i'm about to crank my motor and let the oil flow through the turbo before running it. i've herd that sticking your fingers in the fans and holding it firmly while cranking but hearing this i dont trust the power of air pushing sharp fins. question is..is it safe to do this? anyone ever herd this? also i see a nut on the fans that looks to be welded onto the fans and looks like i can stick a socket in and hold the fan down this way, should i do this? or no? thank you.

 

You can hold the nut on the compressor side of the turbo with no real danger to yourself. At idle or if you are cranking without combustion just to get oil pressure up there will not be any real load on the engine and therefore not much force (air flow) trying to turn the turbo shaft.

I assume the point of holding the shaft still by hand is to get the oil to penetrate the journals and such before the turbo really starts spinning. I would'nt see any problem with doing this. I'm sure someone will correct me very shortly if I am incorrect.

 

Don't worry about it, just start the car up and let it idle.. if its a journal bearing turbo it won't spin at idle anyways, and if it does for a split second when you start it up, what is the difference between that and spinning it by hand?

you start your car everyday without priming oil, what is the difference?

 

thats true. the oil will reach the turbo almost instantly. i would bet that it would reach the turbo before the engine fires.

i would just crank in over and call it done.

or hold it like said above if you need the piece of mind.

 

oh i seee thanks.

 

i took the sparkplugs out and cranked the car till there was oil coming out of the line, just to make sure.

 

Ideally you want to prime both the oil galleys and the chra itself. Crank the motor untill you fill the oil line and then just pour some oil in through the chra. The turbo needs to spin for upwards of 5 seconds to cause any damage. At least Holset says 8.

 

is it bad to turn the turbo by hand when its not installed yet?

 

spinning it by hand will not greate enough rpms in order to create enough friction and heat to damage it.


what i do, like said earlier by someone else; is prime the lines by cranking with the plug wires out, then idle the car for a few mins.