Aradin

Feel like I should update on this. Turbo lasted about 20 months of hard abuse and daily driving before it started leaking pretty bad into the exhaust housing and smoking fairly heavily. Didn't have any shaft play and all the blades were in great shape. I disassembled it and the exhaust side of the CHRA was coated in carbon from coking. After completely cleaning that and reassembling with new seals/bearings it's still going strong on my buddies car seeing 15-16psi regularly.

They can take a decent amount. See my above post. I ran 24-25psi for quite awhile and never had any issues.

4tika4

Did you always let your turbo cool down after you drove your car? What feed line set up did you use? I use a go autoworks -3 feed line with the restrictor, and always let my turbo cool for 1 minute before shut down. I let it cool 2-3 minutes after spirited driving. And after a long drive in the hot summer I'll even let it cool for 5 minutes.

KevinEF7

I think the hard part is figuring out what size turbo your actually getting...

Aradin

Yes. I use a -3 line as well with a restrictor. I use an HKS turbo timer and let the car idle for 1-3 minutes depending. I always stay out of boost and let oil temps come down before I park it too. So maybe 5-10 minutes before I go home or after it's had a beating I drive it nicely if I'm going to park it somewhere. The coking just happens to some degree no matter what. In the 20 or so months I was using the turbo it saw about 20k miles of hard use so I would say that's pretty good for the $160 I paid for it. That's $.008/mile..

Yeah true. I think CXRacing and GSP are both a little bit better than the other resellers out there though. I've had experience with both and always had good experiences. They actually take the time to balance everything and do some quality control on stuff.

I would just stay away from the no name stuff. You have no idea what you're going to get with those. I've seen them stuff a 70 AR compressor housing onto a generic "57 trim" and call it a T70. Wheels and all were identical.

Best thing you can do if you're going to get one from CXRacing or whoever is just order it then measure it and check it all out. If you're not happy, send it back. That's about all you can do.

Full_Tilt

Turbo timers are bullshit.

There was a time when the oil was shitty enough that you would want to let the engine idle for a bit before shutting it off, but those days are over. Unless youre doing hard pulls, slamming on the brakes, and then shutting off the engine, youre not going to have coking problems. For the most part there is a period of easy driving following hard driving, this provides the time needed to cool the turbo down.

The reason Aradin saw coking was because the turbo was leaking into the exhaust housing. I doubt there was any coking in the bearings, and if there was it was probably a problem with the turbo (chinese materials and chinese tolerances), not with how it was treated.

LightningTeg

turbohatch96y7

iTrader: (15)

I remember shodan telling calidad he needed a rebuilt turbo because he didnt run a turbo timer..

Hmmm

boosted94gsr

I just spent 3 days reading every page of Cali dads thread lol. I seem to remember him talking about letting the turbo cool down too. Maybe shodan will chime in and clarify.

KevinEF7

I did a test last season on oil temperature exiting the center cartridge since I have a PLX multigauge, I placed a temp probe inline with the oil drain, and also had a temp probe in the oil pan itself. During a normal long cruising drive my oil temp in the pan was 160* while the oil coming down the drain line was 190* while driving (must pick up 30* heat from center cartridge)

Once parked, it took about a minute, maybe 90 seconds for the oil temp in the drain line to near match the oil in the pan. Assuming this is from the turbo slowly cooling. Keep in mind my turbo was oil cooled only, and I had a 6.5qt Moroso oil pan

Cooling down does make a decent difference, but Im not sure if 190* oil is anywhere close to being at the point of causing any harm if its shut down like that immediately

OneBadTurboCRV

The problem is if it isn't allowed to level off the temperature, it will continue to rise in the CHRA baking any oil left in there. The closer you can bring the temperature differential to pan levels the better. This will help combat coking.

LightningTeg

Isnt that the whole reason for water cooling? To cool the cartridge down after shutdown? Convection currents will move water through until it is normalized without the pump, where as oil cooled only has no fluid flow after shutdown.

With my GT28R i distinctly remember the system gurgling and making noise from the water flow after letting it sit a minute.

OneBadTurboCRV

Yes, but how many people actually purchase water cooled turbos or hook them up if they do have them? This is especially true if it's not required like on journal bearing turbos. The discussion was about oil cooled turbos only that I was aware, but maybe I misinterpreted?

LightningTeg

Well the people who are buying them and not using the water cooling like to spend lots of extra money I guess. So maybe they should .

I dont remember specifics on cartridge type, but Im sure there are ebay turbos with water cooled ball bearings out there.

turbohatch96y7

iTrader: (15)

Anyone know why calidad didnt have his bb turbo from " theshodan" hooked up to his coolant system the first time around?

Then after the rebuild he was told to hook the lines up.

OneBadTurboCRV

Was it ball bearing? I thought he more specialized in making journal bearing turbos behave closer to ball bearings? Idk, I know I paid extra to have my Silver Surfer upgraded to Ball Bearing and the CHRA is wider too IIRC. I got ripped off from the guy I bought it from too though... oh well. Funny part is now that upgrade is quite a bit cheaper...

A lot of the knock offs do have the water ports. I do not believe they have true ball bearing turbos though. I have had a few different ones and they were all journal bearings even a GT35R replica that was sold as BB (tore them apart after failure). For the cost, they are fun to screw with on "me no care" builds LOL!

4tika4

My turbo's 3rd birthday was a few days ago, it's growing up so fast... It was nice. We had cake... The Shodan didn't even send a card..

The turbo is still doing fantastic. There are no leaks coming from the turbine housing, or compressor housing. There was a slight leak coming from the return fitting gasket, but that's not the turbos fault.

As time goes on, my foot gets a little heavier. I have an itch for more power. The turbo gets pushed quite hard, but I always allow enough time for a proper cool down. I have been thinking about getting a new map sensor and spring for my wastegate.

petr0lb0mb

Thank you for making this thread and sticking to it in spite of all the smack you've received for it.
I was interested in the topic and hoping you'd keep updating it.

zerovandez

iTrader: (1)

This is a really cool thread. I remember reading through the 2 pages back then and thought it was cool then. Good to hear that this thing is still going. Makes me want to get another car and stick kne of these on it lol.

Im not sure if you posted this already but would you mind editing the first page with your complete setup? What exhaust mani, engine management etc you are using. That would make this thread so much better.

LD9Stunner

Anyone have any experience with the newer CX billet wheel turbos? My buddy just picked up a billet wheel gt3076r for $600. If these turbos are lasting as long as people are experiencing, that's a really good deal

diulay_pkjai

Sorry if you have already mentioned it. But did you run 8 psi throughout the turbo's life? Who many miles on this turbo now? I'm researching in building/buying a cheap turbo kit too, just want to see what corners I can cut. Thanks.

the_unknown

THIS is what is wrong with HT these days.

So glad this guys unicorn ebay turbo lasted 3 years while barely being stressed. What an achievement

TheShodan

iTrader: (14)

This "review" has run its course, and like other "strays" will be humanely euthanized.