Is anyone running a chinese T3 knock-off? They have gotten down to about $150 and I am getting tempted to try one out. The chinese can typically copy something well enough and an old style T3 has proven to be about indestructible. Does anyone have one? If yes what do you think? How has it held up?

 

you get what you pay for. why not support the north american manufacturers that put so much engineering and manufacturing development efforts into building the original turbo rather than throw your money to some offshore design theif. why not buy a product that is made in north america so you can help support north american employees instead of child labour from offshore countries. is this the type of company you want to support with your hard earned dollars? this is part of the reason why the economy is taking such a dump in the us. if you buy a knock off product, i hope it fails and your car explodes.

 

There are a couple guys running the "chinacharger" that you have here. If im not mistaken it's Markp and someone else...

https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/showthread.php?t=12311


Did you even search?

 

Patriotism aside, consider the risk you're taking. It may or may not stay together, and if it comes apart WILL anything make it to your engine?Is it worth to save $300 over a new "name brand" for the risk? or save $100 over a used freshened unit?

I was just face with a turbo purchase and went with a real garrett for the reasons above (including avoid-knock-offs). I used a turbine housing I had and got a 50 trim t3/t4 stage3 with a full thrust bearing for $500. IMO that's a deal for a quality piece.

 

Typically I will spend the extra $ for a quality product the first time. This is for a CHEAP project that I am considering building and I need to stay within the grassroots challenge budget. If I were putting it on something that I wanted to put a lot of miles on it would be a different story.

I have a tired T3 in my parts Saab 900, but it needs a little more than a typical rebuild. It works, but I think it is a bigger gamble than its worth. I appreciate keeping money in the US (and typically do). I don't need a lesson on patriotism. I just wanted info on a specific turbo.

wes65 - Thanks for the reference to MarkP that gives me something to read.

 

Yes I did search, and I read through the sticky and found info about why people feel that the ebay kits are crap... I did not find a real reason to buy / not buy one of these turbos.

 

that saab 900 turbo with a 50 trim T4 compressor = perfect for 300 whp.

 

Call Corky and ask him what he thinks of them... He's seen a few.

Mark

 

^ really. Id love to see a post from him.

Id try one for ***** and giggles if my turbo wound up being junk. I doubt anything bad can happen to the engine if it takes a ****. If pieces of the compressor come apart they would have to make it through the intercooler to get to the engine, and if the turbine comes apart then its into the exhaust it goes.

So id try one, but first id try finding a real one.

 

I might try it, if it didn't have the capacity to destroy other parts in the engine... The price is definitely right.

 

The risk of destroying the engine isn't that great - not with an IC in line. Of course you'd wind up cleaning out the IC if you had major blade contact. For me - the risk is in the time spent having to "recover" from the failure.

 

^ I doubt it will even get to the intercooler anyway. If it breaks it will probably stop somewhere before the IC and you will know instantly that somethings is wrong.

 

I had aluminum dust in my intercooler when my chinacharger grenaded. Couldn't hear the blade scraping (loud exhaust at the time).

 

China chargers are good to experiment with, strap one to a $100 pos and no WG and see how many psi it will take before blowing up. I actually know someone who did that for ***** and giggles.