I don't know where to buy turbos from. This look good to anyone? I've heard some bad stuff about eBay turbos so I'm somewhat leary. I don't know of any local turbo shop (I need to crash a r*cer gathering to ask some questions...). Does anyone have suggestions as to where I can get a good deal and/or talk to someone who's reputable? I'm mainly looking to get two smaller turbos to build my own manifolds off of for my real mild 305 (lt1 cam and HSR are my only real good mods).

 

Wish i would of saw that, i bid and won this for my 305 project.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...MakeTrack=true

 

So no one buys turbos anywhere but junkyards?

 

Just a fyi for you. You might get a better response from www.turbomustangs.com. I think there is alot more experience on that board. Also you could PM guido and ask him his opinion. He is vary good with turbos

 

I am one of those guys who had a bad experience with eBay turbos. Watch out if it says XS Power on it or YZ Turbo. I had a total of three of these (2 of the three went out before ever making boost, the third one died of massive thrust bearing failure at around 200miles), and from what I can gather, they are very poorly built replicas of Garretts (incomplete machining, etc.) Wheel sizes/etc were not normal specs, so when I upgraded to real Garrett parts, nothing fit. I upgraded this crap woth genuine Garrett cartridges from my local turbo shop (Blouch turbo in Lebanon, PA). I also had to change the turbine housing and have them custom machine the housings for a proper fit. They turned out excellent, but it still has me TO'd that I lost $800+ from buying those poor quality turbos on eBay.

FWIW, I bought genuine Garrett turbos from a Volvo for my initial TT build, and rebuilt them myself. I got over 6k miles on them in my IROC, and then put one of them on my Z24, and put yet another 12k miles on it with no problems! Not too shabby for a JY turbo I bough for $150, and $100 for rebuild kits. Then I bought these brand new eBay turbos and had nothing but trouble until I installed the real deal.

I think there are probably good turbos on eBay, but I feel you would be much better looking elsewhere. (there prices aren't usually that great anyway).

 

Are JYs my best option? Or should I try and find a local turbo shop or something?

 

You can always buy from a turbo dealer like turbonetics. The price is a little higher but I have never heard of anyone having problems with them.

 

Yeah, I guess I was just trying to avoid the insanely high prices. Oh well, I'll just have to bite the bullet.

 

To put it simply, unless you know what you’re looking at when you see it and what it’s supposed to be like you’re better off going new or paying someone who does.

 

Damn, about all I know are some major brands and some compressor/turbine sizes. Anything past that and it's greek.