Hi all, new here, ive got a GT17 fitted to my Renault dCi, getting smoke on startup and oil loss. Just wondering if these ebay kits are all there cracked up to be and if it would need re balancing after ive done the work. Was looking at the kit with bearings and seals, not new shaft and wheels.

Not inspected the turbo yet so dont know the condition of the wheels, sounds ok though just using oil and theres oil in the intake manifold.

Regards Andy

 

is it a ball bearing turbo? do you have a restrictor on the oil feed inlet?

 

Hi no its not a ball bearing turbo and to my knowledge there is no restriction as it is all stock/factory fitted equipment.

Cheers Andy

 

iv used the kits on ebay uk ,andy ,and they work ok , but the rebalancing thing is a bit of a moot point . i did one which i did not rebalance ,and it lasted a while but then touched the housing with the compressor wheel ,it wore a little off ,around 3 thou ,so i put another 17 in there ,that id also rebuilt ,but was a lot newer and its been fine .just mark the wheels so they go back into the same orientation ..

the thing to look out for is , is the oil in the inlet coming from your breathers or from the turbo ? you might be able to see in the pipe and work it out .

if its from the turbo ,when you look into the turbo inlet you may well see that the wheel has been rubbing ...this is not a good sign ..before you get a kit , id take the turbo apart ,and have a good look at the ring on the shaft just behind the turbine , if its in a groove thats way too wide for it ,then the shaft is worrn out and generally the whole thing is duff ,unless you can find a cheap source of a new turbine and shaft .

regards robert

 

Cheers for the reply. Im sure its the turbo leaking oil but not 100%, the volume of oil that im losing it must be. Ive just done the timing belt and water pump, the turbo and ducts are coming off tomorrow so will inspect everything then and will report back. I decided to give the kits ago it arrived yesterday but you sound as though youve had some success with them which is good. Ill try and strip the turbo down like you said and check the shaft, think they sell these on ebay too, hopefully balanced.

Will let you know how it goes and will try and post photos

Cheers Andy

 

andy , when you try to take the turbine housing off ,you may find its pretty immovable , youll then be tempted to batter it with a hammer , be carefull , if you knock it off centre enough , it will hit the turbine wheel and can then knock that off centre on its shaft ,then its toast . so if you have to use force , do it evenly ,and watch the wheel is not up against the sides .,just make sure it can still revolve.
regarding the balancing , the wheels are balanced ,but the whole assembly is then balanced once built up ,as a normal part of construction .so far ive got away with it ,and run 112 mph in the 1/4 with it thats with a 1310cc engine.

 

Well its taken me longer than expected, the weather has been crap so been slowed down by the rain. Today managed to take off the majority of the air ducts, got the inter-cooler off and dropped the exhaust, tomorrow the turbo will come off and be rebuilt hopefully.

The inter-cooler was full of oil as were the ducts, soon as i took the duct off oil was dripping out. Ive cleaned all the ducts, going to get the inter-cooler cleaned and pressure tested tomorrow. Will bear in mind what you said about taking the turbo apart.