like I said in the PM, if it isn't a BB turbo that is about normal shaft play as if it were any tighter the oil would have nowhere to go.
There really isn't any in/out play that I can detect at all.
Heck this is the first time I have ever taken a housing off of a turbo, so this is all pretty much Greek to me. If I had to order a replacement turbo to match what I already have, I wouldn't have a clue about what to even ask for.
BTW, I did watch some videos of some ball bearing turbos, and they seemed quite impressive with the relative ease that the shaft will turn and obvious reduction in friction. Wish they weren't so darn expensive compared to the journal bearing type. That and it seems that most that I looked at need a water cooling line run to them as well as the oil lines. I can't see running coolant lines all the way back to the those turbos. Got enough stuff running all over the place under that car as it is.
BTW, I did watch some videos of some ball bearing turbos, and they seemed quite impressive with the relative ease that the shaft will turn and obvious reduction in friction..
yes, they have some STUPID quick spool up times, diesel guys love them cause they can put a larger turbo on and have it spool up as quick or quicker than stock.....
__________________
Life is hard. It's much harder when you're stupid.
Got the Helicoil treat repair kit in yesterday, and picked up stainless bolts to replace the steel ones in the turbo compressor housing. Anyway, I just had this nagging itch about this in my mind, thinking WHY did those bolt holes get stripped out? I asked the guy at Turbos Direct what the torque specs are on those bolts, and he said they merely have to be snugged down with a lock washer to keep them from vibrating loose. Well, those bolts were a LOT more than snugged down, so why was that the case.
So I looked CLOSELY at that housing. With my reading glasses, of course, as the old eyeballs just aren't what they used to be without assistance.
And yeah, I found a casting flaw in that housing. A bit of a bump right where once of the stripped threaded holes is located. This bump would not allow the housing to fit flush onto the turbo mount. And besides this bump, there is a ridge that I can easily feel with my finger nail a few inches around this bump. Without a doubt that would keep that housing from mating up flush. Probably leaking not only oil, but air pressure as well.
So I sent these pics off to Turbos Direct to see what they recommend. I'm willing to tackle it with a Dremel and use a sealant between the surfaces, but I want to check with them first about this. I am also going to use a thread sealant on the mounting bolts because those bolts go clear into the air chamber of the compressor housing, and without sealant they will likely leak air pressure around them.
Am I trying to be too much of a perfectionist about this crap?
Well, the answer I got back Turbos Direct was to preferably put the housing on a lathe to cut out that ridge. But he (Mike) said I could use a Dremel and seal it with a light coat of silicon sealant. Since I don't have a lathe big enough to handle that housing (just a little tiny table lathe) and can't think of anyone else that has one I could take this to, that pretty much limited my options.
I figured, what the hell, and went over to the work room and set up the Dremel with a flat disc cutting wheel. Pretended like I was doing brain surgery, and was able to grind out that ridge and lump to where it is perfectly smooth to the fingernail test. I only took out as little metal as possible using little tiny baby steps. So I think this will be fine now.
So I grabbed up the HeliCoil kit and started with that. Luckily I had a 21/64ths drill bit, which is needed for this particular kit. Used the drill press to get some good perpendicular holes drilled, then put the housing into the vise and used the special tap they provided to tap the threads in the two holes. Afterwards I cleaned out all of the cutting oil I used for the drilling and tapping, and now I'm going to let it dry thoroughly in case I decide to use some Permatex thread locker on that coil that gets inserted into that threaded hole. I'm thinking something may be needed to keep that coil from backing out along with the bolt when it is removed. But in all the reviews I have read about HeliCoil, I don't remember reading of anyone using a thread locking fluid with them. So I need to investigate this a bit tonight.
I also noticed that three of the six mounting bolts actually protrude directly into the air chamber in that compressor housing, so I'm going to put a thread sealant on the bolt threads to prevent any air leakage around the bolts.
With any luck I'll have the turbo back together and the plumbing hooked back up tomorrow.
Yesterday I finished up putting the Helicoil thread inserts into those two stripped bolt holes. It was actually pretty easy to do.
I didn't put any thread locking fluid on neither the Helicoils nor the bolts when I put the compressor housing back onto the turbo, but I did use a thread sealant on the bolts as well as some red RTV silicon sealant on the sealing faces of the turbo and compressor housing flanges. Everything went together pretty easily, but I did notice some issues with some mounting brackets on the STS pipes that I will need to deal with. Someone bent them away from the mounting bolts on the frame and now there is some metal to metal contact that will make a rattling noise when I drive the car. And sure enough, when I took the car out today for a test drive, I can plainly hear that passenger side piping rattling when at a stop light.
I'll take some pics later on of those mounting brackets for reference.
But in any event, after the test drive, I didn't see any oil leaking from the turbo. And I did run the car up to where it went into boost, so it appears to be holding air pressure as well. But there are still some minor things I need to fix, apparently. There is a slight misalignment with the output pipe to the STS plumbing, that I might need a slightly longer coupler hose for. And the brackets I mentioned earlier to stop the pipes from banging against each other.
But all in all, the car ran pretty good on the test drive. I think I've got the 500 break-in miles on the clutch now.
Here's some pics of the passenger side turbo after having the compressor housing put back in place.
And the following are pics of the STS plumbing mounting brackets that got all bent up by one of the two fellas who messed with this turbo stuff while my car was in their respective shop.
Lord only knows what they did to this coupler clamp.
And looks like no one was paying attention to the coupler that was laying against the aluminum panel nearby, and got a nice little slice mark across it.
Fortunately this coupler is on the unpressurized side of the compressor housing, but I'll still have to fix it.
And then we have a number of missing nuts on some bolts, not counting the ones needed for those bent up brackets that weren't attached where they are supposed to be located.
I don't think I am EVER going to stop finding missing nuts, bolts, and parts on this car after what those guys put this car through.
I'm still getting an odd noise from the drivetrain when I move from a dead stop both forward and in reverse. But only really seems to happen when I first pull out from the garage and onto my driveway. Once the car has been running, I don't seem to get the noise any longer. Maybe the clutch is groaning when it is cold?
Beats me. I guess I'll just have to see if anything breaks, or the noise gets worse over time....
Here's a video I took while checking out to make sure the car would go into boost....
I wanted to make sure there weren't any gross air leaks from that turbo I just worked on.
I was surprised at how quickly the engine went into boost without really putting my foot into the accelerator. I only just glanced at the boost gauge so I don't know how much boost it actually produced, but I know it got to the 5 psi line REAL quickly. So I put my eyes back on the road. Now that the clutch should be broken in, I guess I can take a closer look at that.
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