Blown turbo, Still drive it?

[Ilvemynissan]

Ok, I have a stock SR20 in my hatch, I blew the turbo about a month ago. Well i'm pretty sure I blew the turbo, I noticed one day the sound of the spool started to sound gross and kinda raspy-ish I guess, at the same time I am getting pretty much no boost, no power, so I stopped driving it. School just started for me so I decided to drive it anyway because I need to go to school. I figured if I drove below 3k RPM's I should be fine. Yesterday though when driving to school I took it out of gear and the rpms DROP, sometimes just to about 300 then back up to 800. Once it went to zero and the dash lights flickered on and off but it kept running. I gues what I want to know is, what will I hurt if I continue driving like this? And I just bought a turbo off craigslist for 300 dollars. He said it was the stock t25 but when I took off the intake piping and everything the turbo is completley different, If I can post a picture of the turbo would anyone be able to tell me what I have to do to make it fit? Like piping etc. I would probably have to get a boost gauge right?

[exhsturbine]

are you sure you just dont have a gasket leak? manifold to block, manifold to turbine housing?those leaks usually make very interesting sounds hahaha.

if it is broken, i suppose you could still drive it. however, you will more than likely get horrible gas mileage. not to mention if the compressor wheel breaks of pieces, there is a small chance that the metal can make it into your engine.....

post a picture of the turbo..... please. boost gauge isnt necessary.

in the mean time, check for any excessive play in the shaft. excessive oil in your charge air piping. exhaust leaks between the head and your turbo. if it turns out to be something simple (like a leak) its gonna somewhat save you some cash. good luck

[Ilvemynissan]

are you sure you just dont have a gasket leak? manifold to block, manifold to turbine housing?those leaks usually make very interesting sounds hahaha.

Thats another thing I was thinking i'll try to check for a gasket leak.

I'll try to get a picture up but I don't have my phone anymore so i'll try to use a friends camera.

[S14toRPS13]

Why haven't you checked your current turbo for shaft play? There should be virtually no shaft play at all. Yes your car will drive with a blown turbo, but you risk all the bits and pieces of the turbo going into your cylinders.

[ArcherV20]

Could it be the turbo -> manifold 4 bolt gasket? That sounds like exactly what my car was doing - replaced the gaskets, tightened everything up and it was good to go.

[Kalypso]

have an intercooler? I dont think the debris will make it through a frontmount,the gaps in the fins are too tight.

post pics of the Turbo. for 300 it soundslike you got more then a t25.

[Ilvemynissan]

I don't have pics but It's Garrett, it says A.R. 60 m24 I think and like AR 69 on the compressor housing. I'll double check tomorrow.

Also what is the best way of checking for a bad gasket?

[ArcherV20]

There isn't really a way to check aside from pulling the thing off. If you're comfortable pulling the turbo off the car, and seperating it from the mani - you'll be able to tell! It's a pain in the butt job so good luck.

This is what my gasket was doing:

Started with a raspy noise only under boost

Progressed into raspy noise under boost + jerky idle + stalls (very rare) + sounded like *puffs* of air were being spit out of the engine at idle.

Finally loss of power.

---

I drove it very very little during this time while I researched and prepped myself to take on this job.

[Kalypso]

pulling the turbo off the mani isnt too bad i did it two days ago. I had a loose CS line that I didnt properly tighten. In total it was a 1.5 hour job

- I loosened all 8 nuts, and removed the mani from the block. - disconnected the dump pipe from the exhaust.- hit the 4 studs that connect the turbo to the mani with wd-40. - pulled out a 12mm wrench, and muscled each one loose.

while the manifold is off its a good time to paint it with a heat coating

[mistamacadamian]

post pics of tht turbo you got kinda wanna see it

[480sx]

All you have to do is feel around where the turbo meets up to the manifold and see if you feel exhaust escaping the flange. Dont take the freaken turbo off just to see if your gaskets bad..

Check for shaft play, real easy thing to do. Some side to side shaft play is normal, in/out shaft play means your turbo is roached. To much side to side means you need a new rebuild.

[tercel drifter]

if your turbo is blown you could possibly be putting shards of metal into your cylenders which could resolve into a cracked piston or a rod coming out of your block

[johnnyballs180]

Could it be the turbo -> manifold 4 bolt gasket? That sounds like exactly what my car was doing - replaced the gaskets, tightened everything up and it was good to go.

same deal here, about three days ago. first i had horrific thoughts, but luckily it was just a crappy gasket. it's like one of those freebe gaskets that you get everytime you buy a part.. just because you expect to see them? i couldn't feel any exhaust escaping, but when i pulled everything off, sure enough, it looked like half of the gasket was burned through.

LAME.

the expensive gaskets (of course) are good. i think they're stainless, yea?

this is what i mean by crappy gasket. they come with EVERYTHING.

[Ilvemynissan]

Okay, I forgot to mention that there is oil coming out of my BOV. A lot of oil, that pretty much confirms a blown seal right? And i'm not too sure what all I need to get this new turbo to work, New manifold, dump pipe, and down pipe maybe? I'll try to get a picture by friday.

[S14toRPS13]

Okay, I forgot to mention that there is oil coming out of my BOV. A lot of oil, that pretty much confirms a blown seal right? And i'm not too sure what all I need to get this new turbo to work, New manifold, dump pipe, and down pipe maybe? I'll try to get a picture by friday.

I had oil coming from my bov, but that was due to not having an oil catch can.

If you're not building boost at all and you hear a scraping or siren sound from your turbo or both, then yes, your turbo is done for. Having a worn out gasket is not going to keep you from building boost pressure.

[480sx]

the expensive gaskets (of course) are good. i think they're stainless, yea?

this is what i mean by crappy gasket. they come with EVERYTHING.

Those gaskets are great for exhaust systems. Crushable types with a fire ring built in, you dont get much better than that.

Stainless gaskets require a perfect mating surface on both flanges. They are good for turbo manifolds. I prefer copper gaskets myself, they are much more forgiving than stainless and as long as your not doing something dumb they will never fail. However i use Rutland Black, a liquid gasket. The stuff kicks ***.

[JdrifterCA]

Grrr. I get this weird high pitch metal sound every time i rev over 2500, and my rpm just started to drop down to near 0 when park... u guys think i might have a turbo problem also?

[Kalypso]

PICS!

[Ilvemynissan]

^

I'll try to get a picture by friday.

Friday ain't over yet lol...

[Ilvemynissan]

Ok, on to the pictures.











I think the manifold is top mount.

[Ilvemynissan]

What else do I need besides a new manifold?

[boro drift]

What else do I need besides a new manifold?

You need, a different intake, a different hot pipe, a different down pipe, and a external wastegate. You will have to keep the top mount manifold. In my opinion, looks like alot of work, and it would suck to get it all together just to find out that this turbo is also bad.

[Ilvemynissan]

I think instead of that i'm going to sell the turbo and header and buy a stock t25. Thanks for the help fellas.

[Ilvemynissan]

Ok boys, so I finally fixed my 'blown' turbo. My friend got his front clip and got everything running right except the BOV he bought didn't work. So we decide to put mine on just to make sure it was the BOV. I started thinking, I would just put the stock BOV or Bypass valve or whatever it is, on my car. When I was taking off my sidemount I noticed teh plug the shop used to block off the hole where the stock BOV was, it was ripped big time. So, I only had a boost leak. LOL

[S14toRPS13]

I bet you wanted to kick yourself in the @ss for that one. Good thing that's all it was though.

[1xjuanx1]

haha that is way to funny btw