Garrett T3 Turbo Rebuild

[Kenrik]

I got a Garrett T3 from a Volvo Turbo for $80 the shaft spins freely and there is no front to back play but about 1mm side to side. it had a little bit of oil in the cold air side so I want to rebuild the turbo before I put it on the car just to be safe. Where can I buy rebuild kits? I saw the ones on ebay $50-$80 should I get a full rebuild kit or just one of the refresh kits? is there another place that sells them? who sells the best quality garrett rebuild kits?

Thanks!

[fiznat]

http://www.cheapturbo.com AKA pheonex turbo does complete rebuilds for something like 200 bucks. You send the turbo in and they do the rebuild for you. You need to be careful with rebuilding these turbos, the blades need to be precicely balanced so if you mess with any of that its best it gets done by a pro.

[Kenrik]

I checked Cheap turbo it's $300 to get it rebuilt from them. Can't I just be very careful and mark it when i'm taking it apart? Also I heard it only costs $35-$60 to get one balanced so if I rebuild it and have someone balance it would that not cost a lot less?

[ceniack]

another thing you can do is check your yellow pages or online for local desiel shops or turbo specific shops, it may end up being cheaper than mailing it off.

i think the local turbo shop here charges like 150-250 bucks for a turbo rebuild.

[sleepersilvia92]

i am paying 500 to get my garrett t3t4 he said he could do it the cheap way for 2 or 300 but he said its not even worth it to do that way with cheap aluminum collars and he showed me the compressor wheels from ebay turbos compared to actually garrett its such a waste to buy any of those junk turbos he dropped the ebay on the floor and it sounded like nothing and the garrett sounded like actual metal u can tel the difference in the metals big time i got a good laugh out of that i cant wait to get my turbo back tho and its going to be done in only 3 days i cant wait it will be with worth my 500

[r3v_v3ng3]

I got a Garrett T3 from a Volvo Turbo for $80 the shaft spins freely and there is no front to back play but about 1mm side to side. it had a little bit of oil in the cold air side so I want to rebuild the turbo before I put it on the car just to be safe. Where can I buy rebuild kits? I saw the ones on ebay $50-$80 should I get a full rebuild kit or just one of the refresh kits? is there another place that sells them? who sells the best quality garrett rebuild kits?

Thanks!

i bought the rebuild kit from ebay and its been working good so far. its actually not that hard to rebuild them. just make sure you buy it from a seller that he will balance the wheel for you for free if you buy his rebuild kit.

[WDRacing]

i am paying 500 to get my garrett t3t4 he said he could do it the cheap way for 2 or 300 but he said its not even worth it to do that way with cheap aluminum collars and he showed me the compressor wheels from ebay turbos compared to actually garrett its such a waste to buy any of those junk turbos he dropped the ebay on the floor and it sounded like nothing and the garrett sounded like actual metal u can tel the difference in the metals big time i got a good laugh out of that i cant wait to get my turbo back tho and its going to be done in only 3 days i cant wait it will be with worth my 500

You can buy a brand new T3/TO4 for $350 With a full one year warranty.

[BigMACKenzie]

IIRC you dont need to balance the garret turbos when rebuilding them, they are internally balanced. thats why you pick them of of volvos and skip the other make turbos from other cars. The rebuild kits are just seals, gaskets, bearings etc and you should be able to handle it yourself if you are mechanically inclined. otherwise listen to WD and get a new turbo, its not worth paying someone else to fix it.

[Biggamehit]

you cant Calibrate the turbo with out a machine bro. sorry

[BigMACKenzie]

elaborate plz, I would like to learn ^^

[WDRacing]

you cant Calibrate the turbo with out a machine bro. sorry

elaborate plz, I would like to learn ^^

It's not calibrating per se', it's high speed balancing. Just like any rotating assembly, vibration even in a small amount can cause wear and eventually failure. When I worked on helo's we had to balance every drive shaft and we used vibration software and velometers to track vibration levels. Every part has a tolerable limit, go past that limit and you get varying degree's of wear.

When buying some turbo's, like ones from China, some are NOT balanced at all. This often leads to eventual failure as does the use of softer materials for the bushings. Like copper instead of brass...

When it comes to rebuilding a turbo, if it's a Chinese unit and you're sure it wasn't an oil issue I'd junk it and buy another. When it comes to rebuilding a garret or other quality turbo that is only being rebuilt because it has high mileage, then a quickie DIY type rebuild where you change out the snap rings/seals/bushings and perform a general cleaning you should be OK. This is because the turbo has already been balanced by a professional. So it's expected to see rpm's close to 60,000. The balance takes into account the differences in weight from one side of the wheel to another, the difference in weight of the shaft itself and the alignment of the compressor wheel when torqued onto the shaft.

If you index the compressor wheel before you remove it and align it when you reinstall it, the balance will be close enough for many more trouble free miles. By not indexing the compressor wheel you are risking an out of balance condition, but this will typically lead to excessive wear on the bushings and shorter over all life. Which will simply require another rebuild, which really isn't a problem once you've done one or two already. They are fairly straight fwd to take apart and when you place the parts on a table in the order they came off it's pretty easy to put back together.

If you're savvy you can find a garret center section that has ceramic ball bearings and build yourself a DIY GT turbo. 2 turbo's that come to mind are the RB20 and RB25 T3's

WD

[sleepersilvia92]

i didnt know the mileage of the turbo thats why i got it rebuilt it had major shaft play and smoked like crazy and i got a warranty i got the turbo back in 3 days and its like a new turbo i have never seen a $350 turbo that looks like it was worth buying

[BigMACKenzie]

thanks WD! btw Sleepersilvia I think he means $350 for just the turbines no piping or mounting or anything else just teh turbo.

[WDRacing]

thanks WD! btw Sleepersilvia I think he means $350 for just the turbines no piping or mounting or anything else just teh turbo.

I was wrong, they are $299 and come with a one year warranty.

http://stores.teamblindside.com/Detail.bok?no=149

[sleepersilvia92]

that looks like a eBay turbo and obviously i knew it didn't come with piping i would never trust a turbo that came with piping and everything for 350 or 299 for the turbo it self ive seen internals of a eBay turbo compared to a true Garrett you can tell the density of the metal just by feeling it i wouldn't trust a $300 turbo just to have it grenade into my motor, warranty or not i wouldn't want the same crappy turbo replaced over and over

[WDRacing]

Saying things like..."grenade into my motor" just shows that you know very little about turbo's. I know people that are using that turbo and have been for some time now with NO issues at all. It's a very affordable turbo with a one year warranty for those that don't want to spend $550+ on a garret or other.

The entire point behind posting that link was to show that you don't need to pay alot of money to get a used turbo rebuilt. A new one can be bought for $300 and a DIY rebuild kit can be bought for $120 with genuine garret parts. There is no doing a rebuild the cheap way...that's someone lying to you. Nobody I know of that performs a rebuild service uses alum bushings...or any cheap material for that matter. Or they wouldn't be in bussiness very long. They buy the same kits I can buy and use the same parts I do. Saying he needs 500 for a rebuild is him taking your money. Don't get all defensive because I pointed out that you got ripped off man.

WD

[sleepersilvia92]

thats funny because ive seen 2 people with ebay turbos have the compressor wheel fail it looks almost plastic and screwed there motor and the turbo place i went to is the only place that doesn't just send it out to get rebuilt cheaply he did it right and specializes in just turbos and the look of the shop tells all if he was ripping people off he wouldn't have tons of people going to him and honestly i would rather buy a used turbo then the cheapest internet turbo i can find i would rather pay the extra 250 that i paid then having to send a junk turbo back and forth just to have the same problem and there is a cheap way to rebuild it ive seen turbos with aluminum and copper trust collars and if rebuilt the same way they came would be very cheap and im not getting defensive ive seen the internals ive seen cheapo turbos screw motors and your opinion that i got riped off doesnt make any sense i have a warranty on a turbo and its not some ebay copy that is mass produced that is just my experience with turbos like that maybe u havent had any problems with them buts thats just my opinion

[sleepersilvia92]

what turbo would you recommend then besides the 299 t3/t4

[spank044]

I agree with WD, sleeper you got RIPPPPPPED off son. I used to work at Michigan Turbo and we could put in a new Garret Chra with a Titanium compressor wheel, clean the housings, with assembly for that much. You got taken, so don't be mad at WD for what he pointed out.

Kenrik, if you can't find or afford to have it balanced, then use a paint pen or sharpie to mark the compressor wheel position on the shaft and don't remove any material from the blades. That should work pretty well for you. That is what I used to do and there were even times when I put it on the balancer and it was with in tolerance. So it can be done.

And last but not least, see if you can find a Borg Warner kit, they can be had for $50 to $100 and are complete kits.

[WDRacing]

thats funny because ive seen 2 people with ebay turbos have the compressor wheel fail it looks almost plastic and screwed there motor and the turbo place i went to is the only place that doesn't just send it out to get rebuilt cheaply he did it right and specializes in just turbos and the look of the shop tells all if he was ripping people off he wouldn't have tons of people going to him and honestly i would rather buy a used turbo then the cheapest internet turbo i can find i would rather pay the extra 250 that i paid then having to send a junk turbo back and forth just to have the same problem and there is a cheap way to rebuild it ive seen turbos with aluminum and copper trust collars and if rebuilt the same way they came would be very cheap and im not getting defensive ive seen the internals ive seen cheapo turbos screw motors and your opinion that i got riped off doesnt make any sense i have a warranty on a turbo and its not some ebay copy that is mass produced that is just my experience with turbos like that maybe u havent had any problems with them buts thats just my opinion

If you aren't going to bother using grammar, don't bother posting in KAT...Thx.

You can buy/rebuild anything you want. I didn't say that cheapo ebay turbo's are good...anywhere. I gave a link to a shop that sells turbo's on the cheap with a warranty. Now you've made your point clear, you don't want to buy one of those. But you also have NO information the particular turbo or the shop I referenced. So stop referring to everything you don't like as cheap ebay crap.

I'm glad you're happy with your decisions. Now lets get on with talking about something else shall we

WD