Another turbo bites the dust

[Mister T]

As the title suggests, my g-popshop turbo is toast. I pulled it to do some porting and found that the turbine tips have been wilted. If that wasn't good enough, I also have a nice crack in my $400 034 manifold. So other than plain old bitching, I wanted to see if anyone has any good ideas as to what to do next. I probably won't rebuild the turbo seeing as this will probably just happen again. I'm thinking the best idea right now is to install that GT28 knockoff and run that.

I'm going to have to talk to 034 and see what their warranty policy is on their manifolds. Because that is BS that it cracked. I might have expected that of some cheapo e-bay knockoff. But for what I paid for it, I'm not happy. You know, between the BW K04-015 failure and the 034 manifold failure I'm starting to think that this 'genuine' stuff really isn't much better than the e-bay crap. We'll see if 034's warranty policy justifies the extra $200.

[stefan]

Re: Another turbo bites the dust

out of curiosity, so you have a pyrometer installed? I was just talking to a buddy about damaged tips on a turbo blade. I think the only way you could be warned of this happening is to have a pyrometer to measure EGTs.

I don't know much about it personally. Just coincidence that I was just discussing it...

[R_Ethug]

Re: Another turbo bites the dust

doh

[vee_dubbin]

Re: Another turbo bites the dust

It sounds like you were running pretty hot exhaust temperatures to be able to melt the ends of the turbine and split the manifold. Perhaps you were running way to rich or way too lean. I suggest you keep an eye on the EGT's and the air/fuel mix next set-up.

[Kor]

Re: Another turbo bites the dust

With a custom setup you pretty much want to be using an EGT sensor as mentioned, maybe you were running too lean for a while, can't really blame 034. Feel for ya though, Turbos are expensive.

[luunta]

Re: Another turbo bites the dust

doh

seconded.

[The_Jerbel]

Re: Another turbo bites the dust

It sounds like you were running pretty hot exhaust temperatures to be able to melt the ends of the turbine and split the manifold. Perhaps you were running way to rich or way too lean. I suggest you keep an eye on the EGT's and the air/fuel mix next set-up.

Particularly, too lean. It would be a good idea to run not only an EGT, but also a wideband O2 setup.

[Mister T]

Re: Another turbo bites the dust

I was running both a wideband and an EGT probe in addition to water/meth. My A/F ratios were about 10.5:1 under boost. As for the EGT's I was running a clamp on type probe about 2 inches post turbine (not ideal I know, I just added about 200-250 to estimate pre-turbine temps). I was seeing about 1000-1200F at cruise and about 1350-1400F under boost. So it wasn't like I was seeing major spikes. However it obviously must have been more than it looked like. I don't know, maybe the wilting happened before I got the wideband and EGT probe setup. The other puzzling thing is that whenever I logged my timing it averaged about 20 deg and never really dropped below 15. So it's not like the cylinder temps were way out of line, otherwise I should have been detonating.

[Mantis]

Re: Another turbo bites the dust

He has wideband innovate set up, you can often see a turbines fins wilting if it is overspun. I guess onward and upward with the GT28 knock off

disregard first line, apparently Tyler sees fit to post at the same time as me

[Mister T]

Re: Another turbo bites the dust

With a custom setup you pretty much want to be using an EGT sensor as mentioned, maybe you were running too lean for a while, can't really blame 034. Feel for ya though, Turbos are expensive.

I'm not really blaming the turbo. I realized that I was in uncharted territory with that setup. However, I'm a little miffed at the fact that a manifold that cost $400 failed just the same as a $200 Chinese knockoff would have.

Time and time again I hear people knocking all this Chinese 'junk' and telling people to buy the 'genuine' thing because it'll last longer. Well I've had a $1200 BW turbo fail after 4 months and a $400 034 manifold fail at just under 1 year. I do realize that operating conditions do play a factor. However, I also presume that the premium that I pay for a 'genuine' article provides an added measure of durability that isn't present in the knockoff products.

Now, before anyone jumps to conclusions here I'll say that so far I've had very good experiences with 034 and I hope that the $200 premium that I paid will pay off in them standing behind their product (fortunately this happened about 5 days before the 1 year warranty ended). However it's just disconcerting that this should happen in the first place.

I'd also like to add as a side note that upgraded g-popshop thrust bearing system showed zero wear after 9 months. Unlike the factory BW thrust bearing that failed after only 4 months.

[Mister T]

Re: Another turbo bites the dust

He has wideband innovate set up, you can often see a turbines fins wilting if it is overspun. I guess onward and upward with the GT28 knock off

disregard first line, apparently Tyler sees fit to post at the same time as me

Here's hoping..... As for the wilting, I think that it was the turbine housing size. There was just too much exhaust in too small a space. Like I said before, I can't blame anyone for that. Gerry can't undo the laws of physics. I'm just pissed off at the hassle and additional cost of the situation more than anything.

[Mister T]

Re: Another turbo bites the dust

disregard first line, apparently Tyler sees fit to post at the same time as me

Great minds must think alike