is this a legit evo iii 16g turbo?
 

eBay Motors: 95-99 Eclipse Turbo GS GST GSX Evo III 16g DSM 4g63 (item 260378109452 end time Apr-14-09 17:13:49 PDT)

or is it some china ----?

that is definitely some china ---- but here on HMT, ching chong ---- has been used and abused by many and have held up...but then again some havent

thats CDM for sure. they have gotten a lot better in the last couple of years though. i havent had a single turbo failure in the 2 years that i have been selling them. i have a full CDM kit on a local guys car with 15k on it and not a single issue and i also have a CDM turbo on my own car with around 3-4k with no issues

I think it's safe to assume you're a little bit bias seeing as you're the CDM supplier for HMT lol. I too have seen CDM stuff do fine, but have also seen it fail miserably; especially when pushed hard. Bottom line is that yes, the "name brand" stuff is marked up significantly, but a turbo that goes for $150-$200 new is made with sub-standard materials. If it was just as good it would sell for near the same price. They're clones made to be cheaper than the real thing, so it's ridiculous to think they're as good.

They've got a group buy on the genuine e316g's right now and you can get one brand new for ~$420 which is a steal for such a great little compact turbocharger.

i have a cdm "big" 16g, im just having a wastegate issue, but im not totally sure if it s the manu. problem, or my own shitty mounting of it, it sticks open too long

i also have a ching chong 16g. the only problem ive come across is that the compressor moves freely from the center section and i have also found oil in my charge pipes.
its only been used about 6 months too. ive been thinking about getting something else lately.

depends on your luck... not all stuff thats made cdm is garbage lol

Most of those CDM EIII 16g's end up being junk, I see quite a bit of evidence to support that idea too with the DSM guys that tried them out and found out the hard way. For a while Buschur Racing even tried to sell the "GT" labeled CDM 16g's as their own brand, but when the turbos started failing and they looked into the manufacturer Dave Buschur had a big stink on his hands. The guy's a douche anyway, I can't stand him...

But back OT, I'd stay away from the CDM versions. Search around ebay or some DSM sites, you can usually scope out a cheap decent shape real deal MHI for a good price.

bunk