trashed 16g, rebuild options?

[Jeff_Ciesielski]

Alright, so i kind of 'fell' into a free 16g, yes, you heard me right, a free 16g. My good friend had a fwd that he claimed ran a 13.8 with just an exhaust and boost controller. He ended up blowing it up, and asked if i wanted any parts off of it for my awd. Upon inspection, I realized that the turbo was a small 16g ( he claims he bought the car this way, and had no knowledge of the turbo) BUT, one of the blades on the compressor is horribly bent. I called slowboy and they said a new wheel would run me about 100 bucks, and rebalancing would cost around 300 ( including cost of the wheel). My question is whether it would be smarter ( and cheaper ) to send it slowboy, or to just search for a local turbo shop to re-balance the assembly. Or, optionally, could I just pick up a used center section?
Thanks for any help.

Jeff

 

[baocoyyie]

Send it to TurboChargers.com in Texas. Free inspection, if you don't want to fix it, you pay for return shipping. I have never dealt with Slowboy except for purchasing some parts that took 3 weeks to get delivered(will never order from or trust my turbos with them again, I think they know there stuff but customer service experience wasn't worth my TIME and MONEY). MOST local shops that can rebuild turbos (diesel truck shops) don't really know anything about turbos(as far as part numbers/application/etc....for passenger cars)trust me, I asked questions and they were really clueless for our applications, even stock turbos, my experience is they will sell you a rebuild kit(a couple of drilled brass bearings and seals) for $100 that will be a waste(it MIGHT be all that you need IF only your bearings were worn out and you cartridge isn't, otherwise you will need oversized bearings and the cartridge machined to accept the oversized bearings). I sent my 20G to texas (from FL) and they will inspect it for free. Mine was too damaged and a new center cartridge was $525. My compressor wheel was originally clipped 15 degrees and they performed that modification for free, after consulting with me over the phone. Overall, turbo is still great, they know what they are talking about(I asked lots of questions over the phone), and I trust their integrity(they even sent the parts of my old cartridge back where I had marked certain parts on purpose). I spent ALOT of time at different local turbo shops asking too many questions and ended up with a $100 rebuild kit that was useless(in my case) cause my center cartridge was too worn out. I just checked online and its $275 plus freight IF your turbo is rebuildable, not sure how much blade is from them, but might be cheaper if the blade is all you need though I doubt it. If you don't want them to fix/replace it, inspection is free and you just pay for them to ship it back, whats that, $15? Hope this helps. Let us know what you decide and what happens afterwards.