20g EBAY TURBO GLOWING RED

[shay4g63]

Okay, first off I told my buddy ebay=scary shit. but he was in need of a turbo to just get to work and back being in rough times.

So he bought a 20g ebay turbo for 250$ and slammed it in.

he has 550cc injectors, 20g, fmic, and a safc and boost gauge. thats it.

so we are driving home one night.. and he is slowing down for a red and notices it flick green so in first he goes and we take off*he is scared to pull his car past 5500rpm*
So we get going down the road and we go to pass a semi.. put it in 3rd get HALF way down the semi and he goes from 17psi down to 3psi in a snap of a finger.. then he can't even build any boost.. So we pull over.. like wtf..

pop the hood, first thing MANFIOLD,TURBO, AND DOWN PIPE ALL RED LIKE BRIGHT., Then we notice no coolant? Thats odd he has NEVER had coolant problems and JUST rebuilt the motor... compression 2 days before this was 167 accross the board. so he is SWEARING up a storm that he blew his head gasket and his life is over and what not.

So we get it towed.. the next day we check the turbo, It has some shaft play but less then my holset that runs fine. Okay?

Now we check compression.. wow it's the pretty close as 3 days ago 163 accross the board.
oh and the time we did the compression test it was a cold motor

Did this ebay turbo just shit on him? I haven't checked his cat yet and his timing seems to be bang on, maybe 3-4 degree's retarded.

Any idea's..

 

[bryanwheat]

The housing would have to be cracked for coolant to be coming out. The only thing that should be in there is oil. I have actually installed one of these ebay 20g's on a buddies car (he bought it) It lasted for quite a while until he ran hes engine out of oil and drove it for ten miles. Ran it as 12-16 psi for most of the time. He put upwards of 5k miles on it and it never had any abnormal shaft play or anything like that. I was actually pretty impressed with it. Has to weld a different angle outlet on it, but definetly was a good turbo for the money.

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[J-speed99]

check the exhaust flex pipe it will collapse inside into the size of a quarter, while the outside still looking fine. Pretty shure that might have happened

Wow this is the same thing you said on another thread that I was just reading. I don't think anyone is going to check that.

 

[KirkMKIV]

All of those chinese ebay turbochargers are put together with the lowest of quality of metals (and virtually no quality control). Chances are that the turbine wheel is made out of GMR235 which does not do well with high exhaust gas temperatures.

People need to stay away from buying that crap, especially during "rough times" as the OP states. It eventually ends up costing more down the road.

 

[tal0n]

ive bought a ebay big 16g and ive owned it for over a year. daily driver at 16psi and ive never had problems with mine. but install a EGT.While running lean can cause the manifold and or hotside to glow, it is not the only possibility. Timing that is overly retarded can do the same, as well as timing that is overly advanced. retarded timing will leave too much unburnt fuel in the exhaust stream which will then burn in the manifold, or hotside snail causing them to glow.
Timing that is too far advanced will cause pre-ignition that will also cause them to glow. Lastly but not least is being to lean which causes elevated temps as mentioned above, although i suspect you would get alean misfire that would be noticeable at upper RPM's.

 

[tcbikerguy6]

I would look into the knock sensor ( wont make manifold red) Ive had one go bad with a combination of a small boost leak and the car would hardly build boost at all.

 

[SiX22oH6]

dont buy ebay

 

[96 420a-t]

dont buy ebay

Very useful information.

I'm sure the timing and lack of supporting mods did that turbo in.

 

[chanley talon]

I don't think the turbo had any fault other than pushing boost and alot of it through a setup that was not upgraded and thats what killed this turbo.