Turbo Siezed!! How Come? And What Now?

[GangsterMD]

Talk about a major piss off Parked my car last fall for the winter - running fine. This spring I had the car painted - and just got it back together. Took it out tonight for the first ride of the year and it wouldn't build any boost. Brought it home and took off the MAF pipe to find the turbo is siezed - or stiff. I just tried to move it with my fingers and it was stiff - would only move a little bit. WTH??? It is a Precision GT6765BB. The air filter was always in place - and isn't clogged. So I can't see anything happening while it was in for paint - although the hood was removed? Oil pressure always high - cause I watch when I first start it up. Could it have gotten an air lock on the coolant lines and cooked it? Why would that happen and now what. Can it be easily rebuilt? What are my options? Would a local turbo guy be able to do it? Or would I need to send it back to ???
Thanks
Darren

 

[The Radius Kid]

Are you feeling any scraping of the wheels?
Dyno or synth oil?

 

[GNVYUS 1]

Ah that blows, you're going to have to take it off anyways so do it and you'll probably want to take off the covers to see if any debris locked it up.

You'll also want to confirm you're getting oil from your feedline and that nothing has clogged the turbo restrictor fitting.

After these are confirmed, PTE would be the only real choice since they can properly diagnosis it and maybe warranty or cut you a deal on a new center section.

 

[GangsterMD]

Hi, well I changed the oil this spring and I think I used Castrol Syntec 10-30 synthetic oil. And yes it did kind of feel like the wheel was scraping? So I will pull the downpipe off and see how that wheel looks. I guess it could be possible that something's stuck in the wheel? I'll also check the oil supply line. I sent a message to PTE last night.

 

[wickedtt]

That Sucks how many miles did you get out of it ? Did you buy it brand new?

 

[RUQWKNF]

GangsterMD,

Just left you a voice mail message regarding this.
I'll send you an email as well, with some things to check out.
Let me know, I'll do the best I can to help you.

Patrick

 

[The Radius Kid]

Hi, well I changed the oil this spring and I think I used Castrol Syntec 10-30 synthetic oil. And yes it did kind of feel like the wheel was scraping? So I will pull the downpipe off and see how that wheel looks. I guess it could be possible that something's stuck in the wheel? I'll also check the oil supply line. I sent a message to PTE last night.

I'm thinking that *maybe* you've got some thermal core shift in the exhaust housing.
Maybe take the turbo off,remove the exhaust housing,check for rub,compressor housing too,check for rub [if needed]and see if things look up.

 

[GangsterMD]

Well I'm feeling better tonight I pulled the downpipe and saw that the exhaust turbine wheel housing has rusted and was making the turbine sticky? It would move a bit will little force. So right or wrong I sprayed it down with WD40 and let it sit for a bit. I was able to start to spin the turbine gently. So I kept spraying it and wiping up the crud. It was spinning quite freely in a matter of minutes. So more questions. Has this been a problem with others? I mean this car does sit for 6 months out of the year. I guess I need to start it regularily during the winter? Do you guys think it's ok to run now? Or are there any dangers? I don't really want to pull off the turbo (boo hoo right?) if I don't have to. It appeared to be even all the way around - you could see a slight rust line where the blades were sitting on the housing. Again, now I can spin it with my fingers freely and it seems fine.
Thanks Patrick and PTE for the quick response - that's great customer service
Thanks
Darren

 

[WSLN 6]

Good to hear, dang Canadian moisture!

 

[GNDriven]

I know that when in the painting shop that dam dust gets EVERYWHERE. Sounds like the issue was with the exhaust, so I can't imagine the dust getting into that side of things, But it could have def built of on the compressor side and somehow made the compressor hard to turn.

 

[RUQWKNF]

Well I'm feeling better tonight Do you guys think it's ok to run now? Or are there any dangers? I don't really want to pull off the turbo (boo hoo right?) if I don't have to. It appeared to be even all the way around - you could see a slight rust line where the blades were sitting on the housing. Again, now I can spin it with my fingers freely and it seems fine.
Thanks Patrick and PTE for the quick response - that's great customer service
Thanks
Darren

Well that is definitely a good sign so far. Sounds like some surface rust built up enough to spread to the turbine wheel and created rotating resistance. To be honest, I would pop the turbo off, remove the turbine housing and try my best to hand clean the inside where you saw the rust. But whatever you do, if you do decide to take it off, don't use any tools to grind or clean the surface rust from the inside of the housing, as doing so could affect the contours on the inside of the housing. This would also help you determine if any damage was done to the turbine wheel and also prevent any future damage from occurring if there was some.

Meaning, if the rust actually caused some damage to the turbine wheel, (in the form of removing or chipping a blade or 4) this will eventually lead to an imbalance condition with the rotating assembly and create premature wear condition to the bearings / rotating assembly. Which if not dealt with soon enough, could lead to even more damage without knowing.

Going through the hassle of removing the turbo for cleaning, would definitely be worth it to me, considering the amount of heartache a toasted turbo, or even FOD through your motor would bring, if there's damage right now. I definitely would want to know if the turbine wheel is good to go or not before running it again though. Hopefully you caught it in time though before anything major happened.
I appreciate your kind words, just trying to help.

Patrick

 

[forzfed]

Glad to hear you got it figured out, Darren! Hopefully it is working fine. You should enter this years Fastest Street Car Shootout. If I get my car all figured out I'm going to enter.

Your car was running really good last year, so here is hoping everything is fine.

 

[GNDriven]

Id take it off and send it back to Precision for cleaning and checkout. Just for the peace of mind.

 

[GNRick]

Your car sure looks nice! Any details you would like to share on the paint? Was the car disassembled? Taken down to bare metal? Glass removed?