Too much oil pressure? (Blown turbo)

[nicknorth11]

I recently bought an internally gated 5031RE (PTE 50 trim, duall ball bearing) turbo and it instantly smoked. I sent it back to PTE and am currently waiting for them to inspect it and send a new/rebuilt one back. My question is this, has anyone had a problem with too much oil pressure with ball bearing turbos when using a restrictor? I have a 2.3L with no balance shafts and see really high oil pressure. PTE sends their turbos out pre-supplied with oil restrictors, but when I asked them about the sufficiency of the restrictor in relation to my setup they answered in an indirect way. Do you guys think the supplied restrictor will work fine for all levels of oil pressure? Or, do you recommend using something along with the restrictor to lessen the pressure even more?

Thanks for the help.

 

[hairybeanbag]

How much oil pressure do you have? I think the Garret and PTE BB jobs only like 25-30psi of oil pressure. I had 125 psi on a greddy gauge at the front cover on my last motor, with the stock restrictor that came with my turbo it was fine! but also not a BB. maybe you need to run your feedline from the head with a good filter.

 

[freshlane]

I think the restrictor they come with are supposed to pretty much cover the installation

 

[SBR Joe]

I think the restrictor they come with are supposed to pretty much cover the installation

^^ Correct. BB turbos dont need near as much oil for lubrication like a standard thrust turbo, thats partially why they spool so fast, they dont have a lot of oil volume flowing through the center section. But not having the restrictor will make it smoke like crazy because its all getting pushed though the exhaust side.


Joe
SBR

 

[nicknorth11]

I used the stock restrictor and it still blew the seals. I understand it could just be bad luck with the turbo, but I want to cover my bases so another one doesn't go bad.

hairybeanbag: I used to run from the head, and for my own reasons I would like to avoid that situation. (It is a very good idea though).

 

[JaxTalonTSi]

I called up PTE and asked them where they reccomended feed from on their GT35RLS turbo, and I was told " DO NOT FEED FROM THE CYLINDER HEAD".

 

[DGajre777]

I called up PTE and asked them where they reccomended feed from on their GT35RLS turbo, and I was told " DO NOT FEED FROM THE CYLINDER HEAD".

With or without a filter?

 

[JaxTalonTSi]

With or without a filter?

Either. They say there isn't enough oil pressure when feeding from the head, even with a ball bearing turbo, which requires alot less oil pressure than a turbo with a conventional bearing.

 

[Flash]

I used the stock restrictor and it still blew the seals. I understand it could just be bad luck with the turbo, but I want to cover my bases so another one doesn't go bad.

When I received my GT3076R from PTE, it came with just a 4AN fitting for the oil feed line to connect to. It was NOT the restrictor fitting. I had to buy the PTE restrictor fitting separately. The normal fitting and restrictor fitting look identical in appearance from the outside, but obviously by looking through the restrictor fitting it has a hole so small I doubt a pin could pass through it.

 

[nicknorth11]

The 5031RE comes with a restrictor. The reason I needed to know if the restrictor is sufficient is because I wanted to make sure it wasn't my fault the new turbo blew its seals. Something I forgot about until now is that my last turbo, which was a gt28rs, dual ball bearing turbo, was much smaller than the new one. When it was first installed (by a local performance shop) they didn't read the install instructions and ran the oil feed from the housing without a restrictor. It ran fine for about 8k miles before oil got past the seals and even then all I had to do was re-route the feed from the head and it stopped smoking. On the other hand, the new turbo smoked instantly and much worse than the old one ever did. So, I'm pretty sure I just got a bad turbo to start out with.

Thanks a lot for the help guys. As always, it's very appreciated.

Nick