I recently had a bad experience with a turbo I purchased off eBay. Just wanted to give others a warning so they don't make the same mistake.

I bought two NEW turbos for my TT IROC to upgrade the junkyard Volvo T3s I had on it. Since I had the engine removed for a complete resto-mod, it made good sense to upgrade. I got what I thought was an excellent deal on the turbos (around $800 for two T3/T4 hybrids, Stage III turbine, 57 trim compressor) When I finally got the car finished 10 months later, the pass side turbo went out before it ever made any boost. The turbine and compressor wheels both rubbed in their housings, making an awful screaching noise (I hope none of you ever hear that noise!). Upon closer investigation, I found the turbine shaft was severely bent, you could easily see it wobble when spun by hand.

I talked with my local turbo specialist (Blouch Turbo in Lebanon, PA), he told me this was a perfect example of oil starvation. I carefully checked the oil supply, and everything checked out fine. I didn't think I would find a problem there, as my junkyard Volvo turbos held up for 7k miles after I had rebuilt them myself, running the exact same lube system. So I took the damaged turbo to Blouch, and he found all kinds of trouble.

Here are the main defects:
1) The turbo was't even what was advertised- I was told they had ball bearing center sections, and they were'nt. And the turbine was not a stage III wheel- he suspects it was a T4 wheel trimmed down to fit in a T3 stage III turbine housing (FWIW- A real T3 stage III wheel has 11 blades and a 7° inward slant on the blades when viewed from the turbine exducer) My turbine wheel had 12 blades.
2) The front bearing snap ring groove was improperly machined, and the ring didn't even fit in it's groove.
3) Both front and rear bearing bore in the housing had no 'oiling wedge' machined into them. This was standard issue on turbo bearings since the 60's, and is needed to maintain good high rpm lubrication of the turbo. Blouch said he never seen a T3 without this wedge. (This wedge acts like a pump to help force oil into the turbine shaft, instead of being forced outward by centrifical force)
4) The rear bearing was siezed in the housing's bore, and was the main source of failure- the bearing was seized in such a way that the oiling holes in the housing and the bearing didn't line up- this prevented any oil from even reaching the rear bearing journal of the turbine shaft. So the first time I got on the throttle to spool the turbos, it locked up, bending the shaft destroying the wheels.
5) The thrust bearing locating dowels holes were chamfered- this allowed for much easier assembly, but did not properly retain the thrust bearing. As assembled, the thrust bearing oil hole and its mating hole in the housing didn't even line up, causing severe thrust bearing damage with only 2-3 miles on it!

That center section is junk. I will only be able to reuse the housings (pending measurements). Blouch is building me two new center sections with real Stage III turbines, TO4E compressor wheels, new compressor back plate, and 360° thrust bearings. The thrust bearing upgrade is important in itself, and greatly reduces the chance of damaging the turbo due to compressor surge (the thrust bearing is normally retained with a spring- the 360° unit is bolted fast so it doesn't bounce around and loose oil pressure during surge). These new center sections are then balanced as an assembly, and only cost $395 each. Of course, I need to reuse my old housings, but I still think it is a great value.

Just because it is cheap does'nt mean it is a good deal.

If I get a chance I will post some pics so you know what to look for.

Make sure you know what you are buying.

 

I have seen those too.
I have not goten any of them, something didn't seem right with some of them.
Who was the seller?
Please post there name.
I those cheap thrown together turbos sound a lot like cheap high capacity mags for pistols and rifles that get sold cheap at gun shows and about all you can do with them is throw them away. After you find out they dont work for crap and the seller is long gone.

 

Why did you not thoroughly check the turbo after you received it?

 

OH SNAP!! i just bought 2 of them!


jk...thats sucks to hear that man...glad you could fix the problem...even if it was a PITA.

 

that certainly sucks, im a first time purchaser of a turbo and getting a great deal of a T61 turbonetics turbo for $540.00 shipped that was rebuilt about 20 miles of use. But as you said who knows what happened to it. It says perfect condition. Before i do my single setup, can i just pour oil down the feed tube? Is there a way of checking its condition without tearing it apart? I also hear that your not suppose to touch the turbine itself, since they are sensative and even the slightest bend could ruin it.

 

Wow thanks for the heads up. I was goofing around last night, looking for turbo parts on ebay, and happened to be checking out some T3/T04E turbo's that sound frighteningly similar. Please let us know who the user was that sold you those turbo's, or who built/rebuilt them. Again, thanks for the heads up.

 

I know better now. I didn't realize a NEW turbo could be built so poorly. The problems were only evident once it was disassembled (other than the incorrect t/w), and I didn't think I would need to break a new turbo apart just to make sure its cherry.

I will only buy turbos form my local turbo supplier (Blouch Turbo) from now on. Had I know about Blouch, I would have made the initial purchase from him and saved all this hassle. I learned the hard way.



I'm not going to post the sellers name. There's more than one seller trying to get rich selling poor quality turbos, so it's pointless to try to list them (they can change their username anyway). Look for brand names if you buy off eBay (my turbos were made by ZY Turbo- that should have been my first clue I was getting junk). Or better yet, buy direct from a company you know and trust. I will never buy another turbo off eBay unless it is a junkyard unit. Its likely a high milage factory turbocharger will last longer than a poorly built new turbo after seeing the defects in my 'new' units. My JY volvo turbos I rebuilt myself and lasted over 7k miles with no problems- they were just undersized for max performance. In fact, one of those Volvo turbos now is now on my Z24, and has another 8k miles on it boosting the 2.8V6 (its working very well I might add!).

Don't get me wrong- I'm a huge fan of eBay, its just that a few bad sellers are trying to get rich by scamming people.

 

That sucks.I think you should post the name of the seller as a tip off.There's no liability problem if it's the truth.I hope you at least left bad feedback.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience.

I wouldn't buy anything off E-bay that I couldn't afford to throw straight into the trash can. The possibilities for a rip-off are mind boggling. Especially for anything that's used or rebuilt. I think I bought an old laptop once off Ebay to run my Diacom software on (the battery was dead and the screen was almost unreadable despite being described as being in "perfect condition." Yeah, right.)

I deal with local vendors whenever possible (most of whom will do their best to match or at least come close to mail order prices). 'Cause if you have a problem you can take it back. And you know where to take it back becuase you know were it come from (Paraphrasing AJ Foyt). Truer words were never spoke.

After that is mail order from trused vendors. Still a pain if you have a problem, but at least you know that a major vendor/retailer isn't going to disappear unexpectedly into the night.

Beyond that is pure Caveat Emptor (buyer beware). EBay land. Where sellers whisper sweet nothings to buyers but rarely have any respect for them in the morning.

 

YZ turbo
They just made the list.
That is better than a user name. It ID's the source.
I buy a lot of stuff like this, I buy it new if it will not be good used (my welder and plasma torch) form a big number feed back seller.
If the person doen't know any thing about what they are selling never buy it. They could be palying stupid or just plain be stupid.
If it's to good to be true it is.
You have to know what you need, the seller won't.
If it can go bad quick I buy it from some where that I can take it back.