Flushing debris from turbo?

[Steve]

I recently bought a real nice 60K mile WE4 with some bottom end noise. I knew the owner and the car pretty well and it had a new PT-51 on it. The motor ended up having a spun rod bearing so I am sure some metal circulated thru the oiling system including the turbo. I plan to send the turbo to LE soon to have it upgraded but I would like to break in the motor on the 51 if possible then switch to the TE-67 after it is broken in. Is it possible to flush a turbo without disassembling it? A local turbo shop wants $285 to put a new kit in it and clean it up but I can have it upgraded to a 67 for ~$600 so that wouldn't be too wise of an investment. If I can't flush it I will simply have it upgraded and use the 67 from the beginning. Thanks

 

[J Speak]

I would upgrade before I would take a chance on having one small piece of metal that was accidently missed go through my new engine and possibly destroy somthing. Just My 2 cents

 

[JZ 97 SS 1500]

Have it upgraded. A flush and new rebuild kit is half the job to the upgrade.

 

[Steve]

That was my plan but Chopper at Limit Engineering recomended that I not have it upgraded and then start my new motor with it on there. He said that the debris from the fresh motor break in would end up prematurely killing the fresh turbo. He is the one that recomended flushing the turbo out and and using it for break in then having it upgraded.

 

[highboost]

That was my plan but Chopper at Limit Engineering recomended that I not have it upgraded and then start my new motor with it on there. He said that the debris from the fresh motor break in would end up prematurely killing the fresh turbo. He is the one that recomended flushing the turbo out and and using it for break in then having it upgraded.

now jay at LE did not tell me that when i got my TE60 from them.
i would not worry about the breakin trashing the turbo,a good oil filter should catch anything from breakin.just do a oil chancge after breaking in the cam and let it go.
just my .02

 

[MSDGN]

Wow...nothing against Chopper...great guy...but why would he make a statement like that...what debris is he talking about. ...if you have debris from a new motor bad enough to hurt the turbo then you have bigger problems...and why would this debris hurt a new turbo but not an old one...sorry doesn't make sense to me...I would upgrade and not worry about it...I broke my motor in with a brand new GTQ70 from LE...he never told me that info...and I haven't had any problems...

 

[Steve]

It wasn't that that it wouldn't hurt the old turbo it was just that it was already somewhat hurt and would soon be in need of rebuild. He didn't say it couldn't be done he just said that since I already have a turbo that will need a rebuild I should just break in the motor on it instead of a new turbo and let the old turbo take any debris that might occur. I think his position was that why be harder on a new turbo than I have to be. I can beleive there is enough debris in a new motor to get into the turbo whether its enough to be hard on the turbo is hard to say. If you cut open the oil filter after a break in there is quite a bit of debris there. There is always some debris during the break in process but how much is a problem is hard to qauntify. According to Chopper the clearances in the turbo were as tight as .001 which could be too tight for some of the debris to pass thru and it could stay in the turbo and shorten its life. He didn't say it would frag and fail immediatley or anything like that but it could stay in the turbo and cause it to fail earlier than it would have in other conditions. He said he has seen the same thing from blown head gaskets and cirulating head gasket material thru the oil system and most of us have done that--blow a head gasket and change it and go again. He said some of the head gasket material could get hung in the thrust bearings and would cause a premature failure-again not an imediate death but sooner than would have normally occur. I have been using Limit Engineering since the mid 90's and I put a pretty good amount of faith in there opinion but not enough not to be open minded that's why I posted this.

 

[MSDGN]

I could understand the logic in using an older turbo versus a brand new one when breaking in a motor/cam...that is if you had the choice...I agree...why take a chance on doing anything to the new turbo if you have the old one that you're going to rebuild anyways...but you don't have just an old turbo...you have one that was on the car when you spun some bearings...did metal get into the turbo?...who knows...can you flush it out and get all the metal out if it is in the turbo...maybe...as Chopper stated material can get hung up in the turbo and may not be able to pass through...but let's just say you flush the turbo...everything looks good...you fire up the new motor...some metal that was trapped in the turbo decides to let loose...bye..bye bearings...as for opening up the filter after break-in I would expect to see some microscopic particles...a little silvery dust...but not a bunch of debris...if I did I wouldn't be very happy...I've broken in several motors/cams and never saw anything I would actually call debris in the filter...all I can say is do whatever makes you feel comfortable...

 

[Steve]

All new motors generate some metal. I really good oil filter will filter down to 15 microns but many do not filter that well. If the partical is big enough to get trapped in a high qaulity 15 micron oil filter it would be 0.000591 which over half way to being big enough to possibly get hung in the turbo(according to the info from Chopper). So just the fact that the particals are big enough to get trapped in the oil filter gets them pretty close to the level to be concerned about. Many filters only filter down to 30 microns and some are even higher so if a partical gets trapped in one of them it would already be at a level to be concerned about. I am little concerned about the turbo that was on the motor when it spun a rod also, that's why I requested some info from other board memebers, but like I said above Limit Engineering's advice does carry a good amount of weight with me because of thier experience. Thanks

 

[dproberts05]

debri

Just buy a turbo-saver or a turbo luber setup from RedsregalT.

 

[Steve]

The turbo luber is an option, but the turbo saver still allows some unfiltered oil to bypass the filter during cold start ups and high demand situations. I wish a turbo cover would fit with the turbo luber. I may go with a CPT-66 which comes with a filtering fitting on the oil feed. I called and talked to Turbonetics and they told me that the fitting would filter out particals big enough to cause problems to the turbo and anything that gets thru the filter shouldn't be a problem.