t04e rebuild questions

[josh1095]

i posted a thread previously on this.
Bought a t04e turbo off ebay (cxracing cheapo) and it burned tones of oil right when i started it. Anyway, i totally disassemble it today and find a slighlty jacked up o ring on the intake prop side. replace it and try again. well this time it no longer leaks oil from the intake side but still burns it like a mofo out the hot side.
There really is hardly any shaftplay and both bearings looked ok. also made sure i wasnt gettin excess crankcase pressure. even disconnected the oil drain on the turbo and idled it. seems to be flowing fine. Also installed a .060 restrictor which did nothing. im at a loss as to whether i should order another turbo or buy a rebuild kit and replace the bearings as that is all i can see that could be the problem. it seems it must be the bearing closest to the exhaust or possible the entire shaft was bad.
The **** from cx will NOT replace it or even give me a rebuild kit.
This is frustrating and sorry for the long ass post

 

[JusMX141]

I've already rebuilt a few pieces of CX Racing garbage knockoff Chinese turbos that also smoked with zero shaft play. The only thing I did to make the turbos better was use a stagger-gap turbine seal, and a restrictor which you have already installed.

 

[josh1095]

stagger-gap turbine seal? could u explain what it is and where i might find it?

 

[JusMX141]

It supposedly seals better than a standard straight-cut turbine seal by not allowing oil to push straight through the cut.

Personally I think the design concept is ridiculous...the seal STILL doesn't fit tight on the shaft, so there's always going to be the possibility of oil pushing between the seal and the shaft; but my customers were asking for these so I've been stocking them and they seem to work fine.

T3 / T4 Turbo Stagger Gap Turbine Shaft Seal

 

[josh1095]

got my rebuild kit in today. noticed something immediately: i have 2 turbine seals in this pack (1 small and 1 larger) and can clearly remember there only being one in my turbo. Ill kno for sure when i install both seals but i think they just forgot to install 1 of em at the factory. wtf right?

 

[JusMX141]

One is the turbine seal, one is the compressor seal which fits on your Dynamic seal collar.

 

[josh1095]

Ok, just thought id let everyone know and for future reference, i installed new bearings and seals on both ends. That did not fix the prob. As previously stated i have a .060 restrictor on the turbo, this wasnt small enough i guess. I got a valve and slowly shut the oil down until it stopped smoking. This thing can barely take any pressure at all.
Then i hooked up a peice of pipe w/o bov from turbo to intake, just to test it. Hooked up my mbc and wastegate. Made an impressive 0.0lbs of boost!! Might have to build my bottom end to handle that kinda hp . Tried hooking up the wg a number of ways, checked for leaks etc. no luck. I got my hands full with this goddamn turbo.... Gonna hook up the bov and run full piping this sat.
any ideas on this? thanks

 

[JusMX141]

A .060" restrictor is the smallest you should be using on a journal bearing turbo. If it's still smoking with that size of a restrictor in place, something is either wrong with your drain setup or the turbo is blown. You can't just keep cutting the oil supply until there's nothing left to burn- there's a reason that oil is in place.

For example, a ball bearing turbo restrictor is .035", and that literally provides a mist of oil to lubricate the ball bearings because additional oil is unnecessary as the shaft is supported by the bearings and not the oil. Journal bearing turbos are the opposite- the shaft NEEDS oil to float; the only reason a restrictor should be used is if excessive oil pressure is causing oil to bypass the turbine seal.


Don't forget that just because you're cutting the oil supply back at the turbo doesn't mean the smoke will disappear. Think of how much smoke a trickle of oil from a leaky valve cover that seeps it's way on to an exhaust manifold makes until the oil is burnt away. Depending on your driving habits, it may take up to 500 miles after properly restricting or rebuilding a turbo for the smoke to completely disappear from your exhaust.

 

[josh1095]

well, really what can i do? i totally agree with you but seeing as i have nothing to lose i might as well limit the oil. The alternative is buying a new turbo.
I hope this post comes up when people search cxlighting turbos. I tried several times to get them to cover this with no luck. If yo dont plan on hooking something up and testing it then wait to leave feedback, that was my biggest mistake.
Btw, i am running 1/2" drain line and have even disconnected it while running and it still smoked. 0 shaft play too. 1 more thing, i dont have a down pipe yet so im simply testing it with no exhaust. the oil burns off pretty rapidly like that.

 

[shadowdrag]

have you tried putting on a 1/4" brass ball valve in between the feed lines. I also have one of these cheap chinese t3/t4 turbo and it smoke right after boost. I installed the $4.00 ball valve from Ace Hardware and the smoke went away.

I'd tested the ball valve with air pressure and marked the location where it need to be close.

Hope this help.