Turbo compressor wheel look normal? Cause howl?

[Silver 95 GST]

Thanks for checkin out my thread.

I have a 95 gst with a big 16G. The car has a howling sound when cold. It corresoponds with boost/engine. The howl starts a little under 0psig and gets louder after that unless I let off the gas. Do these turbo pics look ok. My guess is the wheel is hitting the housing until it warms up(expands). I've done a BLT not too long ago up to 8psig. I got tired of pumping with the bike pump after that. ANyway the BLT was good.

What do you think?

 

[91PlymouthLaser]

Yeah your compressor wheel looks fine. The howl your talking about could be caused by the turbine spinning backwards which is BAD. Could you describe the sound more than just a "howl"? If it's colder air then the howl might be caused by the density of the air. Hope this helps and I can probably help more if you explain the noise a little better.

 

[talonalex92]

Im having the same issue as you. Im interested, as my compressor housing looks the same. I always thought it looked a little worn, but wasn't sure. Hopefully someone does.

 

[Silver 95 GST]

thanks for the feedback so far.

The howl really sounds like a coyote or something but only when cold. I'm really curious whether the marks around the bottom and right of the compressor housing look like the wheel might be slightly interfering. I can see a "worn" ring area on the housing. This normal?


Thanks again,

Paul

 

[91PlymouthLaser]

I've seen this "ring" with every turbo I've rebuilt/worked on. You'll get a small bit of flex with the turbine just because as you said metal will expand and contract with temperature but that's normal. I'm pretty sure you should be ok but the noise your describing sounds more like it actually IS scraping the compressor wall. I'm not sure how to check that because sometimes an impeller will only start to wobble after a high amount of RPMs (just like speed-wobble) I don't really know what to say except to pray for the best. Sorry but that's all I've got. Chris

 

[DSM1G90]

I call it bearings are howling on you. How's the oil and water feed to the turbo?

 

[Silver 95 GST]

Thanks for the info everyone.

I think my oil and water lines are good. I didn't install the turbo, but the lines don't leak and the oil line comes from the oil filter assembly, not the head so it should have good pressure. I couldn't feel any significant shaft movement either, so I think the bearings are ok.

Conclusion: The marks on the housing are probably normal. The turbo might not be causing the howl sound. So I wanted to check for an exhaust leak since the howling started around the same time that I had exhaust work done. I sprayed the exhaust/turbo manifolds with lots of soapy water shich started to steam off once I started it, but there was a lot of bubbling around the farthest to the dside mani-to-head bolt.

Should I try slathering that area in red RTV and see if the howl goes away?

 

[bigboostevo1]

check your exhaust gaskets might have a slight leak under boost