Turbo question

[BlackEclipse62]

Earlier I blew an oil seal in my turbo and I am wondering if I can run the turbo with coolant only. Would they cool it effecientely, or is that a no-no. I am just wondering because i can't drive my car right now and I miss her! If this is possible I will get some rubber hoses from work and run antifreeze through the turbo, and close off the oil lines this weekend so I can drive it back to college. Thanks for ya'll help!
Andy

 

[EclipseAtLSU]

im no expert or anything, but the oil is in there, more to reduce friction between the moving parts, like oil does in your engine..i would not, would not run it with no oil going through the turbo.

 

[napkinthief]

Just pull the turbo and fix the seal or replace it. I would not risk ruining a turbo just because I didn't want to fix a small part, such as a seal.

As for running it without oil, would you run your engine without oil? Same concept, different design.

 

[BlackEclipse62]

thanks, I have another question now though, I thought if I buy a rebuild kit off the internet I would have to balance the shaft, have any of you guys rebuilt a turbo before without balancing the shaft, does this mess it up? Thanks again for ya'll help
Andy

 

[dr1665]

First of all, the oil in your typical turbo acts as a fluid bearing. Pretty sure this means that the shaft is not going to remain in the proper alignment while moving unless there is oil flowing through that bearing. You want to burn your turbo to shit and tell us how gnarly it was, be my guest, but I wouldn't do it.

I have helped someone rebuild a turbo once. We used Corbin's write-up for rebuilding a HRC 16G. We did not have it balanced and it seems to have held up fine for almost a year now. You should always do your best to spare no expense when it comes to the care of your engine and turbo internals. If you have to cut corners, be prepared to deal with the consequences.

You should be able to find a link to Corbin's site around here somewhere. He's got a write up for damn near everything.

 

[BlackEclipse62]

thanks , i will try to rebuild myself it should be fun learning experience and hope for the best!
Andy