A friend of mine has a t3 from an 84 300zx that he would sell me for cheap. It has no shaft play and around 60k miles on it. Is it worth my time to get it or should i just spend the dough on a new one?

 

if it will suit your needs and works okay, i see no reason not to use it...

 

Just check out the housings to make sure that there are no cracks or weakspots. Make sure that it looks safe.

 

Most older turbos are also oil cooled only. This isn't a big deal, but it will require more frequent oil changes and possibly require an oil cooler if you live in a warmer climate.

 

I'm using a turbo off the same car. Mine was professionally rebuilt and some changes made to it (s60 compressor wheel) but i believe the center section is the original. Like someone said it's oil cooled only and a old style journal bearing but hey it works great.

If it has no shaft play and it looks good who cares if it's 24 years old...

 

don't worry about cracks, run it till it breaks then get a good new(er) one. at least thats what i was told

https://www.miataturbo.net/diy-turbo-discussion-14/turbine-housing-cracks-12711/

 

its 23 years old, not 24.

 

depends on the in service date it may be 24...which is a huge difference

 

Most '84 model cars were made in 1983.

Add to the fact that the turbo was made before the car...

Thanks for the productive post though.

 

run it

 

My vote is to run it as long as the flange supports upgrading later. I'm not sure but the 84 is a t25 style flange? If so, might as well run it til it dies and then look into a GT28-30

 

It's more a question of what wheels it has than the age. If it has familiar wheels where you can actually find the specs then go for it.

I am always dismayed when people ask about the 30-year-old T4 that probably came off a tractor that they got for free. Do you want to run farm equipment on your Miata?

 

Wes, do you already have a mani/DP that you know will bolt up to it... I don't think you do because of this:
http://www.redz31.com/pages/turboupgrade.html
The T3 from an '84 300zx has the wastegate flapper door built into the exhaust elbow and not the turbine housing. Based on the look of that thing, there's no way it's gonna fit. You'd need a custom 3-bolt mid-pipe to bolt up to the housing and I don't think you'll have the clearance in front of the firewall. Or you could go wild and have a full custom elbow/dp fab'd with external wastegate.

You'll need to fab a wastegate actuator bracket for the compressor housing and the thing is oil only. The mani flange has the look of standard T2 as most Nissan's use, so a Begi/FM manifold might be OK. You should get the turbo and measure the dimensions of the flange it to be sure of what it is.

60k miles is not a lot of miles for a properly cared for unit. Synthetic oil w/regular changes and a good tune to keep EGT in normal operating range will go a long way to getting long life from your turbo. However, to be safe, it can't hurt to have it rebuilt. A complete T3 rebuild kit is $81: http://www.gpopshop.com/garrettt3kits.html

But the bottom line is that this unit is going to take some work. My advice, stick with a water/oil T3 and something with standard flanges. T3's are cheap and plentiful. T25's are more plentiful and cheaper.

Is there a specific reason you want a T3 or is it just because this one was available? Decide on a power goal and what you intend to do with your car, then choose an appropriate turbo to fit your needs... then go get that turbo. If you're on a budget, there are hundreds of performance forums with classified sections and guys offloading unused parts in mass quantities.

I'm a huge fan of an SR20det T25 .80/.64. I'll be Megasquirted here in a month or so and will hit a local dyno to see where the limits of this unit are. I'm thinking it's going to be in the 240whp range. If you want more than that and want to stick w/T25, then a T28 is probably the ticket to get you in the 270-280range. Up that high though, a T3 might be a better choice as T28's aren't cheap and your average T3 will get you that power for less money.