Oil control rings shot?

[RETed]

Why don't you try DIY rebuild yourself and see what happens?
It sounds like you're interested in the whole process, and you learn a LOT from doing it yourself.

As a fall-back, you can always go BNR if the DIY fails?
$300 is cheap, considering that $100 is going to the rebuild kit itself.
Even a cheapie CHRA is going to be at least $100, so the last $100 is BNR's labor?
That's a great deal...

As for sourcing of parts...
I would worry a little about China, but I would not be surprised...
My Garrett GT-R ball-bearing series turbos all had stickers: "MADE IN MEXICO".
I was kinda pissed my ~$1,500 turbos were MADE IN MEXICO, but what can you do, right?
I know there's a lot of turbo parts coming out of South America (Brazil?) also.
As a side, I think Brembo also has a factory for in South America?

Although not BRAND NEW, there are lots of used HT-18's out there.
It might cost you maybe $100 for one, but the RA's should be in good shape, or at least be minimum rebuildable.


-Ted

[Pete_89T2]

Originally Posted by RETed

Why don't you try DIY rebuild yourself and see what happens?
It sounds like you're interested in the whole process, and you learn a LOT from doing it yourself.

It would be a great learning project, and even if I end up not rebuilding my own turbo, I might just pick up a boneyard turbo off of any car/truck to practice on. Tear down, clean/inspect & reassemble with the same old & worn parts just for practice. Sort of like a doctor practicing surgery on cadavers!

Originally Posted by RETed

As a fall-back, you can always go BNR if the DIY fails?
$300 is cheap, considering that $100 is going to the rebuild kit itself.
Even a cheapie CHRA is going to be at least $100, so the last $100 is BNR's labor?
That's a great deal...

I haven't asked BNR that question yet, but I don't think he would honor that deal if I DIY'ed it myself first and it failed. $300 is a great deal, and I think he's doing it at that price to stand behind his work and maintain a good reputation. He's basically giving me all the new parts/rebuild kit at his cost, and the rest is labor/profit. Price he gave me on the turbine wheel/shaft was $100, and $65 on the CHRA housing, so the $135 left over covers the rebuild parts & labor. BNR can probably get his rebuild kits for maybe $40~50 each in quantity, as opposed to the $100 I would have to pay retail. The compressor wheel I have in there is practically brand new (<12K miles on it). So by using the new parts, he saves himself a big chunk of his cleaning & inspection labor that he would have incurred to reuse the old turbine wheel/shaft & CHRA housing. That's with the standard rebuild kit though (270* thrust bearing, standard turbine seals); if I opt for the high performance versions it would cost me $40~50 more.

Originally Posted by RETed

As for sourcing of parts...
I would worry a little about China, but I would not be surprised...
My Garrett GT-R ball-bearing series turbos all had stickers: "MADE IN MEXICO".
I was kinda pissed my ~$1,500 turbos were MADE IN MEXICO, but what can you do, right?
I know there's a lot of turbo parts coming out of South America (Brazil?) also.
As a side, I think Brembo also has a factory for in South America?

Although not BRAND NEW, there are lots of used HT-18's out there.
It might cost you maybe $100 for one, but the RA's should be in good shape, or at least be minimum rebuildable.


-Ted

Yup, the unknown quality of these new offshore parts has me a bit concerned... To mitigate that risk I think I'll just ask him to send my original parts that were replaced back with the turbo. That way if this next BNR rebuild ever does fail, I'll have some spare parts to draw from and use the best/better ones for a DIY rebuild. Agree it's easy enough to find a used HT-18 to use for parts, but you really don't know what you got until you tear it down, clean & inspect it.