Emusa turbo good or bad? BAD!

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athens240
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ALERT as of 12-10-2014 I have reviewed the EMUSA brand of turbo's and have found them to be just as hit or miss as the other knock-off Chinese Ebay turbos. BUYER BEWARE!

WDRacing


I got an Emusa t3/t4 turbo for practically nothing and I was just wanting to know if it'd be good for my 300hp ka-t setup? I looked on their website but all I could find was that it was for a BMW or Porsche. Its a t3/t4 .50a/r to4e 50 trim exh. .63a/r idk a great deal about turbos so any help would be greatly appreciated.

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athens240
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Well I guees nobody knows anything about these Emusa turbos :gotme

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nelson8708
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they seem to hold up decent...a few of my friends runs them on their honda's. One ran it on 20psi all summer with no problems

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neverlift
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no we know, the info is plastered ALL over nico. A guy on here even has a post about working wiht them as a new job.... :crazy:

athens240
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Well if they are decent then i'll go ahead and run it, but ill keep saving for a turbonetics as planned :dblthumb: I searched for any info about them but it mostly came up with their wastegates and intercoolers on here. Thanks for the help I've always been around racecars and big v8s :chuckle: turbos are a whole new game to me.

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AZhitman
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Never heard of them, and I'm pretty active in the automotive aftermarket scene...

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neverlift
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I bet you have not greg, its an ebay company IIRC or was. I had a wastegate from them over 4 years ago, they had turbos then as well.

Come from under that rock :gapteeth:

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nelson8708
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run a -3 feed or you might have smoking issues...or you could run a -4 with a 1/16" restrictor, that what my buddy did with one of their t70's on his ka-t

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WDRacing
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AZhitman wrote:Never heard of them, and I'm pretty active in the automotive aftermarket scene...
ALERT as of 12-10-2014 I have reviewed the EMUSA brand of turbo's and have found them to be just as hit or miss as the other knock-off Chinese Ebay turbos. BUYER BEWARE!

WDRacing


They are supposedly a "decent" ebay brand turbo. I also hear they are balanced. Check the nut looking thing in the middle of the exhaust wheel. If it's been shaved on one or more sides it's been balanced. If it has no marks it hasn't been balanced and you're basically just rolling the dice. Sometimes they last a year or two, sometimes they last a month. Definitely use a restrictor on the supply side of the oil. Without one the oil seams to leak past the aft seal before it can drain out.

WD

athens240
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I've got the jgs t3/t4 oil line kit so that should work no problem right? What do you recommend for the size of the oil return line? 10an or 12an

athens240
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Thanks for the info WD I was kinda hopin you would get involved :mike I checked the exhaust wheel nut and indeed it has been shaved on one side so that means its been balanced and should be reliable?

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AZhitman
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neverlift wrote:I bet you have not greg, its an ebay company IIRC or was. I had a wastegate from them over 4 years ago, they had turbos then as well.

Come from under that rock :gapteeth:
;) A turbo is something I wouldn't skimp on.

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neverlift
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AZhitman wrote:
neverlift wrote:I bet you have not greg, its an ebay company IIRC or was. I had a wastegate from them over 4 years ago, they had turbos then as well.

Come from under that rock :gapteeth:
;) A turbo is something I wouldn't skimp on.
yeah me too thats why a garrett sits atop my mani :yesnod

IF you use this snail, make sure the alignment is on, talking with nelson he said thats the big issue, yeah they WERE balanced, then someone took it apart and reassembled it... IIRC you dont balance the rotating assembly inside the chra :gotme

BTW happy holidays father greg :bigthumb:

athens240
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What exactly do you mean by the alignment? There's a line marked on the compressor nut that matches up with the shaved part on the exh nut.

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WDRacing
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You can't check the alignment...there really isn't anything to align. You can check for radial and axial play and verify it was balanced. That's about it. If the turbo is taken apart, the shaft and compressor nut need to be marked so as to install everything in the same spot. Once something is balanced it shouldn't be taken apart until it has a problem.

The return hose should be the same size or bigger then the drain hole on the bottom of the turbo itself.

As far as reliable goes, install it and see how it long it lasts. If it dies there are lots of decent used options you can turn to.

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neverlift
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well from what I understand you cannot balance the turbine shaft/comp wheel while its inside the chra? Therefore it has to be taken apart, or am I on planet zomg?

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nelson8708
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The other day i took apart one of emusa's t28 turbo's to measure the wheels. There should be a small black pin line that goes from the compressor fan up to the tip of the turbine shaft. On that t28 (NIB) the lines were off by probably 45 degrees, guess the kid who assembled it wasn't paying attention. The line on the nut doesn't matter, just make sure the line on the compressor fan and the shaft its self are in alignment.

Edit for grammer :gapteeth:

If the nut on the compressor side is cut or shaved then it would make a difference with balance like WD stated
Last edited by nelson8708 on Tue Dec 28, 2010 9:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

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WDRacing
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I guess I mark the nut out of habit. I have marks ALL over my motor and various lines. I have mild OCD I think...lol. I mark both sides of everything. Then again, I do drink while I work, maybe this is just a well adapted coping mechanism, FTMFW :chuckle:

athens240
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Nelson - I checked the line on the compressor side ike you were talkin about and it lines up from the tip of the shaft all the way back to the fan. The nut on the compressor side has not been shaved only the exhaust nut. So if the turbo was took apart after being balanced it looks like it was reassembled to those marks exactly.

WD - First off you are wild lol there's no shaft play whatsoever on this thing though and everything is tight I went over it with a wrench just to be sure. I know you said reliability is iffy on this turbo so I looked around and found a turbonetics t3/t4 that needs balanced whats your opinion on that? How would I get it balanced after putting it back together?

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WDRacing
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Balancing isn't cheap, plus I'd want a fresh rebuild if i was going to pay to have it balanced.

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nelson8708
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google search and see if there is a local diesel shop that can balance it for you. When i rebuilt my holset i took my wheels to a local diesel shop and they balanced it for 30$ (Turbo Diesel Injection).

or ship it out

http://gpopshop.com/services/turbo-balancing

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WDRacing
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Boy, things sure have become affordable.

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neverlift
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no s***, thats cheap a local guy works in a diesel shop, he would charge more... I would.

Go for it, or keep an eye on cl for a good used snail and swap that wheel into a different chra. I have picked up 3 good turbos off cl for under 200 bux total. Blown 2(long stories) and still rocking this one. But they are garrett.

Big blame I think goes to them is people leaving stock crank/valve cover tied in. Both create high pressure in the crank case which WILL IN FACT look like a blown snail. If you tied the vc into anything other than pre turbo it will see boost which will in turn put it into the crankcase= tons of smoke.

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WDRacing
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For that money, rebuilding the 2870 and having it balanced is a damn good deal. The main reason I was against that size turbo was the price.

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slikklogic
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i acctually jus got one of these emusa t28 for my ka too. its balanced

athens240
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According to nelson most are balanced, but its still kinda hit or miss with them. I haven't had the chance to run mine yet because of school :squint: so idk how reliable it'll be.

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slikklogic
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Well soon as my manifold arrives ill throw it on n let u kno..it seems really good tho from looks of it..good wieght too it..doesn't feel cheap.ill be running coolant lines aswell

athens240
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Awesome mine feels really solid as well but I got a used turbonetics and had it rebuilt for a back up just in case.

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slikklogic
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lol i jus really bought it to test the ebay theory. i have a civic with a t3 garrett to drive otherwise if this blows. but u can rebuild them with good internals

dcream
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I went search emusa after read thread, I have to admit that I want good parts for my bucks, and come with their company site
the t3/t4 (http://www.speedyracer.com/servlet/the- ... ars/Detail) looks very tempting.. price is good. Just drop a line to check how your turbo goes so far. Thanks


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