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Turbo binding ?

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turbolover10

15+ Year Contributor
497
18
Jun 20, 2005
Orlando, Florida
Here's the deal, I have a Garrett turbo that looked to be rebuilt. Spun freely, solid shaft no in and out play. Installed turbo, Primed for 10-15 sec x 2. Started right up let the car reach operating temperature, heard a strange sound coming from intake.

immediatly noticed the turbo is binding up, not sure what went wrong. Could it have something to do with me clocking the compressor cover to mate with the lower icp? I didn't think to check if the shaft was free spinning after that...

What a bummer, Is it pretty much guaranteed the turbo is shot once it binds? I've never had this issue before, possible whoever rebuilt the turbo didn't do something right..
 
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I'm going to pull the turbo off today, I will take a closer look at why its binding. I was thinking I should double check that the turbo is getting oil to it, before I pull it though...
 
Make sure the drain is not in a bind or a kink. Oil not able to flow freely to the pan can make it stop spinning but when you turn the car off it will spin again. Had it happen once and immediately turned it off, noticed my kinked drain and all was good after I fixed that. Mine was a journal bearing turbo.
 
Make sure the drain is not in a bind or a kink. Oil not able to flow freely to the pan can make it stop spinning but when you turn the car off it will spin again. Had it happen once and immediately turned it off, noticed my kinked drain and all was good after I fixed that. Mine was a journal bearing turbo.

Mine is a journal as well. I just made up the return line before starting so definitely a possibility, it doesn't seem to be kinked but maybe I'm missing something? Heres a shot I took the other day of the return. Oh and it wouldn't spin immediately after I turned car off, haven't been able to check again yet.

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Well that picture looks fine on the drain and similar to mine except I run a -12 return but I throw a lot of oil to mine too. Check it out for free spinning before you try to start it again. If it binds, then take it out of the exhaust housing and see if it spins fine. Side play can get it to touch the inside of that housing and make a terrible day if it is, wreaking havoc on the exducer and such. Just from personal experience.
 
Will do, thanks! I'm actually working on dealing with high oil pressure too, could this have something to do with it binding? To much incoming oil and not adequate drainage with the -10 an lines? I've ported the oil filter housing before installing but I'm pulling it off to port some more.
 
Well I run over 80#'s except when warm, then it settles down to 30 at idle. That's why I have huge drain. When it was kinked though, it also pushed oil out the exhaust and I thought the seals were bad until I noticed I had twisted my drain like twisting a drinking straw and as soon as I fixed the kink, it went away. I actually watched my turbo quit spinning so I ran around an shut the car down. No problem with the journals but scared the bejesus out of me. I have smoothed oil passages in the block, did the head modification and run the Kiggly HLA. I feed mine from the OFH clean port but also run an inline filter to the turbo through -4AN feed line with a banjo bolt connection that help to pull some of the pressure down on mine.
 
Well I run over 80#'s except when warm, then it settles down to 30 at idle. That's why I have huge drain. When it was kinked though, it also pushed oil out the exhaust and I thought the seals were bad until I noticed I had twisted my drain like twisting a drinking straw and as soon as I fixed the kink, it went away. I actually watched my turbo quit spinning so I ran around an shut the car down. No problem with the journals but scared the bejesus out of me. I have smoothed oil passages in the block, did the head modification and run the Kiggly HLA. I feed mine from the OFH clean port but also run an inline filter to the turbo through -4AN feed line with a banjo bolt connection that help to pull some of the pressure down on mine.

I feed my from the ofh as well, no restrictor. Right now I'm seeing over 100psi on cold start but settles to around 25psi warm idle. The problem is by 3k Rpms it jumps back up to 80+ and by 4K I think it's pegging the 100psi gauge again. It is a cheap glow shift gauge but I still feel like it's accurate enough. That's why I planned on porting the crap out of the housing. Possibly even changing to the lighter spring if needed.

Funny thing is I originally started the car with my t25 which was pretty beat to begin with. Had sided to side and a little in and out play before I put it on. I just wanted to make sure the car started, well it smoked pretty bad after a drive around the block so I pulled it off assuming it was a bad seal there was definitely oil in my downpipe!
 
Oh man my DP was oil soaked when I was blowing oil past the seals and it took a good drive to clean it out. I run pretty high like you do so that's why I put a Earl's inline filter in and went with the banjo bolt over a direct fitting in my Holset, just to try to reduce pressure. So far it's worked out very well. Cold starts are definitely just like yours at 100psi. Same gauge too.
 
Ok good that makes me feel a little better, will you see past 80psi through your rpm range once warm?
I plan on running a Holset very soon, this was just a temporary setup so its good to hear first hand advise from someone running them with similar oil pressure. I know those turbo are picky when it comes to oil!

I did pickup a 14b last night just incase I need to swap this Garett turbo out. last thing I want to do is throw a nice hx35 on and blow the seals or bind the turbo up immediately! Plus I still need to get my Shep trans and 2600 clutch in before I can even handle the extra power, thats another story though!
 
Yes I do see high oil pressure up in the rpm's even after it's warm but with the big drain it is working fine. I did all the things I mentioned intentionally to try and lower the pressure at the turbo but can't tell you the pressure on the turbo itself. It was oiling very well when that drain was kinked I can say that :banghead:
 
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Uh, where's the entire bottom compressor cover clamp? Or is there no clamps on the cover at all?

You should have (2) three-bolt clamps on a T04E cover....I don't see any clamps or bolts on the lower portion of the cover in this photo. Clearly the cover bound against the wheel, and wrecked it- at this point the compressor wheel itself is junk, and the shaft can't be trusted either being that it was loaded one-sided like that.
 
Uh, where's the entire bottom compressor cover clamp? Or is there no clamps on the cover at all?

You should have (2) three-bolt clamps on a T04E cover....I don't see any clamps or bolts on the lower portion of the cover in this photo. Clearly the cover bound against the wheel, and wrecked it- at this point the compressor wheel itself is junk, and the shaft can't be trusted either being that it was loaded one-sided like that.
I have one of the clamps, I wasn't aware of the second but now that you say it It makes sense :ohdamn:
Looking closer at the pic I see the damage that was done! Back to needing a new turbo it seem ugh, simple mistake cost me on this!

Should I be concerned about the metal!?
 
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