Ebay turbo problems and the cure!

[FrankT]

I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a Turbonetics turbo to replace the Ebay special that was installed on the car. Anyone who has seen my build thread here: http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47925 knows the long, long road I have taken to get this car running correctly. The shop that did the work went out of business after I picked up my car and had installed nothing but junk and substandard parts. Anyway, here are some pics of the Turbonetics turbo and the EBay special.

[FrankT]

Pics:

[FrankT]

The main problem was excessive white smoke on deceleration after a hard run. I disassembled the turbo and found the oil seal had failed on the turbine side. There is no oil in the intake pipes or compressor side of the turbo, but I am contemplating removing the intercooler to see if any oil is inside it.

[Nessal]

Ebay....turbo kit....sigh.....

[FrankT]

Originally Posted by Nessal

Ebay....turbo kit....sigh.....

Umm... not a EBay turbo kit. A shop in FL fabbed the kit up and we were promised a Garrett turbo. What we got was a Chinese knock off like that is sold on EBay. Not to mention a crap tune and substandard work. Four cars were done mine being the last one.

[jordan 572]

Originally Posted by FrankT

Umm... not a EBay turbo kit. A shop in FL fabbed the kit up and we were promised a Garrett turbo. What we got was a Chinese knock off like that is sold on EBay. Not to mention a crap tune and substandard work. Four cars were done mine being the last one.

Is that the new turbonetics with the 75mm on the hot side? Did you go with the 76 or 78 up front?

[JLE58]

Who was the shop?

[FrankT]

It's a 78 on the compressor side. .96 A/R. Just a plain journal bearing liquid cooled center section. Pretty inexpensive turbo really, and I got a great price on it. I can't post who it came from, but if you want to know PM me.

[FrankT]

The shop was Ultimate Performance and Racing in Fort Myers, FL. The next time they go in the ocean, I hope they get eaten by sharks.

[caper]

hey frank...your current fleet is damn awesome!!!! man I am jealous...good for you to have such bad ass cars.

[FrankT]

Originally Posted by caper

hey frank...your current fleet is damn awesome!!!! man I am jealous...good for you to have such bad ass cars.

Thanks!

[FrankT]

I'm waiting on some adapters for the liquid cooled center housing to get here before I can finish everything up. The Turbonetics has 16mm fittings while the no-name turbo had 3/8 pipe. I'm also routing the cooling lines to the heater hoses. They were hooked up between the coolant vent pipe on the front of the intake manifold and the radiator neck at the cap. I don't think that provides adequate flow, so that is why I am changing it.

[willhe64]

The difference between buying a higher quality item at a higher price and a lower quality item at a lower price?

The people who buy the higher priced item only complain once, at the till.

[FrankT]

It's not that I wanted a cheap turbo, like I stated I thought I was getting quality stuff. This just shows what a poor shop will do to you. There are far too many examples of this on the forum. However, I know I'm getting good quality with Turbonetics. BTW, almost everything this shop did has had to be redone. I probably should have pulled everything off and started over, but I wanted to make this work. I'm hard headed that way.