New turbo time!?!?

[Echo5Zulu]

Kind of a multipart question/discussion but pertains to those with upgraded turbos and turbo expertise.

First off last winter I rebuilt my old 14b that had 135000 or more on it. Rebuilt it by the numbers, lubed everything as I installed and everything whent perfect or so I thought. Made awesome power but after some hard tuning she started smoking. Pulled the turbo and found a ton of shaft play up and down on the exhaust side and that oil was leaking into the exhaust.

My questions are as follow; I know it didnt die of oil starvation because it was full of oil and no blockages could the shaft have been slightly tweaked and burned it out because I didnt have it balanced? At the time I didnt know you needed to "prime" the turbo before startup to get oil in it but we did lube everything could this cold start up have trashed it? Would Moly lube have helped?

I found that Turbochargers.com has the best prices on the mhi evo 3 16g so I searched for reviews of Turbochargers.com but found absolutely none. If you have experience with them please speak up and also write a review for them in the review section. From what Ive heard they have a pretty good reputation and have been in business since 1979 which is a great feat in itself.

Lastly what tips/hints and tricks of the trade should I keep in mind when I install the new turbo to aid in its longevity. Ive heard about the priming and I also have a turbo timer. Anything else?

One more question; the car was tuned to 18 psi on the ported 14b. Once I upgrade to the evo 3 should I start at 18psi boost and 42psi fuel as my base again. I do have the Walbro 255, safc 2, logger, ect. but stock 450 injectors. Yes I will upgrade them someday but cant at the moment.

Thanks in advance to you all!

 

[turbodsm18]

You may want to start at a little lower boost and then work your way up to see what is safe. Better safe then sorry

 

[killakev805]

I don't think your going to be able to run a 16g at 18 psi on stock injectors, I would start at 12 and keep increasing it until you run out of fuel.

as far as starting the turbo dry, it sounds like you had lubed it during the rebuild, so I would think that would have been safe. Did you measure the bearing seats? If you beasure the diameter inside where the bearings go, they can only be worn out by so much, or there will be excessive shaft play. That will cause it to go out fast like that, or it could have been because you had a slightly bent shaft and didn't realize it. If you had the shaft balanced you would know if it was good or not.

 

[brute]

I was going to say that... You can get the shaft balanced by a shop, and that may have led to its demise. I don't know if you messed with the center section at all, but I think you should've gotten it balanced anyway so you don't have to worry about it. As far as turbo health, priming it on initial start up is probably the best thing you can do for it. Other than that, just turbo time it for a little while if you run it hard. You seem to know about those two things already, and I can't think of anything else.

Also, I agree that you should start at low boost and build your way up. You shouldn't start at 18psi.