EJ1 wilcox

**Update a little ways down the page, I rebuilt it and it's working great! No more leaks!**

My turbo recently started leaking oil really badly: https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1297351

So, I think I am going to rebuild it myself. The turbo has no shaft play at all and is only leaking on the compressor side, the turbine is dry as a bone and the shaft spins freely.

The turbo is in really good shape other than the fact that it blows oil through my charge pipes! LoL...

Anyways, I don't want to spend $300 to have it rebuilt when it's not really in that bad of shape. I have been doing some reading and it looks like a rebuild isn't that hard. I have confidence that if I do enough research and ask enough questions ahead of time I can do this myself.

Here are my questions!

1. Where should I buy a rebuild kit from? --> I've seen them on a few different web sites but I don't know if there is a difference in quality or not.

2. What should the kit include? --> I just want to make sure that I buy a kit that is complete and not missing any parts.

3. Which kit should I buy? --> My turbo is a 60 trim T3 .48/.60, most of the kits I have seen say, "T3/T4 Kit". I'm wondering if T3 and T4 turbos have the same cartridges.

4. Any tips or hints for me? Personal experiences? --> I am going to mark the shaft and everything so I retain the balance and stuff like that but I just want to hear any other tips that might be helpful.

Thanks! I hope I can tackle this job and get my turbo back on the road soon!


Modified by EJ1 wilcox at 4:15 PM 7/27/2005

BigMoneyP

They have complete cartridges are turbocity, I believe they are charging 295 for the same t3 turbo you have. Additional 65 for labor, so you're looking at 350 completely rebuilt with the cartridge. If you want just the seals replaced, it'll cost around 85 + 65 for labor. Thats what I remember being quoted. Good luck.

Marshall

I have bought a few from turbo city and a few from turbonetics, same quality parts in both, but customer service is 100x better through turbo city.
Although, if you're just leaking oil on the comp. side you could get away with just swapping in a new thrust bearing seal and putting it back together, pretty much any rebuild place should be able to sell you one for about $5

EJ1 wilcox

How can I tell if my turbos compressor seal is a carbon seal or a dynamic seal?

I emailed turbocity.com and asked them which kit I need for my car, they said I need to know if the turbo has a carbon or dynamic compressor seal.

Any ideas?

I searched and there was ZERO information on carbon and dynamic seals.

Cloner

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1261050 This thread for the torque specs.Dynamic turbos spool slighty faster than carbon seal turbo turbos due to less friction.You can also get a rebuild kit on ebay for $89

EJ1 wilcox

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Cloner &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1261050 This thread for the torque specs.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thanks for those specs! This is the first time I have seen them. I'm usually pretty **** about torque specs so it will be good to know I built the turbo correctly.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Cloner &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Dynamic turbos spool slighty faster than carbon seal turbo turbos due to less friction.You can also get a rebuild kit on ebay for $89</TD></TR></TABLE>

So, does my turbo have a dynamic seal or a carbon seal?

How can I figure out which kind of seal my turbo has?

y7turbo

i saw something on the turbonetics web site, they have some new oil seal that will stop oil leaking on cars with high oil pressure.. that maybe something to look into.

good luck and tell us how it goes with your rebuild.

Cloner

You have to take your turbo apart to find out which one you have.If it has a carbon seal inside behind the backplate then you know its a carbon seal turbo.I wouldnt worry too much a rebuild kit can fix this but you do have to pay to have it rebalanced.

EJ1 wilcox

I am going to see if I can take it apart tonight and take some pictures so I can order the rebuild kit soon.

I need to get this back together! NA sucks soooo bad I don't even want to drive. It's like I keep waiting for the power but it never comes.

Plus NA is so loud. I have my stock intake and header on the car and it is still too loud for me.

Cloner

Yeah take it apart and post some pics and I'll tell you if its dynamic or carbon seal.

EJ1 wilcox

Okay, tonight I ripped into that bad boy and took it apart...

I found what I believe to be a carbon seal of some sort.

Here's what I found:

The compressor wheel looks like it's in great shape, no marks, bends, or nicks at all.



The back plate with the seal still installed. I didn't know there was a spring behind it so when it came loose the seal shot up into my face and just about blinded me! LoL...



And the seal...



Here are all the pieces...









This is as far as I got, my snap ring pliers weren't small enough to get the tiny snap rings that hold the journal bearings in... I will dremel the tips of my snap ring pliers at a later time and get them out...



So, which kind of seal is it? I am guessing carbon but I may be wrong! I am happy that I am one step closer to rebuilding this bad boy. I am going to order a rebuild kit soon and start cleaning these parts up so they are nice and ready to be reinstalled!

AspectIndustries

Subscribed. Im on the same boat.

Cloner

Yeah you have the carbon seal kit.Get it off ebay for $89 comes complete with new everythingbolts,seals,bearings,gakets.Buy it from vecco or Jstangracing they sell the same thing.I too had to file down my snap ring pliers lol.

Cloner

Oh yeah after you rebuild it take it to a shop and have it rebalanced.Turbonetics wanted $160 to balance mine.I found a turbo shop does the same thing for $35 VSR balanced. Car craft in southern Cali.

Nidius

Just don't forget to clean that badboy really good before re-assembly.

EJ1 wilcox

Okay, I ordered the correct rebuild kit from turbocity.com and cleaned all the parts up really nice...

There really wasn't that much build up on the turbine or CHRA at all, everything looked pretty good and there were zero signs of coking.

I just have one question about the carbon seal that I am not sure about...

I am not sure about the order of the 4 pieces of the compressor seal and how they all fit together. Here's what the seal looked like when it was still in the back plate:



When I was taking it apart I took the first part of the seal off and here you can see what it looked like with the first part off:



Now, there is another flat washer type part and a spring under it. When I originally took the seal apart I didn't know the spring was there so it surprised me when it jumped out and I think one of the o-rings went flying.

So, when all was said and done these were the parts of the seal that I found:



But, you can see in this picture of the seal that there is an additional part to the seal that I must have lost when the spring jumped on me, it's labeled "E" in this picture:



So, here's my question!

**What order do the seal pieces go in?**

Starting from the backplate out here's the order I think they go in: E,B,C,A, and then D...

I know the order of A, B, and C, but I'm not sure where E fits into them.

I assume E was under C because I didn't see it when I orignally took A off.

So, does anyone know where E goes?

Cloner

That O-Ring is the turbine shaft seal.The turbine shaft has two seals an O-ring and a metal piston ring type seal.

wantboost

iTrader: (2)

yes, please get it balanced afterwards.

the carbon seal assembly goes
C,B,A

the metal part goes in the thrust bearing and holds the compressor shaft.

D-tuned

Subscribed

EJ1 wilcox

Yesterday I searched for diagrams for a few hours and finally found one that I think shows the 4-piece carbon seal the best...

Here I labeled each part of the seal:



It makes sense how it all fits together now that I see the diagram. Turns out that my turbo was missing part "E" when I took it apart... It should have been right under part "A" in a groove, but it was missing...

I know the turbo was rebuilt when I bought it, so I'm thinking that whoever rebuilt it left out the o-ring (E), which may be the reason why it was leaking oil into the charge pipes.

Anyways, I now know exactly how it all fits back together! My rebuild kit should be here tomorrow.

Oh, about rebalancing the turbo, I don't think I'm going to do it. There is one shop that rebuilds turbos in Oregon and they quoted me $275 just to balance it! LoL. I marked the compressor wheel and the turbine shaft so I can put them back together exactly how they were before so I can maintain the original balance.

I'm not too worried about it, all of the write ups I read say that if you put the compressor wheel back on exactly how it was oriented with the turbine shaft then you can maintain the original balance.

fastcivicboy

I personally would get it rebalanced to. If not in no time your turbo could be trash. I promise if you look hard enough you should be able to find someone that will balance it for under $50 if its all tooken apart and ready to be balanced which in your case looks like your already there. Just my .02. -Nick

DaveF

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fastcivicboy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I personally would get it rebalanced to. If not in no time your turbo could be trash. I promise if you look hard enough you should be able to find someone that will balance it for under $50 if its all tooken apart and ready to be balanced which in your case looks like your already there. Just my .02. -Nick</TD></TR></TABLE>

i think they need to balance it after is all put back together... that is why the nut is grinded down on the compressor and turbine side.

Cloner

Call this place you can ship them the turbo they balance them for $35
http://www.carcraftinc.com/turbo.htm

KeyserSoze

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Cloner &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">........... Car craft in southern Cali.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Heyyyyy, I go to that place all the time to!! I get my wastegate springs oil return flanges there as well. Another good place in the IE area is Perfomance Techniques in San Bernardino has just about any turbo part you could think of, they are very helpful as well. Here's the # (909) 824-1020. If you go to http://www.turbonetics.com it will foward you to thier site.

LoSt is BlaCk

the only way to do it is to do it yourself