20g or AGP LR series?

[Ikestaa]

I have heard an awful lot of talk thrown back and forth about the reliability of BB turbos, on 3si.com. I understand that the bearings could be more sensitive to crap in the oil system, but is there hard evidence to show that BB turbos can't stand up to the abuse of normal turbos. I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I think this is info that could help Slik and other readers.

 

[Unreal]

That is true. They also can stand MUCH more thrust load. Thats why AGP includes a filter to make sure no crap gets in the turbo and ruins a $1500 investment.

 

[asian312]

From what I've managed to dig up on the BB turbos, it's not so much the contamination, but I believe the oil pressure plays somewhere into the equation. Yes contamination will have a greater effect on the functionability of the BB turbo when compared to a conventional turbo, but what I've been told that the secondary function of the inline oil filters are to reduce the pressure being delivered to the turbo.

Honestly if I was to go BB it would also include a tear down of the engine to make sure no build up had a chance to make it's way to the turbo. Give it a clean start at life.

 

[JayHass]

Originally posted by Ikestaa
I have heard an awful lot of talk thrown back and forth about the reliability of BB turbos, on 3si.com. I understand that the bearings could be more sensitive to crap in the oil system, but is there hard evidence to show that BB turbos can't stand up to the abuse of normal turbos. I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I think this is info that could help Slik and other readers.

BB turbo's have a MUCH stronger side load capacity...which is exactly what running big boost does to a turbo.

The BB unit needs clean oil. That's it.

I ran a BB turbo for almost 50K miles with no problems and from what I understand the turbo is still going strong. I did change my oil at 1500miles or less and only used synthetic but that was for more reasons than the turbo.