I was turbo <- Need help! (long)

Josh Higgins slownx2k@hotmail.com
Wed, 19 Dec 2001 15:49:09 -0700


I just blew the turbo on my 91 SE-R and I need some help figuring out why.
The car was only turbo for about 4 hrs. When I first installed the turbo it
was somking like hell, then I found out that my oil return line was waay to
small. Right now i've got a 1/2in. hose for the turbo oil drain and a
braided steel -3 AN feeding the turbo off of the oil pressure sending unit.
Once I put the bigger 1/2in. hose for the drain, she ran like a champ. I
drove the car for about 3 hours or so that night. The next day I went to
start it up and the car was smoking a little bit. I drove the car 5 miles to
work and I had *no* boost. My boost guage would only show vaccum, no boost.
I drove carefully to work, keeping it under 4k. At this point I figured I
one of my intercooler pipes was loose or something. On my way home, the car
was somking like hell. I used 1/4 tank of gas. Looked like a leaky
injector... I let it sit that night because it was waaay to cold to work on
the car. The next day I found that , yes, i did have a bad lower o-ring on
injector #2. Fixed that. Then the car wouldn't start at all. I floored it
and cracked it for about 2min and she finally came to life and died
immediately. When the car died I heared a funny noise. The noise was my
turbo shaft bouncing around.

I'm planning on buying a new turbo. I'd rather not use the new turbo as a
diagnostic tool. Can anyone give light as to why my turbo is bad??? Was it
because I ran the car w/o the proper size oil return for the turbo??? Was it
the fuel spewing from my fuel rail??

If it helps, heres more info on my setup:

T-3 turbo
Silvia manifold modified for T3 and deltagate
370cc TTZ injectors
JWT ECU
Turbonetics deltagate (7psi)
starion intercooler

When it was working, I was running 7psi.

Josh Higgins
92 NX
91 SE-R turbo (injured)