Bearing Pieces? From Where?

[MattyD]

My car started making awful noises the other day, I won't go into it. Anyways, I ended up droping the oil pan and found wonderful small pieces of metal floating around. Check out the pics. I'm thinking maybe turbo bearing. How much damage do you think this did?

~Matt

 

[MattyD]

Well it does seem to be the turbo bearing. After posting I checkd the shaft play on the turbo and it was alot. The compressor housing was also full of oil. So I guess that means its time for a new turbo. But the other question, how much damage if any do you think this would do to the rest of the engine?

~Matt

 

[turbolover2]

Well, if they dropped right down the drain tube into the pan, probably no damage to the rest of the motor. You can pull it apart and check or just change the turbo and hope for the best.

 

[GTM]

Well it does seem to be the turbo bearing. After posting I checkd the shaft play on the turbo and it was alot. The compressor housing was also full of oil. So I guess that means its time for a new turbo. But the other question, how much damage if any do you think this would do to the rest of the engine?
~Matt

Did you mean those pieces were actually floating on top of the oil?? I can't tell if they are plastic or metal from your pictures. The radius is quite small thus you probably correct they are from the turbo. Take a look at the turbines and see if they have been contacting the housing.

Inspect the oil pump pickup screen for trapped particles, clean if needed. If you are really feeling like knowing use a phillips screwdriver and drive a hole in the oil filter. With needle nose plires tear the cover off, don't use a saw for you will get metal particles everwhere. Cut the fan fold filter out and stretch it out so you can view the outside of the filter material for foreign particles. You can do this on newspapers and let it drain on the newspapers for 1/2 hour or so. You can run a magnet over anything you find to see if it's steel. Copper flakes will be from rod or main bearing backings, brass or bronze will be from bushings, lead color wil be from the bearing material.

Since you have it apart and depending on what you find or how long since an overhaul you could pull one rod bearing and inspect and measure crank. Don't touch the bearing metal with dirty hands unless you are planning on replacing them. If you see black or dark dots in the bearing metal then you have had particals in oil circulation and could cause wear. If all is well you may reuse the bearing or buy a set just to be on the safe side. This is a judgment call based on many things including what you can afford. Do not use any metal tools to remove the rod cap, wooden dowels work well if it's resists. Use Moly assembly lube when going back together.

You can buy overhaul kits for your turbo, they are fairly simple but you must become familiar with the process before attempting. Vfaq.com There are overhaul services available and you could buy used from wrecking yard.

Keep us posted.

Cheers,
GTM

 

[MattyD]

Well after looking over various other things in the engine everything looks fine thankfully. The turbo is shot, and since is was the stock t-25, I have decided to just replace it with something bigger. Right now I think that I am going to get the t04b(v-trim)from bullseye power. If anyone has any other suggestions on what turbo I should get I am more than happy to listen.

~Matt