Turbo Reman process/questions

[Street Toys]

Since there has been an interest shown in the process of how I reman a turbo. I believe it is time that I start this thread and explain exactly what it is that I do from the point that I receive the core to shipping!

Before I begin, there are a few ground rules that I would like to lay out.

First: This is NOT about who's hybrid is better than who's, so please don't drink and post!

second: This is not a marketing thread, we already know who makes hardware and who tunes it.

Third: This thread is intended to help everyone on this site. Newbies and Veterans, It is intended to let anyone feel welcome.

Fourth; My goal is to explain the rebuild process in detail so everyone knows what process takes place. I'm hoping that everyone will benefit from this information.

*I do have to credit Jeff at Rocketchip for the rules, I did use his idea*

First of all, what is a reman turbo?

A remanufactured turbo is no different in many cases than a remanufactured engine. The engine for example is a very high cost replacement part. So when most people "blow thier engine" persae, many choose to rebuild it rather than buying one from the factory. many times some of us choose to take advantage of that time to upgrade. Some people choose to remain "stock". As in engines, the same choices apply in remanufacturing turbos. I ask you all..Have you known anyone to run a rebuilt motor? I know of many. How many of these "reman" engines are better than factory? I know if Buckweat or Mr Chill built it, it would be!
You see, sad but true, the factory does not have the time nor the passion of a true enthusiast to make that engine "all it can be". The same applies to the turbocharger. I don't know how many times I've heard "Man, I can't wait until my engine goes so I can rebuild it!". We now hear that more than often rebuilding turbos too! Engines as in turbos are similar in that event as well, as it is much cheaper to rebuild either before it totally blows!
Turbos as engines are not all rebuildable. Sometimes damage occurs that makes it either not worth the gamble of the integrity of the unit or not financially sound. I find that 1 in 5 cores that I receive fall into that category. They are then stripped for any salvageable parts and then chucked into the recycle bin.



This thread is not intended for people to attempt this procedure at home. you will see that rebuilding a turbo correctly requires equipment that runs in the tens of thousands of dollars.

[Street Toys]

a few years ago, I'm sure that many veterans will remember, there were quite a few issues regarding rebuilt turbos. the two main issues that I remember were,...sand remaining in the oil cartridge and missing and broken studs.

The first thing that happens to a turbo when it arrives it gets torn down and inspected. The turbine assembly and manifold gets cleaned by being blasted with aluminum oxide. A material like sand but more effective. After that step it is totally cleaned off with high pressure air and then soaked in solvent. When removed from the solvent tank it is totally dried off again with air and then placed in another cabinet containing #6 glass bead and cleaned once more. from the glass bead cabinet it gets hosed down once again with high pressure air and then is cleaned in another solvent tank containing cleaner solvent. After another good high pressure blasting with air all of the threaded orfices that were capped during media blasting are inspected and a tap is inserted in every hole to clean up any dirty or damaged threads. At that point it is delivered to me in the machine shop where all surfaces are inspected and trued if need be.
A gasket is then applied to the head flange area and port matching is preformed as required. You would be amazed how many castings require port matching. After surfaces are checked and within specs, the center of the turbine housing is polished through to the exhaust port. At that time it is drilled just above the turbine housing with a 7/16 hole and tapped with a 1/4 NPT thread to accommodate a pyrometer.(EGT) After yet another bout with the high pressure air to clean out any metal chips, it is then placed in a vat of xylene to remove any yet remaining carbon inside of the manifold. Once removed it is again rinsed with solvent and dried again. The manifold-turbine housing is then masked off and coated with a high temp resistant coating to withstand temps of 1600 degrees Fahrenheit. This coating will prevent the turbo from rusting for at least 1 year.(I picture in my head right now about 150 club members running outside and lifting their hoods to look if their turbo is still as purddy as they put it in. LOL). It is then delivered to our clean room for final inspection and placed for assembly. I am also proud to announce that since I began rebuilding turbos not one case ever has anyone complained about getting any foreign material left inside their turbo and nobody has ever complained about any missing or broken studs.



Once in the "clean room", the studs are inserted and after inspection if all checks out, it gets a little dab of green paint to show that it was inspected thus far. (I wonder how many people seen that little dab of paint)




While many of the rebuilders opt to sand blast or glass bead vane assemblies, I choose to chemically clean them and then final polish before reassembly. Though this method is much more time consuming, I choose this way because I feel that if by leaving a smother surface, there is less chance of "soot build up". So far this method has proven to be the most effective.

[Street Toys]

While many areas are taken for granted, at Street Toys every machined surface is checked and if needed, resurfaced. Notice the oil return flange! I have found that while checking this particular surface, about 60% of them are more than 0.003" out of spec. My Machining process guarantees that the surface is within 0.00008"! Many people call me a little nitpicky, but I feel that when all is said and done, I make even the basic 15 rebuild "all it can be. To date with over 400 turbos that has left my shop, we have not had one single case of oil return line leaking due to any uneven surface.

[Street Toys]

l have found that in the past, it is best to take advantage of the millions of dollars of research that the original manufacturer has invested to make a quality product. Therefore I choose to use many of those products that are available. As in building motors some products are upgraded. For an example, when rebuilding your engine, a lot of the rebuilders choose to use Z-gap or Totalseal rings. Volkswagen however chooses to use a different product. Again, they are building an engine that is designed to produce 74 to 90 HP and what they use is adequate. The same goes with porting and polishing heads etc.... The same applies to the turbo charger.






Turbo failures are as common as engine failures. Many times no two are identical. One point of weakness we have found to be is the shaft and wheel assembly. Though many of you think that this unit is made of one piece, in reality it is not! Rather than the wheel itself is cast from NO7750 (Inconel X-750) 73Ni, 16Cr, 7 Fe, 2.5 Ti, A1, 1 Nb. the shaft itself is made of a high carbon steel and the two are then welded together. Notice the two shafts in the upper left hand corner.

The two larger shaft and wheel assemblies pictured to the right side of the photograph shows a textbook example of damage caused by excessive exhaust gas temperatures( EGT's )

The slender shaft as it is known by Garrett, dubbed the "bottle-neck" here on the forum, is by no means a weak link in its own right. This particular shaft was designed to perform in smaller turbos boosting 18 to 20psi. In its intended application it works well. It is also used in many VNT 20 series turbos. Like any product pushed to the limit, they will in fact break. This is why in both the 5 series and 10 series VNT 20, Garrett chooses to use the straight shaft pictured in the top right. This shaft is by no means a guarantee that it will not break, we have found that less of them do. Any part pushed past its limit will fail!


Here is a piece of equipment that you will not find in many shops but it is very important to use on EVERY rebuild. Again the similarity of rebuilding engines apply to turbo rebuilds. I can never stress enough to anyone that "Verification is everything". Rebuilding motors, I usually buy 2 to 3 sets of bearings for one rebuild just to compile a "matching" set to MY standards. and when installing the bearings I never take for granted that they all will have the same clearance, so I measure each one.(Ask MrChill, Buchweat and Old Poopie how many times they do this). Even brand new shaft assemblies must be checked for straightness as usable used ones as well. It's not that I do not trust Garrett in this area rather than, what could have happened to that part in transit. Did the Fed Ex guy drop the box and something could have damaged the shaft? Who knows? This is why New or used, every shaft must be verified! If out of spec. it must either be replaced or straightened.(That is a lengthy process in its own, and not recommended to do if you have to read about it on the internet)








For an example, Heat shields for the 1749V, VA and VB are not made available to the general public. Of course when they are in fact still usable we do use them over again. However the problem is that more often than not they are not reusable. So after spending hundreds of dollars in metallurgy with certified labs we now make an upgraded version ourselves. Many of you may have read comments on other threads about how particular I am about making something as simple as the Street Toys turbo adapter. You should see how particular I am making these little heat shields! Again I am please to report that Street Toys has not had one single failure in this department. I feel that soon we will no longer use the factory original except in stock 15 rebuilds.

[Street Toys]

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* compressor housing and back plate*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
Even such things as bores and final machining are taken for granted. Example shown below is a brand new compressor housing from a Garrett GT1749VB, The turbo we all know here as THE "17". Notice if you will, the contour of this comp. housing where the exducer (The large base of the wheel) is intended to contour the housing. Garrett themselves will tell you that it should have a space of 0.30mm between the wheel and housing(0.011"). How can that be, when you see the contour is actually cut with a 3 angle cut similar to a valve seat. Next to it is one of mine that I custom make for hybrids and "special modifications". The contour is cut to be within 0.001" of the wheel that is to be installed and polished to a #4 mirror finish. I feel that by reducing any drag in the compressor assembly, the compressor itself is far more efficiant. This is one of many reasons that I claim to "blueprint" our turbos.



Please do not misunderstand my last statement. It is by no means a"dig" towards Garrett. We all know that the products they make are in fact in quality and function as they are designed to. If any of you would have the same opportunity as I to work with many different turbos at one time you would understand. Example, If you were to buy 20 compressor wheels from Garrett and laid them all out on a table and measured the inducer on all of them.(the inducer is the narrow, top side of the wheel, the part you see when you look inside the compressor housing "air intake") you would find that you would get measurements ranging as much as 0.20mm(0.008") from wheel to wheel. Now do that with 20 new compressor housings and measure the bore! Again here you will get differences that range in as much as 0.30mm(0.012")
The differences can easily be explained. It is not shoddy workmanship rather than a combination of circumstances. If the wheel persae is machined in France (geological places are only used for examples,.....but I do like France) on a warm august afternoon, that wheel will be within specs. Being sent to Utah, USA and then measured on a cold January morning, then that particular wheel can be as much as 0.006" smaller just because of the change in temperature. The same explains the difference in the bore on the compressor housing. The only way to assure a "blueprint" installation is to machine the compressor housing exactly to the wheel it is going to receive. Where as Garrett can not do this, many parts are manufactured all over the planet and then assembled where ever they are needed. By being a "custom" turbo shop I am blessed with the opportunity to be able to machine these pieces together so they do in fact fit as blueprinted.



The above photo is an example of our "stealth-17". That is where I take a brandnew out of the box GT1749VB and machine a compressor housing for a GT1749V(GT15) to fit in its place. The reason we do this with some turbos is...many of you do like to install them in an ALH. This makes the installation "plug and play". Now there is no reason to buy a PD lower charge hose or even to buy one of our compressor adapters(the Street Toys turbo adapter).

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*Wheel to bore clearance;*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

These tolerances have been argued many times. The reason for arguments is Garrett chooses to keep much information proprietary. Just last November we had a well respected member of our club state that the tolerance is 0.004" while we had another member claim it to be 0.020". After talking with a Garrett tech in person I was told that it was to be 0.30mm, (0.011"). For that reason I choose to believe the Garrett tech and all my turbos are machined with a clearance of 0.010 to 0.012". With these tolerances we have gotten real good results. As stated above with the differences with in the wheels and compressor bore how many wheel to bore clearances are within 0.002" of whatever bore clearance you decide is correct? This is one of many reasons why I would choose my "reman" over a factory assembled product.

-------------------------- Turbo Identification -----------------------------------

Many people get confused with all the V, VA's and VB's etc...hopefully I may help you further understand a little about turbo identification.

One of the most confusing turbo designation is the "15", I'm sure that the veterans all know this already, however I hear questions daily from newer members that don't quite understand. For that matter, some veterans are confused as well!

GT 1749 V : The GT means that it is a Garrett Turbocharger built By Garrett/Honeywell. The first two numbers in the designation ( in this case the 17 ) is a designation used to describe the "hot side" of the turbo, or the frame size in that particular family group.
the last two numbers ( in this case the 49 ) are the numbers that describe the wheel size of that turbo measured at the base, the largest diameter of the wheel, in millimeters, known as the "Exducer" on the intake wheel.
The V at the end of the designation describes the turbo as being a VNT turbo, an abbreviation for = Variable Nozzle Turbine.

For that reason many of you know already that I re-stamp any turbo that I modify. I feel that since I changed bore and wheel sizes and at times make my own compressor wheels, and turbine wheels, it is no longer a "genuine" Garrett product. Rather than a "Modified upgrade". For that reason my designations always start with S/T (Street Toys).

When Garrett first started coming out with the VNT 15 V for Volkswagen, That was at that time it's final designated name( or #). As their line of Turbos grew, they added the GT17V sieries, as they added more to that series they began to upgrade both compressor and turbine sizes within that particular "frame" size. This was the beginning of the 1749VA, VB, VC as we know them today. Since the 15 was alone in its designated group and was really not at all much smaller, they decided to eliminate the "15" designation and incorporate it into the GT 1749 series turbo. So with that in mind, the Garrett GT 15 V is today the turbo known as the GT1749V. The one and the same. The next larger in that family is the GT1749VA, which is actually not at all that much larger than the "V"(15) Followed by the turbo most people decide is a decent upgrade, the GT1749VB. to give you all an example of what size difference there are I compiled this chart. I never thought I'd ever see the day that I would choose inches over the metric system, but SAE standards explain it well.

Bores and comparisons

Garrett designated turbos--------- intake Bore-------------- Exhaust Bore

GT 1749 V (GT15) ------------------1.326" -------------------1.441"

GT 1749 VA-------------------------1.390"--------------------1.467"

GT 1749 VB (THE"17) ---------------1.459" -------------------1.505"

GT 2052 V(The "20) -----------------1.550***---------------- 1.550***

GT 2252 V---------------------------1.550 ***----------------***

GT 2356 ----------------------------1. 587 --------------------1.605

GT 2552 V-------------------- to many sizes to list ------------1.550 to 1.700

*** These sizes vary in different series within that particular family group. Example, there are over 100 variations of the VNT 20 alone. The sizes shown here are of the most common sizes that are used in turbos manufactured for use in VW applications.

Now for the sizes everyone has been waitin for.............(drum roll)

Hybrid 17/52(17/22)-----------------1.550(52mm wheel)---------1.505

Street Toys S/T Super 18
(The 18 is MY designation)-------------------------------------- *note the size
1849 -------------------------------1.520 (49mm wheel)---- 1.620 of the 23!

S/T 1852 --------------------1.550 (52mm wheel) ----1.620
"Hammerhead"

S/T 1856 --------------------1.590 (56mm wheel) ----1.620
"Hammerhead SV"

S/T-2B ----------------------------1.590 (56mm wheel)------1.605

S/T-3B---------------------------- 1.590 (56mm wheel) ---- 1.700

S/T-3D --------------------------- 1.775 ( 60mm wheel)---- 1.700
Though the S/T 1856 uses a 56mm wheel, that particular wheel is not to be purchased anywhere, as I personally make each and every one "custom" !!!

Just as with the S/T 18 shaft and wheel. Rumors I have heard is that unknowledgeable people who only speculate say that these are only just "clipped" VNT 20 wheels! Ask yourselves,..Why are they larger than a 23? Clipping a turbine wheel has absolutely NO benefit at all!! This process actually hurts performance in every way. This shaft and wheel assembly is made personally by ME and is available only through Street Toys.

Notice that whenever something happens to your car, its always at the most unopportune time? Taking your wife or girlfriend out for dinner for an example. You are freshly showered, got your nice clothes on driving down the road and then........NO BOOST! or LIMP MODE!!
I cant recall how many times that I've read where someones inlet pipe came off while driving! Specially when they are running an OMI or something similar. For that reason I decided to come up with this.




This intake adapter is not needed at all for a stock intake pipe. It is designed to keep the intake pipe on when running a larger pipe as the OMI. Has anyone ever heard of the intake pipe coming off of one of my turbos with one of these installed? Of course not, it never happened one single time.

[Street Toys]

The oil cartridge, center section, is cleaned as with the same methods of the turbine housing and manifold, with a couple of exceptions. First, custom made protecting caps are fitted in all areas that might allow media not to enter in the cartridge itself. while most "rebuilders choose to blast the entire cartridge, I feel that protecting important machined surfaces as the thrust surface and bearing fitment bore is crucial to longevity of the unit. Therefore again I choose to clean the interior of the center cartridge chemically, and with final polish.





Note that the oil feed line bung is machined . Even recently people have complained about oil leaks from the feed line even after they replaced the copper washer and oil line fitting(oil re stricter). Again I have to add, never has this happened with a turbo from Street Toys.



Though this cartridge is cleaned to "like new" condition, it too will receive the same coating as the manifold did. By not allowing any rust to take place as long as possable not only the appearance will benefit, making trouble shooting easier should something leak, but will also make it more difficult for grease and dirt to accumulate and in the process insulating the unit and not allowing it to cool as it was so designed.


Here is another piece of equipment that is an absolute must have to rebuild any turbocharger. Before any reputable turbo parts company will consider selling you any rebuid parts for a turbo, they will ask you if you have one and verify that. They do not want to be obligated to replace costly parts to the builder if it was not even balanced to begin with. By not balancing the rotating assembly all you are doing is just making a bomb! Eventually it will blow!
Yes it is true that both the shafts and wheels are balanced from the manufacturer, however that is only a "Static" balance. When combining two rotating parts that spin at such a speed it is crucial to have them dynamically balanced together as one unit.

-------------------------------------balancing process----------------------------------


A balance Machine is a tool that provides information to allow operators to "rearrange" the mass around the rotational axis by adding or removing material. Failure to balance a shaft and wheel assembly can cause bearing failure, metal fatigue and even failure of related components such as seals etc...

when rotating, a body will attempt to rotate around its mass-center, rather than the center determined by it bearing journals. the force created by this attempted movement results in unwanted vibrations, known as "imbalance".

I mentioned before that the factory that manufactures these shafts and wheels do balance them within spec to a point however two types of imbalance are encountered in a rotating component. First, "force imbalance" and second "couple imbalance".
Force imbalance aka.."static imbalance is when the center-line of the rotating member does not coincide with the rotational axis of the rotor. Force imbalance will cause the part to rotate when supported from journals by level knife edges. Gravity acts on he part to pull the heavy point to the bottom. Newton found this one out the hard way!
couple imbalance, also known as "moment" or "dynamic" imbalance can only be detected when the parts are rotated. Both static and dynamic imbalance can be removed by a two plane correction. This machine allows me to select correction planes to be used to balance a part, eliminating both static and dynamic imbalance.



It functions similar to a balancing machine more of you are familiar with, a tire balancer. but a lot more sensitive. The "tire balancer" will detect imbalances of gram weight up to multiple oz's. This machine works on weight designations of 1/100th to 1/1000th of a gram!

This machine is though one of the most widely used in the industry. 30 years ago, I started out with a lot cheaper tools than my Snap-ons I use today. equipment is only as good as its operator. In my opinion, maximum tolerances are in the same category as building codes. They should not be accepted as "acceptable-standards". As another example, daily I remove brand new CHRA's from new turbos to upgrade. Many times they are as much as 3x's out of balance from maximum acceptable standards. Garretts maximum acceptable standard is 0.10. Many people say that I am borderline obsessive compulsive, I set my personal maximum imbalance to 0.030. Think about it for a minute. If you already have the cartridge in the machine, why not make it "all it can be"? I find that it only takes a few more minutes to insure a quality product.

As this process is quite adequate for waste gated turbos that operate between 40,000 to 100,000 RPM. We have come to find through time that the only way to successfully balance a VNT turbo that operates in the range of 150,000 to as much as 200,000 RPM, is to use a VSR Balancer. (Vibration Sensing Rotational balancer). This balancer functions while rotating the CHRA at operational speeds and balances the turbo in "operational conditions". The dynamic imbalances that occur at these levels are just not detectable in the process of using a "regular-turbo balancer". The cost factor on these machines are quite high, even for the professional turbo shop to be able to afford. As we do not own one ourselves presently, we do send out all of our turbos to one of the countries best qualified remanufacturing facility to have them certified by the VSR balancing process. This extra step does require about a week to be able to return the turbos to our customers, but we feel that it is a critical process that just can not be overlooked. We feel that since incorporating this technique over the last year, our turbos are again setting the industries standards.
Raising the bar,once again

[Street Toys]

____________________________adjustments_____________________________________

There are only two adjustments that can be made from the outside of the turbo. the actuator activation set and the stop set adjustment.

The "Actuator activation set is adjusted by lengthening or shortening of the shaft. This procedure should really only be done when all other options have been verified as functioning. The VNT turbo is vacuum activated through the N 75 valve, which is controlled by the ECU. The ECU continually controls the vacuum to the N 75 valve for specified boost levels under load and various driving conditions. It is equipped as well with a barometric setting to automatically adjust for different altitudes. By shortening the shaft adjustment, this will cause the boost to activate sooner, but many times will also cause the turbo to "spike" boost levels. Shortening the shaft too much is not safe for either the turbocharger or the motor itself. If requested boost comes in too early, it may cause the turbo to surge and drastically shorten the life of the turbo or, over boost and damage your engine. (blow head-gaskets, bend rods etc.....) Over lengthening the actuator rod will case turbo "lag" and severely effect the drivability of your vehicle.
Before any adjustments are made, it is best to inspect your vacuum pump, lines and function ability of the N 75 valve. A hand held vacuum pump is a good tool to use. Disconnect the line at the actuator and apply vacuum to your Vacuum system and see if it holds vacuum. If it leaks down, perhaps you have a leak, find it before going any further!

Checking the actuator. Disconnect the vacuum line from the actuator and install the line from your hand held vacuum pump(mighty vac). Slowly pump vacuum until the rod begins to move. It should begin to move at around 5 inHg (inchs of mercury) Continue to pump vacuum until the rod is resting against the "stop adjustment screw". It should reach full travel at around 18 to 21inHg. The rod should be moving freely. with a travel of 9 to 12mm Slowly release vacuum and watch the rod return back to its relaxed position. It should move both ways effortlessly.
if the movement is anything less than fluid or binding occurs, carefully remove the E-clip at the top of the shaft and slide the shaft off of the lever. Repeat the test once more. If the actuator then is still "sticking" it should be replaced. Take your finger and move the vane control lever back and forth. It too should move freely if not then your turbo needs to be serviced.

Stop set adjustment: There is NO reason to adjust this for any reason under any circumstances!! This adjustment is there solely for the use of assembly! The only correct method in adjusting the stop set is by utilizing a flow bench. By shortening the stop set, will result in turbo failure and possibly engine failure!! By lengthening this adjustment will result in little to no boost, severe sooting, high EGTs resulting in vane and turbine failure!!!!! Tampering with this adjustment WILL RESULT in voiding any and all warrentees in any of my turbos. Though we did warrant this turbo shown below, this will be the last one. If you notice the straight edge in the relaxed position it reads "0", fully opened the travel was only 4.5mm!!!!!




as stated earlier, the results are extreme sooting!!


and vane and turbine wheel failure, due to high EGT's


I'm sure that any of the better known turbo builders from across the pond, Hatemi,

Rub87 etc.... will have a comment or two about these photos! Friends don't let friends adjust their stop set adjustment!!!



Even something as simple as taping off the turbo for shipment is crucial to the life expectancy of the turbo. Even brand new turbos from the factory have gotten "shipping peanuts" inside during transit. Many times they are not noticed while they may have fallen behind corners in the manifold. When unsuspectingly installed they melt upon "start-up" and can cause havoc in the vane assembly. This is just another one of many "attention to details" that people do not even realize why we do this. No one wants failure for any reason.


As I said before, there are many reasons for turbo failure. In other threads people argue that the shaft failed here or it failed there etc... The fact of the matter is that the shaft breaks many times after the turbo failed in the first place!

One of MANY reasons that turbos fail is F.O.D., Foreign object damage. Objects ranging from nuts and bolts falling into the intake tract, dirty air filters sand and dust particles, oil droplets. This form of foreign object damage usually is the result of the original turbo failure. The "other" form of FOD is when replacing a turbo, some people will not address the original problem thus causing a brand new turbo to fail almost immediatly. Before installing a new or rebuilt unit the single most important procedure that you can do is CLEAN everything completely. Not just your intake system your INTERCOOLER too! Particles that blew away from your turbo will travel in both directions. While spooling down, the turbo can suck back FO's into itself and causing the replacement unit to fail in a matter of days.



Another reason of replacement turbo failure is during installation. Not as much as the act of tightening the nuts and bolts etc....rather than what people do after they install their turbo.
after you have installed the replacement unit and are satisfied that the time has come to start up the vehicle, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you throttle it up! Start your car and let it idle! Let it idle for at least 10 to 15 minutes. You can take advantage of this time to walk around your car and inspect it for any leaks. Personally, I prefer to let it idle until it reaches full operating temperature, some cars can take up to 1/2 hour. On the maiden test drive be gentle, watch the boost gauge and slowly let it develop 5 or 6 lbs of boost, slow down, do this again (with the stereo OFF) and increase boost a little more each time. In about 10 to 15 minutes, you can drive it normally, it is "broke in". I still prefer to drive about 100 miles "normally" before I drive it like I stole it!

Operator error: If you are someone that goes through turbos every 7000 miles! (You know who you are) Look at your driving habits! One very bad habit is,..When throttling up, Dont just mash the pedal down like you are driving some gasser. Roll into the throttle! You will find that less things break that way too!

This particular list can go on and on and on and............

This brings us to...........

-------------------------------------warrantees------------------------------------

Some of you know who I am. Many of you do not. Street Toys is a sole propriety! I do not have any business partners! Nor does anyone have any stock or ownership in my business in anyway I build custom motorcycles, hot rods, race cars, restore antique vehicles (some used in motion pictures) and I build turbos. I do contract machine work for the U.S government,(working on one for them right now).

The truth to the matter is a warranty is not a warranty if you can not find it it writing. Garrett themselves do not warrant replacement VNT turbos. If they do then show me. The only warranty that can be found is with thier ballbearing turbos. It says that if it fails, you can buy the replacement at 1/2 price. Talking with Garrett reps, they say, yeah, we'll take care of you, send it in and we'll look at it. What kind of warantee is that? My personal warantee is as follows:

Street Toys will warrant any stock turbo rebuilld with the stock factory tune for a period of 12 MONTHS or 12,000 MILES, whichever comes first.

Before I get "burned at the stake" I would like to clarify something. When you bought your TDI from the dealer, you knew full and well that to maintain the warranty you are not to tamper with the ECU in any way. Tampering will result in a void of your warrenty. Why do you think they do this? They spent millions of dollars in research to insure the drivability and reliability of that vehicle. They are the manufacturer, they have that right! They stand behind THEIR product. By altering it, it belongs to you!
the same applies to STREET TOYS. I am the person that stands behind MY product!

Many of you are familiar with Chrysler Corporation ( MOPAR). Throughout the 60's and 70's they had one of the best warranties in the United States. They also began to let their customers "custom" order any car they wanted. They allowed them to order most any car with any motor they chose! (Don't you wish VW did that?) However, if you chose the 426 Hemi, you had no warranty what so ever! Why is that? They knew that the only reason anyone would want the 426 HEMI is only to see how fast they could burn the rubber off of the rims! The same goes with engine rebuilding. Most rebuilders will give you a 12 month, 12,000 mile warranty on any stock rebuild. I say, if they can't do that then why would you want one? How many people will build you a full-blown racing engine with that same waranty? No one! Again the similarities to the engine and turbo apply. Though I will warrant any turbo that leaves my shop, some may not be as long as others due to application, tune, etc...I do not want to go into great detail with this at the present time,

[KROUT]

Very interesting thread. Thank you and guys lets keep this clean so every body can learn something.

[Street Toys]

Originally Posted by KROUT

Very interesting thread. Thank you and guys lets keep this clean so every body can learn something.

Thank you Krout, this is not as simple as it may appear! I feel that it might take me over a week to compile enought information for everyone to make any sence of it all. I am trying my best to cover every single aspect of a rebuild. So everyone can understand exactly what it is we do when we rebuild a turbo. Hybrids will be covered as well when I get done with turbo 101

Thank you all very much for your patience

Nick/Street Toys

[shortysclimbin]

Very nice Thread! It is about time we got this info up here to talk about!

A few Things I would like to know more about:

1)What do you mean by heat shield?
2) Do you have a blow up diagram to show everyone how complicated these turbos are? ( I only have one in pieces to show).
3)Can we have a section to go over improvements?

Also some more info on what you have seen for failures, a few pictures of “soot covered turbos” would fit nicely in here.

I agree that polishing the internals makes a huge difference on soot buildup. That and the stock sand castings are quite ruff; Do you put the snail housings through an extrusion honing process to optimize the flow characteristics of the turbo? I would say these two things could drastically help the turbo be more effective and efficient.

Secondly, if you could add a few more details into your posts that would be great. For example you said the shafts and impellers are welded together. They are actually friction welded together which in upon itself is a very interesting way of doing things.

Finally, do you happen to know if the compressor maps that are put out are theoretical or actual maps? If they are theoretical then the above changes would need to be made to get the turbo act like the maps.

[Street Toys]

Originally Posted by shortysclimbin

Very nice Thread! It is about time we got this info up here to talk about!

A few Things I would like to know more about:

1)What do you mean by heat shield?
2) Do you have a blow up diagram to show everyone how complicated these turbos are? ( I only have one in pieces to show).
3)Can we have a section to go over improvements?

Also some more info on what you have seen for failures, a few pictures of “soot covered turbos” would fit nicely in here.

I agree that polishing the internals makes a huge difference on soot buildup. That and the stock sand castings are quite ruff; Do you put the snail housings through an extrusion honing process to optimize the flow characteristics of the turbo? I would say these two things could drastically help the turbo be more effective and efficient.

Secondly, if you could add a few more details into your posts that would be great. For example you said the shafts and impellers are welded together. They are actually friction welded together which in upon itself is a very interesting way of doing things.

Finally, do you happen to know if the compressor maps that are put out are theoretical or actual maps? If they are theoretical then the above changes would need to be made to get the turbo act like the maps.

the heat shield is that washer looking piece in the middle of the ring. As I only learned how to post pictures only a few weeks ago, I had no need to photograph many things in the past! However with the volume of turbos that I get daily, im sure that by monday or tuesday I will have some very good examples of "soot covered turbos.

And yes, I do plan on covering improvments and the correct adjustments, actuator, stop set etc... as there is much "misinformation" as how they should be done. I am sure that many will benifit from this information.

It is funny that you bring up the maps thing. For almost a year now we have been designing a stand-alone turbo dyno. Our goals are to eventually dyno each and every turbo that leaves to a customer. The benifits will be that it is already broke in for one, and each and every turbo will be mapped in reality and they will get this with thier unit. As far as the maps that Garrett advertises, I could only speculate on thier accuricy, if it is any way as thier consistancy in thier machining of final product, I would have to say that it is in fact only theory.

[40X40]

Extremely cool thread. Thanks! Sticky??

Bill

[newbeetleman]

Cool thread and Very cool shop..

So how much do you charge for something like this?

[Street Toys]

Originally Posted by newbeetleman

Cool thread and Very cool shop..

So how much do you charge for something like this?

As mentioned in the first post, this is not a marketing thread, If you are however in the market for a turbo all the information is public knowledge at streettoys2000.com

[bencarr23]

keep it coming . one can never have too much knowledge