Going Chinese turbo
 

Hey guys, recently I bought a NB with a built engine that's turbo charged for really cheap. The previous owner told me that he thinks the turbo needs to be changed/rebuilt. He believes the turbo seals are going bad. As it smokes a bit at times.

The whole purpose of this car is too get it up and running and and lifting it and making it into a off-roadster. So I want to spend as little money as money possible getting this thing running again.


So my question is, the current turbo in the car is a garret gt2871r. I don't really want to spend $700 getting another CHRA (that's almost how much I paid for the car) so I was looking at cheap Chinese turbos such as cxracing or even rev9 replica.

If I decided on a china turbo, would a professional retune really be necessary? I'm aware between the two turbos the spool would be different and etc, but I'd imagine with the the delay of boost plus probably lower boost I'd be running, a professional retune wouldn't be needed. I'm mainly worried about the ignition table, whereas the fuel table I can easily tune myself.

I've tested a number of different sized churbos on my junk. Been pleased with them all. I push them to 33-36 psi and beat on it regularly.

If your igniton map was safe before it should be relatively close now as long as you don't go smaller on the turbo or run leaner after swap. You may want to pull a degree or two for first tests though just in case the churbo blows a little hotter than the real deal garrett. If not lean and no knock you can always add it back.

In my personal experience the larger I went up in turbos, particularly on the turbine side with larger wheels and ar housings, the knock sensor seemed to make less noise with each successive increase in turbine flow.

Real Garrett turbos can be rebuilt

If we assume that the seller is correct, and the only thing wrong with the turbo is the shaft seals, any competent turbo shop can replace these (and the bearings, while they've got it apart) for less than you'd spend swapping in a new Chinese unit.



Professional? No idea. What ECU does the car have?