashed it's blades against the housing. what i'm confused about it why a once perfectly good turbo would do this, after such little use..it was boosting just fine before the headgasket went(at a constant 0.8bar) and it's literally done less than 30kms since the motor was sorted. Is there something we missed? or do i just have the worst luck in the world?
As far as i'm aware it was, we've both had turbos rebuilt by the same place and he's followed the same procedures given to us by the firms on first installs. If it wasn't,would that initial start up before oil pressure comes up been enough to cause the failure?
The turbo does stuff all at idle, so long as it had some sort of assembly grease it should be fine with a completely dry engine start. The most likely causes are something blocking an oil line or rebuild just wasn't quite right, you might find another cause like a screw in the housing once you dig deeper though.
Yeah will start the pull this weekend and try figure out whats happened. Just working it out there's only been about 8000km's on the turbos in total
I'm gonna have to change the title to Turbo Murder Yup, turbo was very unbalanced, apparently the nut that got dropped into the piping didn't do wonders for the compressor wheel. Luckily i suppose hadn't driven the car for too long or too hard and it wasn't on the throttle body side of the intake...apart from the ruined compressor wheel rest of the turbo seems intact and spins with no play. Going to the turbo builder tomorrow to assess the damage and get to fixing it. ah well:bash:
Ouch, well your turbo guy is off the hook. Looks like the wheel hasn't touched the housing so should (hopefully) just need a new wheel and a cleanout, plus cleaning out the piping, intercooler and plenum for any filings.
Yeah, he'll be happy bout that. Everything does seem pretty solid and no visible damage to the housing so should be minimal work to sort it out. Intercooler and piping will definitely get a good clean out. There was very minimal shaving in the piping just before the throttle body so either already sucked in and through the motor or trapped in the ic. The drained oil seemed pretty clean so thats a good sign.
Any shavings in the lower plenum? I really hope that it didn't get into the chambers and especially between rings and bore. It's one of those catches...do you pull it apart now while the engine is out again and make sure the bores are clean, or do you run it and hope that you're good.
Given that the oil is now filled with metal filings(from your disintegrated turbo bearings), you can safely assume that it is distributed throughout the entire engine, at this point in time. ANY attempt to re-use this engine without a total disassembly(including a complete clean & flush of ALL oil-ways/piping etc...)will almost certainly lead to more stories of woe further done the track....(Sage advice on "How to Do it, and NOT get it!"),from one who has previously "Done it AND got it".:br:
Iron Man didn't get a full flush till the third movie and he was fine. Can't see a bit of alloy dust hurting anything, probs all suspended in oil anyway. Worst of any damage that would occur has already been done right? You might get really unlucky and keep a lifter open with some of the dust..
I agree with 'Chili" on this. If you just clean out all the intake pipes/plenum etc, that will not guarantee that all is well & you can just put the motor back & it will all be fine. It's evident that the turbo blade had been doing its job by spinning & forcing turbulent air into the combustion chamber & along with debris & quite possibly much larger pieces of metal that may have broken off the turbo blades than what you see in the metal dust in that intake pipe. That blade was almost completely chewed out by that nut & would have sucked in a lot more metal. So IMO & experience it is just not worth the risk therefore checking/pulling the motor down is a given. The time & money that you have invested in this motor already is not worth taking the approach that it should be ok! If your mechanic is worth his salt I'm sure he'll say the same. Hope it works out ok. Cheers Grahame.
I am worried about this for sure, left the turbo to get looked at yesterday so expecting an update on it today. It does still spin freely so shaft, and bearings should not be affected. That said i do have the drained out oil in a container and plan to cut open the oil filter and drop the sump to get an idea of how wide spread the dust/debris is. i got the intercooler out yesterday and a mixture of dust and chunkier pieces on the turbo side. That said, its not a guarantee something between dust and chucks didn't get through. Will attach pics below of my findings so far: Turbo Side Throttlebody side Bits that washed out turbo side, tape measure scale in centimetres
Realistically is it likely you would get anything other than very fine particles passing through the intercooler? The fins would have to be a pretty effective filter for any larger bits?
The metal fragments suspended in oil is probably the biggest problem. You'll end up with scoring on the bearings, wear in the oil pump, etc. Not to mention any scoring of the bores as they've made their way down past the piston rings.
Lol. The point I am making is you can't hurt it anymore than was already done. The alloy shavings suspended in oil will be filtered, and any dust probably is sitting on the I'D of pipes or shit straight out the exhaust. Get a scope and check that one bank before you listen to this lot and tear the freaking thing apart.
Errrmmmm how would this guys oil have suspended ally filing in it if the turbo didnt actually shit itself... which it didnt?? The reason was clear to me, there was a nut dropped into the turbo inlet. Its mechanical damage to the aluminium compressor wheel. I dont see anywhere where the OP mentions a turbo "bearing" failure and filings et-al in the oil. He mentioned the oil was clear of any sparklers. I have done precisely the same thing. A plain M6 nut made its way into the turbo inlet on the wifes car. How? Nobody knows. I dont use any plain M6 half nuts.... but it got there anyway! It just sat there and occasionally got up and ground the compressor fins away. It looked more or less identical to the OP's pix. Lots of ally dust and not a mark on anything other than the pride! E
Yeah after posting I thought to myself that there shouldn't even be any shavings in the oil. Keen to hear the results of a bore scope.
