Finally had an opportunity to dismantle my car today. Two weeks ago at the track, I lost all power and had white smoke pouring out the back of the car on my 4th lap.


After removing my exhaust, it was apparent that the compressor wheel broke in two, one shot against the Cat convertor and the other just wedged itself into the turbo housing. Thankfully it didn't shatter causing engine damage.


Exhaust system filled up with 3 qts of oil.


Also, one of my "Forge BRV's" were completely seized up and the other with a very slow response. These are complete garbage!


So my questions,


1 - Is this a common VTG failure?
2 - Is the exhaust a complete loss?
3 - Since I track my car, what new setup should I be considering. Do the VTG's operate to hot for track usage?

 

oh crap! sorry to hear that.


Since you don't have cores to trade in for another set of vtgs I would probably just get something like alpha 3073... Probably less high egts at the track with those.


Good luck, and post what you decide to do.

 

...and most likely the reason why you fried a turbo. BOVs open = leak, turbos try to fight against it and overspin. These VTGs don't like that.

 

These are the latest and greatest turbos. You'd need forged rods too.

http://www.xonarotor.com/products/xrturbochargers

 

Good luck, and post what you decide to do.

 

I have also blown my driver side turbo this summer. I was logging a new tune at WOT and boom! I Immediately stopped the car and my exhaust caught on fire because of the oil that was shot out. The compressor wheel shot through my exhaust and tore a hole through the exhaust (no cats).


I ended up replacing the stock vtg and welding the exhaust, new o2 censers and replaced my melted rear bumper, luckily the engine was not damaged. However it was an expensive failure.

 

look nasty! good thing no chunk metal went into engine..

 

OMG!!! Did you figure out what the cause was? Any boost leaks or aftermarket diverter valves?

 

Your shaft broke. Most of the time when that occurs( and isn't from an oil issue,) it's due to too much rpm. That crappy forge riveter valve was leaking substantially and the computer just added more angle to the VTG vanes resulting in too much shaft rpm which amplifies the minute imbalances until the shaft flexes and breaks. It takes a LOT of overspeed to make this happen, and I'm sure the high usage duty cycle on the track is what did it in.

 

Ryan,
Very sorry to learn of your troubles. Sounds almost identical to what happened to me several years ago and similar to a situation recounted by Glen, HPR's track manager, that preceded mine so it's an event not unheard of.

My first question would be where did the oil that you lost go? Remember, oil is a liquid and is non-compressible if introduced to the cylinders in any volume. If it was sucked back thru an intercooler and into the motor, you may have bent rods (something has to give), created bearing problems and affected other internals. It should probably be carefully checked. We pulled my motor and did comparative deck height measurements - distance of the piston head from TDC to the edge of the sleeve - to determine if there was a variation between cylinders which there was. We also used a bore scope in to inspect the cylinders. Rods were replaced with Carrillo's and bearings with ARP products along with all the other stuff associated with doing a build and some "as long as we're in there" stuff like welding coolant fittings, new clutch, etc.

If the oil was sucked back thru the motor there's also a very good chance that your MAF's are fouled beyond cleanable repair. After getting everything rebuilt, I chased CEL's and DTC's around for almost a couple of seasons unable to pinpoint the cause. Even though the MAF's voltage tested within acceptable parameters, I finally replaced them mostly out of desperation and the problems were solved.

With regard to the exhaust system, everything in mine was so fouled it had to be completely replaced - headers, exhaust, CAT's, mufflers - along with the intake side - intercoolers, plenum, and turbos. I pretty much went with an Evoms 775 package since they ended up doing the build and then had the tune customized for my usage and situation.

I've had people tell me since that there really was no need to open the motor and everything would be fine but I certainly didn't want to go thru the trouble and expense of replacing all the bolt-ons and then have the motor grenade at a point in the future.

Anyway, I'm very sorry you have to go thru this. It's a troubling and expensive pita. It kept me awake many nights while we sorted things out and eventually made repairs. The good news is we eventually got it right, the car runs strong and I haven't had a CEL or thrown a code for a couple of years now. Give me a call if you want to talk - send me a PM if you don't have my number. Best,

 

We couldn't find any boost leaks and stock valves showed no issues..

 

So can I ask how many miles were on your respective cars when this happened and what other mods were done/how much power were you making?

A few years ago I actually cracked a turbo at Thunderhill on my RX-7 - as in cracked the whole thing in half like an egg. Suddenly had no power after 4500 rpm and new the secondary turbo was gone. Was surprised to find only half a turbo attached to the car. The other pieces must have been scattered at the track.

 

That really sucks. I check my Forge BRVs for function quite often, and have dropped a little extra lube in from time to time as well.

If you want to stick with VTGs call Sam @ ByDesign I know he sometimes has turbos for sale without core and/or can run down cores.

 

[QUOTE=mavila;4419568]So can I ask how many miles were on your respective cars when this happened and what other mods were done/how much power were you making?

Bought my car with 8,000 miles and had 18,000 on it when it let go in its second track/road season - probably 20-30 track days later. Only mods were a stage I Evoms tune, maybe 550 hp @ crank, and a few suspension doo-dads. We hypothesized that the impeller retaining nut probably became loose causing the shaft to vibrate and fail but that was just a guess as it could have been many other things. A failed BRV was something we did not consider but that makes sense too. My BRV's were oem at the time, fwiw.

Currently at 44K miles and the past two seasons have, thankfully, been mostly drama free!

 

Thanks Dan.

Damn elite sorry! I am sure I can help you out and help do some recovery/damage control. It happens but could be for several reasons. Have seen the BRV's do that but what you have is more catastrophic. Sorry again. Hope I can help.