turbo impeller deformation

[bifster]

took my turbo off today cause its been seized since I bought the car and I figured with the 764s it wasnt a good idea to keep running it way up in the boost like it was.

my question is has anyone ever seen this before....

the blades look extremely worn and damaged to me but maybe someone has seen this before.

 

[AndyBees]

The bushing is most likely bad allowing the Impeller and Tubine to wobble.......thus scraping the housing ..............that's the best possibility.

The worst possibility is that something went thru the Impeller and hopefully the Intercooler caught it. Thus no damage to a piston(s) or valves.

 

[Powder Hound]

I think Andy is correct. It does not appear that much material was lost. You will need a new turbocharger. And in addition, you will want to clean out the rest of the intake from turbo to intercooler and from there to the intake manifold, the manifold, and the intake runners and valve pockets, and any deposits on the valves in those pockets.

It would be very difficult to get it clean enough, so if there is any question, keep going.

The intercooler will probably be the most difficult to clean due to small air passages.

 

[TurbineWhine]

took my turbo off today cause its been seized since I bought the car and I figured with the 764s it wasnt a good idea to keep running it way up in the boost like it was.

my question is has anyone ever seen this before....

the blades look extremely worn and damaged to me but maybe someone has seen this before.

The turbo is junk. The bearing is gone. Replace the turbo now and save yoursef a lot of agony. So far the turbo has not totally puked. That is a good thing. It is not long for this world. Change it now before you are into a head job. I suggest the Garrett 17-22 from IDParts.com. Killer turbo that can build 32 PSI all day long with 36 PSI spikes easily. I have 2 of them with over 50K collectively.

TW

 

[jtnf]

The turbo is junk. The bearing is gone. Replace the turbo now and save yoursef a lot of agony. So far the turbo has not totally puked. That is a good thing. It is not long for this world. Change it now before you are into a head job. I suggest the Garrett 17-22 from IDParts.com. Killer turbo that can build 32 PSI all day long with 36 PSI spikes easily. I have 2 of them with over 50K collectively.

TW

Or a VNT-15 also from idparts.com, for 2/3 the price...
I'm not being a smarta$$ - I'm searching now and I'll be starting a thread soon over in Performance Mods.
I may face the 17/22 hybrid versus VNT-15 (stock) decision soon, and am kind of on the fence about performance versus reliability.

 

[bifster]

I did replace the turbo i had a spare vnt 15 sitting in the parts bin. was just curious what thoughts where on it. ive never seen such uniform wear on impellers when it was debris. and the way the steps are in the blades.. if you look close its worn at 2 different levels and NO wear on the housing.. just strange mostly to me.

 

[Tom W.]

I'm running a 17/22 and I like it, but there is something to be said for the extra low end boost from a VNT15, especially if your engine rarely sees anything over 3500RPM.

 

[Sbeghan]

You could replace with a VNT17 for about the same cost as a VNT15.

 

[flee]

I did replace the turbo i had a spare vnt 15 sitting in the parts bin. was just curious what thoughts where on it. ive never seen such uniform wear on impellers when it was debris. and the way the steps are in the blades.. if you look close its worn at 2 different levels and NO wear on the housing.. just strange mostly to me.

You said the turbo was seized but is the shaft snapped? That could allow it to wobble enough to cause that wear pattern.

 

[jimbote]

looks almost like a combo of FOD and dirt ... does the shaft wobble? is it snapped ? i have a turbo on the shelf with perfectly good bearings but wear on the compressor from dirt... i would say your bearings are prob ok as i dont see any evidence of contact with the housing but the impeller has seen alot of dirt !!

1749va turbo perfect bearings just worn compressor from dirt... what kind of filter are you running? .... id check all your piping from filter to turbo, make sure it's in good shape

 

[AndyBees]

I've seen uniform "shaving" (for the lack of a better word) of the tips of the Turbine blades when a piece(s) of broken Glow Plug when thru the Turbo (I did the head removal, etc., to the engine). In fact, Jimbote sold me a Turbo Cartridge for the unit. That's been about three years ago......last I heard, the little NB is still on the road!

 

[Shawnz]

Looks kind of like mine did:

I finally took it apart once it started sounding like a supercharger and was pretty much all or nothing with the boost.

I have a 17/22 now (from Boraparts) and am very happy with it. The price was about the same from most suppliers but BoraParts includes a basic install kit in the price and for $100 more you can upgrade the install kit to include the braided stainless feed line too. I'm glad I did. My new 17/22 turbo also came pre-tapped for an EGT probe.

 

[Ski in NC]

My vote is Bifster's was afflicted by FOD, Shawnz by bearing runout and Jimbotes by simple dirt...