ball bearing upgrade ,is it worth $500

[Taffy]

Originally posted by Fuelie600
Taffy, who builds your double ball bearing turbos? I had Red Armstrong check into a ball bearing for me from John Craig, at the begining of this week. John told Red he will not build a BB turbo. Might there be something with the BB Garretts, that has not been sorted out yet? Who knows.

Everyone should do their home work, before buying. I did! T-netics 70Qbb.

None of the DBB turbos were on Buicks. The Buicks have the worst oiling system for turbos. Buicks are notorious for contaminating the turbo with debris from the oil supply. That is why Turbonetics added their filter. That is a great idea.

As far as the DBB Garrett units on the Buicks, we will probably never see them in 3 bolt versions. There are a lot of different reasons that you will not see the DBBs in 3 bolt from Garrett.

 

[JCotton]

The Buicks have the worst oiling system for turbos. Buicks are notorious for contaminating the turbo with debris from the oil supply.

Wow, guess some of us know who you have been talking to, don't believe everything that you hear. Thats a great excuse when a turbo fails to blame it on the debris in the oil. Although it does happen, it definitely is not the case most of the time. When a turbo fails on an application that was simply upgraded from a good running turbo, why didn't the turbo that came off fail? Now if a cam lobe was wearing and metal was circulating through the motor, or if head gaskets are letting go, again the material circulates thru the oil system, ultimately could end up in the turbo center section., I have seen that. Otherwise.......... yes, Buicks are notorious, but only if there is an internal engine failure. But then, isn't that true with any turbo run on a self destructing motor. As for the oil filter, it is standard on all turbos, nothing to do wih GN's........... just an extra precaution.

 

[WUTSAV8]

Hi Guys,

Just thought I would clear up a few things, and throw in my $ .02 as well.

We here at Turbonetics have tested our BB design under some of the harshest conditions known to man. Currently some of our BB units are being used in a very large diesel trucking fleet, which used to have a problem with breaking turbine wheels during normal operation. I am proud to say that they are currently running 40-60 PSI without any troubles. It isn't quite a Supra, RX-7 or 240, but you get the picture.

Regarding our new filter that is now standard on ALL of our turbos. The main reason for this filter was for warranty purposes. Basically if we could start everyone off on the same foot with fresh, clean oil being provided to the bearings then we can look elsewhere for problems.

( BTW, our warranty turbos consume less than 1% of our total turbo production. What's that tell you about quality? )

I am currently working obtaining copies of the SAE test results with our ceramic ball bearing turbos vs dual ball bearing turbos. The results are quite surprising.

Hope that helps!


David Sierra
Turbonetics Inc
Technical Support/Sales
dsierra@turboneticsinc.com
805.581.6734

 

[Nick Micale]

filter?

Originally posted by WUTSAV8
......
Regarding our new filter that is now standard on ALL of our turbos. The main reason for this filter was for warranty purposes. Basically if we could start everyone off on the same foot with fresh, clean oil being provided to the bearings then we can look elsewhere for problems.


David Sierra
Turbonetics Inc
Technical Support/Sales
dsierra@turboneticsinc.com
805.581.6734

VERY interesting! Tell me more. How can I fit one to my Turbonetics BB-70?

 

[Otto J]

I ve seen people use a braided feed line with a inline filter Nick,That would be an easy and fairly inexpensive way
I know use the remote filter from my Duttwieler system and feed only filtered oil ot my turbo.

 

[GNVAIR]

Otto,
Did Turbonetics tell you why the same 72bb failed twice on 2 different cars? Just curious as that does seem odd.

 

[Otto J]

No, The first time i hadnt a oil filter on it,and it seized up, THe second car the shaft snapped in half while making a pass , not sure exactly what happened there

 

[Taffy]

Originally posted by JCotton
Wow, guess some of us know who you have been talking to, don't believe everything that you hear. Thats a great excuse when a turbo fails to blame it on the debris in the oil. Although it does happen, it definitely is not the case most of the time. When a turbo fails on an application that was simply upgraded from a good running turbo, why didn't the turbo that came off fail? Now if a cam lobe was wearing and metal was circulating through the motor, or if head gaskets are letting go, again the material circulates thru the oil system, ultimately could end up in the turbo center section., I have seen that. Otherwise.......... yes, Buicks are notorious, but only if there is an internal engine failure. But then, isn't that true with any turbo run on a self destructing motor. As for the oil filter, it is standard on all turbos, nothing to do wih GN's........... just an extra precaution.

No need to talk to anyone. Just look at how the Buick oiling is set up. As soon as the bearings let go, the turbo is dust. No matter how good the filter is.

The bearings do not let go in the turbo, unless it is a Master Power Turbo (Just got bad news on MP bearings from a customer). If the engine bearings go on a Turbo Buick, the Turbo Bearings are GONE.

We have had NO (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) bearing loss on other engines, including the SR20DET, the RB25DET and the RB26DETT on Garrett Turbos. On the Turbonetics turbos, that is another question.

 

[Taffy]

Originally posted by KLHAMMETT
No, The first time i hadnt a oil filter on it,and it seized up, THe second car the shaft snapped in half while making a pass , not sure exactly what happened there

Please let us know how Turbonetics or Jack handles this issue.

 

[Otto J]

I jsut called their customer service(Turbonetics) and told them where and when i purchased the turbo and sent it in.