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Oil in exhaust, turbo shaftplay question

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Old 02-06-2007, 12:01 AM
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Default Oil in exhaust, turbo shaftplay question

Ive been putting alot of time into my car recently, hence all the questions. Well anyway i got another one for all yall. Anyway I have the Begi system with gt2554 and when i got the turbo i noticed the shaft had a little bit of play, enough to make a clicking sound but didnt worry about it because it was from begi and i knew nothing about turbos. I havent noticed major oil usage, but when I took my exhaust out to do the rear end change, there was litterally oil dripping all over the cat and i thought ... hmm thats not good.

However, I am running an engine that I rebuilt and it could be messed up somehow ... however im not getting a bunch of blue smoke everywhere, just an oil soaked cat Further, i am also getting a bit of oil in my intake and plan to get a new PCV and a catchcan within the month. Othwise, the car runs strong and true. When I broke the motor in N/A, the pipes had the regular ol soot, but i dont remember seeing any oil.

Now im wondering if i need to send this sucker back to Begi to have it rebuilt, what do you guys think?
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Old 02-06-2007, 12:06 AM
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Ic piping is a lil oily too ... damn i really wanna run my car on the 24th and 25th too
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Old 02-06-2007, 12:10 AM
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I would check the intercooler pipe closest to the turbo for oil staining. try to look at a spot that wouldn't be affected by the crankcase gases/blowby.
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Old 02-06-2007, 12:10 AM
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Man just order a rebuild kit from gpopshop and get that turbo back in there.
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Old 02-06-2007, 12:12 AM
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ya but since its practically brand new Bell could rebuild for me .... however i do like projects and ive never dug into a turbo before!

Last edited by akaryrye; 02-06-2007 at 12:32 AM.
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Old 02-06-2007, 12:12 AM
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its a ball bearing turbo, there is no rebuild kit.....
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Old 02-06-2007, 12:22 AM
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god damn. I was preparing myself for a begi kit...now I don't know what to do. I know its a turbo and has nothing to do with begi, but still makes me nervous.
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Old 02-06-2007, 12:30 AM
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The deal with having a NEW turbo from anywhere is that if treated right they will last 10's of thousands of miles. Too often are turbo's starved of oil though and that's when trouble occurs. Except of course the common, too high oil pressure, that many people have to deal with. If a BEGI kit could be afforded then I would expect 30K miles out of it without problems. *drool*
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Old 02-06-2007, 12:40 AM
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Originally Posted by cjernigan
The deal with having a NEW turbo from anywhere is that if treated right they will last 10's of thousands of miles. Too often are turbo's starved of oil though and that's when trouble occurs. Except of course the common, too high oil pressure, that many people have to deal with. If a BEGI kit could be afforded then I would expect 30K miles out of it without problems. *drool*
i had too much oil pressure kill two turbos...are the restrictors a bad idea, and where can I get them?
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Old 02-06-2007, 12:41 AM
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Originally Posted by hustler
god damn. I was preparing myself for a begi kit...now I don't know what to do. I know its a turbo and has nothing to do with begi, but still makes me nervous.
hey, **** happens. Its not that big of a deal to me, unless he refuses to rebuild it for me. Im not even 100% sure its the turbo, but then again idk what else it would be. Maybe bb turbos naturally have a little more slack and i just need a restrictor to keep excessive oil from getting to the bearings?
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Old 02-06-2007, 01:22 AM
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Ok after a quick google search, it seems that my turbo is in fact no good. The sources I found mentioned that thrust play (pushing and pulling on the shaft) should be .008" max and not at all noticable and side to side play can be up to .022" which is slightly noticable. Further, whith excessive thrust play people experience lower oil pressure than expected coupled with oil in the intake and exhaust. My end play is definitely noticable and my oil pressure definitely seems lower than expected, but since i didnt know what tolerances should be, i didnt think it would be a big deal because while noticable, it was really not very much.

And after a lil bit more reading, i dont think that information applies to ball bearing turbos. Im gonna just call BEGi tomorrow and see if i can talk to corky or steph
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Old 02-06-2007, 11:13 AM
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Restrictors can be had from TheBandit you will need a smaller .03 restrictor for a BB turbo. Journal bearing turbos use a .06 restrictor.
Bell will tell you that restrictors should never be used and that they will cause more problems than good, many people have to use them though to reduce oil pressure at the CHRA.
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Old 02-16-2007, 02:45 AM
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Ok, damn its been a week or so now and i still cant get ahold of corky ...

Anyways ... My turbo has a very small ammount of thrust play, but is that really a big deal on a ball bearing turbo? Ive searched it out but cannot seem to find anything on ball bearing turbos. Im considering just going ahead and getting an oil restrictor from thebandit like CJ suggested. Can anyone else who knows stuff about turbos comment on this please?
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Old 02-16-2007, 03:16 AM
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my turbo has a little play,just make sure the turbo compresor blades are going to crash into the housing.
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Old 02-16-2007, 05:02 PM
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Ok and after an hour or so of making some phone calls, between talking to Corky Bell and Chopper from Limit Engeneering (recommended by corky) I have some new information.

First, I learned that it is completely normal to have a little bit of thrust play in a ball bearing turbo, so it seems that my turbo is in fact just fine. What was recommended was that I replace my oil feed line with one that is one size smaller (I.E. go from a -4 to a -3). I also asked about using a restrictor and he said it would be the next step if changing feed lines did not cure the problem, but only to be used after other means have been exhausted.

Now im going to separate this since it is important:
He said that the minimum size of oil restrictor (edit) for a ball bearing turbo should be no less than 110 thousandths or 0.110. This is contradictory to what cj said 2 posts up.

Last edited by akaryrye; 02-16-2007 at 05:19 PM.
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Old 02-16-2007, 05:11 PM
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thrust play means back and fourth,or side to side.?
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Old 02-16-2007, 05:12 PM
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I would think a ball bearing would need a bigger restrictor, so perhaps the previous ideas would still be ok for non-BB turbos.
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Old 02-16-2007, 05:18 PM
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Originally Posted by turbopezz
thrust play means back and fourth,or side to side.?
back and fourth, or in other words pushing and pulling on the shaft. With everything i read on journal bearing turbos, there should be nearly no noticable thrust play, so i was concerned about my turbo, but apparantly its normal on a BB turbo.
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Old 02-16-2007, 05:21 PM
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thrust play is like grabbing the nut on the shaft and pushing and pulling towards and from if u are facing the compressor inlet
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Old 02-16-2007, 05:21 PM
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nice,that means my turbo is perfect.
also did you find out if ball bearing turbos are rebuilable?.it seems the answear is up in the air.
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