This does not look good :( What are your thoughts

Hey people

As most of you know im doing my engine makeover and as i was working on it over the weekend and noticed this which has got me worried weather its safe to drive or not.

My worry is that the turbo fins will break up and cause damage to the engine

Is this common ? will it be fine to put back together or do i really need to sort this out

Here is a pic of the second turbo which looks better thank god

If it is unsafe to drive i can not afford to go single at this stage

If it needs to be sorted my options are

Buy a second hand turbo

Get my turbo refurbished

Or maybe Hybrids but am unsure of the costs, Ideally i would like to keep it as a twin turbo. I know allot of people go single as you can get more power but im more than happy with just over 400 and still like the idea of having two turbos lol...................at the mo lol

Anyways your advise would be great...

Cheers

Shame you missed the cheap set of turbos going in the classifieds earlier. I wouldn't risk driving it far like that.

Shame, that's what I'm thinking mate .. Not to drive it.

It looks like I won't be driven it this year depending on what I decide to do

Oh man that looks bad.

Was the car running/making good boost? Just thinking there could be alot of us running around like this. I don't know about anyone else but i've never looked in at my turbos.

I wouldn't drive it like that, its only going to get worse with that amount of play in the bearings, i doubt that the blades will brake, although it always a possibility of metal particle's getting through.

if you grab the centre spindle and rotate the turbo does it scuff the housing?

Were the turbo's working fine before?

The car has been driven great, making boost well etc etc. If I did not see this I would of never known something was wrong, I have checked if the turbo blades in the housing and it's fine, no rubbing

The car has been driven great, making boost well etc etc. If I did not see this I would of never known something was wrong, I have checked if the turbo blades in the housing and it's fine, no rubbing

Actually now you have said that, and looking closer at the pic, it looks like something has go into the turbine, if you look at the casing it looks very scuffed.

To be honest if the car was running well and there's no problem with excess play on the turbo, it will be fine.

I bet almost 50% of old supras are in the same condition as this, nearly every set of turbos i have looked at have damage just like yours!

It's once apon a time had something sucked into the turbo, this is a good reason why u should always check the condition of your intake pipes and intercooler pipes for leaks!

Another factor which can damage the fins like this and people dont tend to think about is pretty large amounts of engine oil being dragged through the turbos.

I've seen it before where all the fins are warped and bent from that.

It does look like it's had oil in the intake housing?

Does your car smoke at all or use much oil?

Did u have any oil in any other parts when u were stripping it all out?

The oil seals may be on there way out on the turbos?

If everything was clean i would just put everything back together and carry on using it as u were fella ;-)

mine where dead and i changed them for stage 3 hybrids with a aem fic and 650 injectors for little gain in power from my old dead ones.

The trouble with bent, damaged or broken turbines is that it unbalances things and rapidly wears the bearings,

think about it, the turbines spin up to more than 100K RPM.

bad news- oh man that dont look good.

good news- your manifold if done

Sorry to see this

The decision at the end of the day is yours bud but I wouldn't want to risk using mine if it looked like that (just an opinion).

On the upside, I'm thinking of keeping mine off the road for another year to get more done to it, and you save the insurance & tax if you have a secure garage etc.

Cheapest option would be a secondhand replacement (UK spec I'm guessing as the blades look metal not ceramic?).

Post a Wanted thread mate.

Hope you work something out and good luck mate!

Cheapest option would be a secondhand replacement (UK spec I'm guessing as the blades look metal not ceramic?)

Its the turbine thats ceramic not the compressor How long has it been like that, a day, a year? Its driven OK so far so why not carry on driving it? Looks like impact damage.

i agree with everyone's comments lol

I personally think it has been like it for a while, It was driven fine with no problems what so ever. I think what im going to do is inspect the blades to see i can see any hair line cracks, if not i will put it back together so i get to drive it this year and this will be the next job to do.

I have checked all the turbo pipes and intercooler already and all seemed fine, does not seem to be any play with the blades and the don't rub on the housing

Its a bit hard to say how long its been like that as this is the first time i have taken the turbo pipes off

Thanks Rob, might collect the manifold on Sat if your about

I can't see the pictures due to being in work, but I agree that many many cars are like this. It is very rare to come across a TT Supra that doesn't have a bit of damage to the compressor vanes.

Of course I can't comment on the extent of yours.

One thing I would definitely recommend would be to drop the boost to no more than 1.0bar. If you have it up at 1.2bar the turbos will be working well outside their efficiency range trying to compensate for the broken impeller(s) vane(s). The speed at which a set of healthy turbos put out 1.2bar will be a fair bit less than a set of rough ones.

I can't see the pictures due to being in work, but I agree that many many cars are like this. It is very rare to come across a TT Supra that doesn't have a bit of damage to the compressor vanes.

 

Of course I can't comment on the extent of yours.

 

One thing I would definitely recommend would be to drop the boost to no more than 1.0bar. If you have it up at 1.2bar the turbos will be working well outside their efficiency range trying to compensate for the broken impeller(s) vane(s). The speed at which a set of healthy turbos put out 1.2bar will be a fair bit less than a set of rough ones.

Again very good idea Scott, i will do that

It's unlikely to explode, but as has been said, bearing loading through possible imbalance will increase, and thus wear. I'd start saving for a pair of new turbos, and drive it discretely meanwhile. I think I have a good compressor wheel if you wanted it repaired on the cheap by a reconditioner, assuming the bearings are still OK.