Hey guys, just went to the junkyard today and found 5 turboed cars and was wondering if you could tell me how to know if the turbos are worth keeping. How can i tell if it's a good turbo or not? any info is appreciated.

 

Check for oil in teh compressor housing, check for shaft play (you should barely be able to feel any) and make sure the impeller isn't hitting the compressor housing. If it's hit the compressor housing (you'll see where it's worn, it's shot. If you see oil, it's most likely shot. And if it moves side to side more than a tiny bit... it's shot. There should be NO in and out play or... It's shot. All in all it takes about 45 seconds to check... But it's probably much harder if it's still under the hood, and a real pain in the *** if you take it off and then find out it's no good. The good news is if you rip the turbo off and its questionable, you can always buy a replacement cartride off ebay- I saw them last week for around $95. A killer price...

Oh yeah, check the exhaust housing for leaks- I almost forgot about that one. If it's cracked, look for one that isn't.

GOOD LUCK.

 

Sorry to bump such an OLD topic, but I was searching and have the same question. Any more advice anyone can give before I go lookin around? im in Sicily now so Im taking advantage of being around SOO MANY turbo deisel cars like the Audis and Saabs and VW's.

Thanks
Randy

 

Johnyquest gave some pretty good info. Those are some good guidlines to follow

 

https://www.homemadeturbo.com/forum/...;threadid=4329
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You wanna something weird?
OK so my buddie has this 97 eclipse GSX. Car ran mint and everything, built boost fine, no funny noises, blah blah blah.. So he wanted to upgrade the turbo to a 16G. Well when we pulled the T25 outa there the thing was sooo hit. I mean this thing had almost every fin chiped, side to side play was really bad, and there was honestly like an inch of in and out play.
But the thing is it always built boost fine, never made any weird noises and the car ran and pulled like it was new... a little weird huhh?
Just makes you think how a turbo could be sooo shot, But run flawlessly.

You guys ever hade an experience like that before?

 

Thanks a lot, was that in the sticky at the top of the page? I checked that and did a search but I didnt catch that one, sry

 

Sure was, I'll be sure to do a more thorough check next time.

And crx2fast, I was readin that link and shorty mentioned he/she had seen mangled fins create steady boost, very wierd.

And I want to clear somethin up right quick. I'm not looking to do a turbo project right now, I just want to get the turbo for cheap if I can so in the future when it comes time, Ill have it

 

i saw somthing like that with a guy with a turbo M3... had good power and all but after a while he was having issues with it, it came up to boost just fine but just wouldnt pull nearly as good as it did before, then it just wouldnt boost one day... he took the turbo off and examined it and found the compressor wheel about half ground down into the housing and the shaft seized and broke off... extreme failures. Ive seen em where somebody forgot to put a gasket in the compressor housing cover and it leaked bad enough to have the turbo overspin and eat the bearings up and wheels...

 

I think turbos can take a lot more abuse than most people think.
Back in the day of early OEM turbo, people didnt even change their oil and their ---- ran.

I'm not saying thats a good idea, just most people think that a little shaft play means the turbo is trash when it can easily go for another 20k miles.