Acceptable Turbo Shaft Play?

[JSWORKS]

Hey All,

Dropped my cross-member tonight to change a leaking R&P and do a Ashspec 2.5" Intake pipe & BDE mount install. When I got the stock intake pipe off, I wiggled the compressor wheel to check for shaft play, there was definitely a little wiggle. No scaring of the housing or in and out movement, so is this amount of play acceptable? See video below.

Thanks!
Jay

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBiS3lMq4vc[/youtube]

[300ZXttZMAN]

IMHO the first ~10 seconds I wouldn't be worried about it. But the last 10 seconds when you readjusted your fingers it looks like it was moving a little bit more and actually moving the compressor wheel. You say its not chewed up but how close is it to touching the housing?

Another question is did you clean anything or is that how clean it was when you started? If you didn't clean anything I would roll with it. How does the RH side feel/look??

[JSWORKS]

Yea, the compressor wheel does move. It doesn't touch the housing but it's damn close. Spoke with Ash of Ashspec today and he feels the play is excessive.

The car had a R&P leak so the comp housing had a coating of ps fluid on it, I wiped it off with some thinner (why it's do clean looking). I plan to track the car so I don't want to take a chance even if it's got a little life left (cause if it blew apart at the track and toasted the motor that would suck!)

Pulling them and sending them out to Ash for a rebuild. Just sucks because I didn't plan/budget for turbo work!

[300ZXttZMAN]

Good! I didn't know you cleaned them thats why I said well hell if they are that clean then the shaft play must be tiny. But since there was that much shaft play it must have busted the seal...

Thats why in my first post I was like the last 10 seconds of the video looked nasty but the turbo is very clean so I was thinking the seal was still intact and that the shaft play was tiny since the camera was a little shaky...

But anyway sending them out is good because its always better to be safe than sorry as you already stated.

[TTkickedin]

No shaft play Is good shaft play, really, unless the company (which happens to not be Garrett,) notoriously makes loose CHRA's but don't usually fail.

I can't watch the video at work, but from my experience with turbochargers - once they have any sort of shaft play, it's not long before it gets worse. If you're planning on tracking the car as you say, definitely make sure that you're changing anything that can possibly break, including the turbochargers. A turbo with shaft play will last a shorter amount of time on the track than it would on the street not being driven hard.

[300ZXttZMAN]

Used turbo's will always have a little bit of shaft play.

But yes shaft play is s*** but it happens and it can get to a point to where its not "acceptable".

[TTkickedin]

^ true. Whereas he's building a track car though, there's different standards for the build itself. A turbo with shaft play won't last on a track as long as it would on the street. If he's got the engine out, he should just replace them now and save the headache later on.

[300ZXttZMAN]

^ true. Whereas he's building a track car though, there's different standards for the build itself. A turbo with shaft play won't last on a track as long as it would on the street. If he's got the engine out, he should just replace them now and save the headache later on.

Agreed, Because racecar

[JSWORKS]

Seems the turbo was just the tip of the iceberg :-(

http://jsworks.org/2012/03/21/they-say- ... in-threes/

[TTkickedin]

Can you detail the problems here in text? Your site is blocked by my work filter, have no clue why though.

[JSWORKS]

Sure thing - Here's a text version of the blog post (minus pics of course).

They say bad luck comes in threes. If that’s true, then I definitely hit the trifecta this week. The irony of my last post title “Firing on All Cylinders” couldn’t be more palpable. After dropping the cross-member to install Ashspec’s 2.5” intake piping (and BDE motor mounts), I grabbed a hold of the driver’s side turbo compressor wheel to check for play.

There’s always a small amount of “acceptable” play in a journal bearing turbo, but unfortunately, what I found was out of that acceptable range. There was a fair amount of up-and-down & side-to-side movement of the compressor wheel/shaft. When checking the passenger side turbo, the play was even worse. That’s two…

Notice the scar marks on the housing from where the compressor wheel was making contact with the housing. Ouch!

The third bit of bad news came after speaking with Harry of Ztuner – he was concerned after hearing about the play in the turbos and recommended I do a compression test while the motor was still in the car. So I hooked the battery/starter up and to my dismay, the cylinders came in way low on the compression numbers.

Decent compression numbers would have been in the 150 range, and I was way below that at about 120 on the number 6 cylinder, with a 135 on the number 5. Cylinders 5-6 are known trouble spots and usually the first to go, as the back two cylinders tend to run hotter than the first 4 in VG motors.

Looking back, I should have checked compression right off the bat - but the car ran strong and only had 67K miles, so I just assumed the motor was strong. I should’ve remembered that old adage – when you assume, you make an a** (out of) u (and) me! The car was most certainly abused by it's previous owner, then bandaged up to look pretty right before being sold to my cousin...

So now I find myself at a crossroads – I never budgeted for turbo rebuilds, let alone a motor rebuild. And my budget has already been stretched paper thin with all the unforeseen maintenance issues of a 22-year-old car (like a rack & pinion leak, rotten hoses, etc), as well as all the expenses that come with making the film.

At the same time, I’ve built the whole thesis of my documentary around this build, as well as feel a strong obligation to my sponsors (who’ve been so supportive up to this point), to deliver on what I promised them.

But I also can’t help but feel a bit crazy to pump that kind of money (for a rebuild) into a car that was originally wrecked pretty hard, and will never be “perfect.” But I guess in a sense you could interpret that as a metaphor for the whole documentary itself… Hell, I’m not “perfect,” but I get the job done! So the show must go on. I’m just not exactly sure how yet.

Time to reassess and figure out the best way forward from here. Stay tuned…

Jay