I picked up a couple of 87 Nissan 300zx turbos and one of them has some engine oil in the compressor outlet pipe. I did not get to see the engines that they came from.
My question is, Is it likely that the turbo needs to be rebuilt or worth just trying it out before I rebuild it? I looked around on the web for rebuild kits and found a few different places that have them. Any recommendations? I don't want to end up with an "ssautochrome" type of kit.

One other thing. I need to rotate the center section so that the oil drain is downward when installed on the manifolds that I made. Is it possible to do this without intalling new gaskets/rebuilding?

Thanks,
J

 

A little oil in the compressor end is completely normal. It's probably there because the crankcase breather was on the inlet tube to one of the turbos (I'm not to familiar with the 300Z, but I'm betting this is the case).

You can rotate the turbine and compressor housings without a rebuild. The turbine section may be pretty hard to move due to corrosion, but the compressor end is a snap. I also had to rotate the center sections for my JY TT set-up, so I know exactly what you are going through

There may be a gasket to seal the compressor cover to the back-plate, but you don't absolutely need it (ususally only OEM turbos have the seal there, some are paper gaskets, others are large o-rings).

 

I had to rotate the compressor inlet on one of the turbos a few days ago and it easy like you said. I was hoping that the center section would be that easy. I think I remember seeing some gasket material on one side. I will know better this weekend when I try to turn them.
Both turbos don't have any thrust endplay, but one has about .010" side-to-side and the other has about .015" side-to-side. That seems OK so I wanted to try them out before doing the rebuild. They seemed like a decent pair. Installing them is a pain though because of the custom wastegate housing which has 7 bolts and the outlet is cast with a built-on 90 degree bend.......that points straight into the hood on both sides. Instead of running smoke stacks, I had to cut them off and made some 1/2" plate T04 flanges and glued them on with 59% nickel stick.
I can't wait to get this thing going it has been over a month now fabricating and looking up turbo info.

 

it might be reversion, I have seen oil in the inlet side of all brands centrifugal superchargers, including paxtons which were using ATF for lubrication (so it wasnt just seals), as well as a few different turbo cars.

 

T3’s and similar turbos use a paper gasket between the backing plate and the compressor cover. Without it the compressor cover ends up too close to the wheel and it will contact and cause issues, you need that bit of spacing, where a little bit of gasket compound will seal.

When you rotate them you may want to pop the cover off and make sure that you didn’t tear the gasket. If you did either replace it or scrape off all the gasket stuck to one side and then you’ll still have the stuff on the other side to space the housing correctly, with no risk of a double layer. Just add some non hardening sealant and reassemble.

As far as a little bit of oil in the housing… I’d be more worried about a totally dry used turbo.

Sounds like otherwise they’re in good shape.