Originally Posted by SamboTT@ByDesign

Call me tomorrow if you like. I have a couple ideas at 3.5 as well. I think that GT2RS units are just going to keep giving you more headaches.

Originally Posted by twturbo

I know Turbo Mike of IPD doubled up the Gt2 intercoolers on his yellow GT2 when he had it ,just a thought.

Originally Posted by elite1

I was logging my car at the time also. No boom when failure happened, just a lot of white smoke. My issue is, a stock VTG is around $5k. Most aftermarket versions are around 5K for both.


Not to instill fear but, are you concerned about the other turbo failing soon?

Originally Posted by pwdrhound

As far as the GT2RS intercoolers go, I looked at my logs and they were installed 4/2012 so I have 4 hard track seasons on them which equals about 130 hard track hours. I do a boost leak test generally 2x each year and did one last week. I heard a hissing from the passenger one so I pulled them to get a closer inspection and boost leak test them out of the car. Both ICs were drum tight at the end tanks but both leak at the core right at the intake side where the heat is concentrated. This tells me that the cores have gotten heat cycled from the 130+ hour of track duty (equivalent to about 10K track miles) and have become brittle eventually leading to internal cracks and leaks. Granted, the conditions I have subjected the intercoolers to will not be seen by street cars or cars doing the occasional 60-130 or 1/4mile pulls from time to time.

With that said, I still think these intercoolers are great for cars running moderate boost but they are a consumable item like many other things. Elite killed these ICs in the course of 1 year mainly due to the fact that he's running higher boost than I am and also running much more heat through them due to his VTGs at the track. Elite actually melted the plastic ducting that was in contact with the edge of the IC on the intake side. You could definitely see the discoloration of the glue at the intake side (where both he and I have seen the failures of the core) and none at the outlet side. This tells me that they do and excellent job of eliminating heat but the hight heat is killing the core at the very beginning where the hot inlet air is entering. In my case, 4 seasons out of these cores is still cheap all things considered. I have ordered new ones this morning but will be probably bite the bullet and have a set of ICs made using Marston Aerospace cores.

Originally Posted by The Bogg

I'm a bit surprised at this especially considering the GT2RS uses these coolers at 1.6bar. Is there a boost leak kit you use for checking the intercoolers? I'm wondering if you would notice your turbo duty cycle going up in the logs if a leak developed in the intercoolers, hopefully before the turbo compressor was overdriven? I had a small leak at the intake plenum (one of the clamps was either not put back by the dealer or it broke and fell off) and in my logs I noticed that the turbo duty cycle went up from low 40s to 60s. Also, I could hear the leak and the logs indicated I wasn't quite hitting the same boost as previous.


My current tune uses a lot of boost so I'm mindful of threads like this where "consequences" are seen. With these cars when things are good they are great, but when things go bad they really hurt.

Originally Posted by pwdrhound

I was still seeing full boost in the car. Yes, the turbos were probably working a little harder but I don't run VTGs and relatively low boost at 1.25 so there is little chance of over spinning them. I doubt you will see many of these fail in this fashion because turbo cars just don't get tracked all that often. How many GT2RSs do you see flogged at the track on a regular basis? As much as they're worth and appreciating, pretty much all are weekend C&C cars or garage queens. Everything will have a drastically reduced life cycle once you subject it to constant punishment. I go through about 7 or 8 sets of tires, 3 sets of brake rotors, and 5 sets of brake pads in about 25-30 hours of track use each year. It really does not surprise me intercoolers are a consumable item also. What blows me away however, it the fact that I have had OEM factory boost hoses on the car for the last 4 years and they are still perfect without any leaks or signs of deterioration. I will be changing them out as a precaution when I swap out the intercoolers.

Originally Posted by pwdrhound

Here's Elite's turbocharger failure in the flesh. I couldn't get youtube to shorten the clip so you have to scroll to the is at 13min 20sec mark on the video. Select 720P for better resolution..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sa8...ature=youtu.be

Originally Posted by 03EvoIII

Bummer man. Those smaller turbos have small turbine shafts. Not surprised to see it snapped like like that seeing how hard you guys drive them at the track!!! And you can tell the break is toward the rear of the shaft and not the front side.....thankfully!! I had this happen to one time on a smaller trim T4 Turbo as well. You can upgrade to the a bigger exhaust wheel/bigger series turbos that have the bigger wheels/shafts for more a robust turbo. The oil...when out the exhaust side, it didn't 'sucked' into the motor so don't worry about that. Great time to upgrade some turbos now though!!