In the honda world at least, 99% of turbos failed bc of wrong oil pressure to the shaft. Now, miatas are nicer that any honda, so lets keep our turbos spooling!!! Have I told everybody how nice miatas are?

 

You shouldn't need a restrictor if its -3.

 

Wtf?

 

The GT turbos are internally restricted.

 

the rear oil seal is just a piston ring. if it's not smoking now, it's not over oiled.

 

Donno if this helps or not.
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GT ones are, who knows how this thing was built.
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Good to know, would I hurt anything putting in a restrictor for piece of mind?
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i would think that as long as its getting enough oil you should be fine

 

Really tough to tell, but that looks like -4. You can restrict with a pop rivet if you wanted to for piece of mind, wouldn't hurt.

 

restrict it. I blew seals on 2 turbos back in the day on a journal bearing piece.

 

the voice of reason. I have never seen a turbo just all of the sudden develop a leak for no reason other than something being out of wack. if it doesn't leak right a way, it ain't gunna unless something else is wrong. like a stuck seal from coking or a failed thrust bearing.

 

Does it make since to put a restrictor in if you're not having a problem? Do you really think you can over oil the bearing(s)? I don't think so. I'm running -3 on a journal bearing t3 w/o issue. Have been now for at least 1,500 miles - half of that for no reason but to beat on it. Oh, and I've got a shimmed oil pump. I'm running near 100psi at 7k rpm.

 

Off topic, curious as to how much you shimmed it. I shimmed mine as well, but haven't gotten to the "testing" part yet.

 

The super 60 and t3t04e I killed took a few months to start blowing smoke from blowing the seals.

 

and was that the only thing wrong with those turbos?

 

I would throw a rivet restrictor in. Looks like 4an to me as well.

 

Too much oil pressure on a journal bearing can cause the spool to decrease from increased friction.

 

yep...according to the shop who built the 2nd one. (thanks for telling me after the first one, *******)

 

OK, I just got mine in today, and it has almost no similarity to yours. This was my ebay auction: eBay Motors: Drift T28 GT2860 S13 S14 Upgrade Turbo Charger .49 AR (item 110369223283 end time Mar-30-09 20:31:14 PDT) which is word for word the same as yours, but mine looks completely different. The big .42 A/R cast into the compressor makes me think they just randomly shipped whatever was close to them. I'll take some actual measurements when I get home, but methinks I got the shaft.