More good stuff to know.
Just to ease everyone's minds and to answer a few questions, the Beta testing on these new Ceramic ACBB cartridges, were done with some of the Drift teams competing around the country. So with that said, there's only one other form of gasoline racing that could be harder on a turbo. And that's WRC rally racing. The drift teams experienced zero failures in testing these new units.
Spool up on these new turbos, compared to standard journal bearing turbos are very significant, when used with the correct torque converter.
To answer
Blazer406's questions about spool up difference between standard water cooled dbb vs our ceramic ACBB, that has not been tested. But in reality, I would expect very little noticeable difference if everything else were the same. Also, stall speed requirements should be the same if comparing water cooled dual bb vs these new ceramic air cooled dual bb turbos.
asrnj77,
We prefer not to quote prices on here, but if you'd like, give us a call and I would be glad to quote you a price for that turbo.
M-F 8am-6pm CST #219-996-7832
The correct part number would be
PTB300-6365 B for the E cover version, and
PTB600-6365 B for the H cover version.
These new dbb cartridges use dual ceramic ball bearings, as opposed to steel bearings. Ceramic is a more heat tolerant material, so there is no need for water cooling provisions. These units are fully rebuildable with component parts. This allows for less costly rebuilds in the event of an incident.
Here are a few FAQ questions about these new units.
Are these units more vulnerable to heat soak without the water cooling option? Do we have to worry about oil coking?
Assuming that you are using clean, filtered oil that is changed every 3000 miles, there should not be any issues. Water cooling was introduced only at the request of OEs to meet demands of longer oil change intervals. A properly designed air cooling approach, combined with the best bearing materials available, allows us to do away with all of the cluttered water cooling lines. As a side note, the TR30R (Garrett's highly revered and only turbocharger designed for racing) has won countless 24 hour races using a steel ball bearing, air cooled center section. This same design concept has also been incorporated into the GT4708R, GT4718R and GT5533R turbochargers.
Do they spool any better than the water cooled, T-series CHRA's? IE: Less bearing drag?
Although a hybrid ceramic ball bearing has much less rolling resistance than a steel ball bearing, a difference in transient response will rarely be noticed by "seat of the pants."
How is the durability versus the water cooled T-series CHRA?
Hybrid ceramic bearings last up to 5 times longer than steel ball bearings in the same environment.
Are these full ceramic ball bearings or coated bearings?
They are hybrid ceramic. Steel races with silicon nitride balls.
Is there a weight difference between your chra and the T-series?
There is probably minimal difference in CHRA weight, but when you remove all the water lines and fittings, there will be a significant overall weight savings.
Why don't these new ceramic dual ball bearing cartridges require a oil restrictor fitting?
The bearing housing has built in "oil passages." At the present time, there is no definitive answer on whether the turbocharger will require a secondary restrictor or not. We can say during all of the Beta testing we have done, we have not had one fail or leak. These housings are threaded to accept standard 1/8 NPT style fittings, therefore a standard -4 AN to 1/8 NPT adaptor fitting will work, as well as the factory brass 90* fitting.
And the last thing I will mention is, that we do have a few well known supporting Turbo Buick.com vendors, who have been ordering and receiving these new turbos for their customers Buicks. Hopefully they will be posting more results soon.
Stay tuned guys and gals.
The future looks bright here at Precision Turbo.
Patrick