Ebay Turbo?

[ghrarhg]

Info:
The seals on my T25 are shot again. I rebuilt it last year, with a kit off eBay, but that lasted about 5k and it's burning oil again.

I'm in the process of buying a house, and I'm getting married in November so $$$ is uber tight. Read: I can probably spend a few hundred, but $1200 for a bb turbo is out right now.

Decision time:

Rebuilding my existing T25 is the cheapest at about $70

Second is buying a cheap ebay turbo and using that until I can afford the real thing.

I could go the Holset route, also cheap. I'm not a huge fan of this because I just finished my exhaust, and I really don't want to deal with hacking up and re-welding the crossover and downpipe to fit a different turbo. Buying a house and getting married means very little time to fabricate.

I could just deal with it smoking until I can save up the $$$ to do it right and get an authentic garrett bb turbo. I'm tempted to go this route, since it require very little modification and the bb turbo should spool similarly to my T25 with a lot more top end.

I'm leaning toward the eBay turbo for now, but I'm unsure of the quality. Anyone that has experience with them please comment. Also, please refrain from hearsay recommendations, "my best friends brother was roommates with a guy that blew xxxx turbo in a week."

[robertisaar]

i have a "T70" from speed racer performance.... have yet to install it, but i'm planning on using it eventually. i think they're down to around $180?

boostedrs has stated he knows people that run them making like 600hp in a supra.

i'm gonna link to my thread about it.

EDIT: here it is:

http://60degreev6.com/forum/f107/turbo-specs-t36904

DOUBLE EDIT: heres the store. they also have their own website somewhere.

http://stores.shop.ebay.com/Speedy-Racer-Performance__W0QQ_armrsZ1

[pocket-rocket]

All I can offer up is don't buy one from outside of North America. I have a friend (not a friends roomates brothers sisters boyfriends uncle) that bought one from ebay for his Eclipse that was supposed to be a display model at some kind of show, so they were selling it cheap. He got ripped for about $1200 IIRC.

[westcoast_tgp]

you may be able to get your t25 rebuilt into a t28 like I did. cost me $750 or so I think. a few other guys have done this too. get the polished compressor housing and bore out the turbine housing. has more noticeable lag but can move way more air.

[Joseph Upson]

I've rebuilt a few and was reminded along the way that lilke engines, you have bearing clearances that have to be addressed. Installing new bearings and seals may not be enough. If the bearing housing or turbine shaft has excessive wear oil will go past the friction surfaces faster than it can drain out and back up into the housing causing it to spill out the back of the turbo into the turbine housing. I've heard the ebay turbos are a lot better now. I purchased an aftermarket compressor wheel and water cooled center section from these guys http://turbocharged.com/main.htm they sale mainly Turbonetics but said the parts were pretty good and so far I've had no trouble with them. My old Garrett bearing housing had too much wear and on hard acceleration I would get oil out the back of it and into the exhaust.

[ForcedFirebird]

Well, Loner's Garrett center section went out on his, and he substituted it with the ebay version and it worked fine.

The biggest problem I had with the ebay turbo was that it wasn't the trim it said in the ad t04e (said 57, but when I took it apart and measured, it was 46). I used one from just-intercoolers ebay store, then purchased a second one for the TT build. While I had it apart, I checked everything out and only noticed a few small details that won't have much effect on the performance aspect...

1. They use the "old" Garrett style journal bearings that have the straight oiling holes vs. the newer chamfered style.

2. Trims didn't match the specs listed.

3. The housing was shaped a little different than the Garrett, unkown effects on performance.

4. The wheels were balanced as a unit unlike the Garrett, so if you take it apart, you have to mark everything and put it back together or it won't be balanced. The Garrett's are neutrally balanced and can swap around exh/comp wheels without a re-balance.

5. The mounting holes for the downpipe and t3 flange were slightly different, but a simple drill took care of that.

If you look around on turbomustangs.com, you will se many many people using them and making lots of power (specially with the MasterPower t61's and t70's) without any problems at all.

I don't know why all the hype about them being crap, but on the site I mentioned, there is actually a poll thread about them and very few that posted (and actually USED one) had anything bad to say.

EDIT: Also I have never seen the mysterious "glued together" housings. The Chinese actually invented the metal casting process, so I don't see why they would have a problem making a mold of an authentic Garrett and copying the machining (where I could see slight differences).

[project89]

ill add in that some of the smaller ebay turbos arent actually small,

i have 2 friends that both bought small ebay turbos and the compressor wheels were actually larger then they were suposed to be

#1 was supposed to be a 16g dsm turbo.
the ex side and and pysical size of the compressor housings were identical to his stocker. but the compressor wheel was quite large compared to the stocker and worked out to be something like a t3 50 trim

#2 was i belive one of the t25/28 models
and this ws the same thing the compressor wheel worked out to be a small t3 wheel


but both oif them use the turbos without any issues they just noticed a lil more lag due to the bigger compressor wheels but they both said they deff made more power over the stockers


i recomend two things with ebay turbos, check them for machining debri , and also when u first install them heat cycle them a few times before u actually go into boost with them(i.e start the motor let it warm up/get the turbo warm then shut it down till it cools completly off and repeat about 3-4 times) ive done this with multiple ebay turbos ranging from the tiny ones all the way up to the new 76mm ebay unit and have only ever had an issue with one turbo and that was my fault for not using a oil restritor on a motor with 100+ psi of oil presure..

the only ebay turbo i will tell anyone to stay away from is the gt35"r"
the chinia ballbearings DO NOT HOLD UP.even the supplier i know stoped selling the bb units cause just about everyone he sold came back busted

the journal bearing gt35 units are good though,u can tell them apart by the chra the journal bearing ones are not water cooled

[pocket-rocket]

Quite a few of the guys on the Ranger forums busted a guys balls for getting a "cheap Chinese knockoff" turbo from ebay. He was quite happy with it and said it performed well, especially considering the price. As far as I know, he is still driving it.

[ghrarhg]

the only ebay turbo i will tell anyone to stay away from is the gt35"r"
the chinia ballbearings DO NOT HOLD UP.even the supplier i know stoped selling the bb units cause just about everyone he sold came back busted

Ok, so you would stay away from ALL eBay ball bearing turbos, or just the gt35r?

[robertisaar]

Ok, so you would stay away from ALL eBay ball bearing turbos, or just the gt35r?

probably the only one out there that IS a BB model...

i haven't seen too many cheap BB turbos...

[RedZMonte]

What motor do you have? if your going from a T25 then i would stick with a T3/T4 or you will have allot of lag. Don't do the ebay turbos..... Chineese ones i have seen are fricking glued together and over 5psi fall apart lmao! stick with a reputable company or someone with alot of feed back.. you don't need a ball bearing turbo for it to spool fast.. if you have the right turbo for your car a jearnal bearing turbo is fine, make sure it has a 360* thrust bearing at minimum...

http://cheapturbo.com/

[SofaKingWeToddDid]

just seal er off so the turbo shouldnt be there, on the exhaust side. then get a few leaf blowers and run them parallel so all three are shooting into the TB at once, not into eachother then the last one goes in, thats the mistake most people make....
next you install a power inverter.... one of those $10 ones from Wal-Mart that plug into your cigarette lighter will work just fine, with a power bar -to prevent surges from the three monster leaf blowers you took your hood right off to install.
now, here is the key thing... the cigarette lighter doesnt give enough power to supply all three blowers, so... you have to simply find the fuse for it, remove and replace with a nail.
a simple finishing nail bent in a C shape will work fine, or i suppose a staple or something. hair clip... whatever you like to over ride this fuse. also, dont forget to face the inlet of the blowers forward, so they get cooler air.
you wouldnt wanna put them backwards and screw up all your hard earned horsepower now would you?

[robertisaar]

^i think you should sell these on eBay... but you have to include the JUICE box as well to see the full benefit...

the cheap ass chinese turbo i bought looks and feels alright. i'm sure its not going to last anywhere near the amount of time a name brand one would. but for cheap boost, its reliable enough. its not like its going to be on there for a massive amount of time.

[pocket-rocket]

^i think you should sell these on eBay... but you have to include the JUICE box as well to see the full benefit...

the cheap ass chinese turbo i bought looks and feels alright. i'm sure its not going to last anywhere near the amount of time a name brand one would. but for cheap boost, its reliable enough. its not like its going to be on there for a massive amount of time.

Did you remove your MAF when you went to OBD1? If not, maybe put it back in just to act as a screen to catch flying debris before it gets sucked in your engine if the turbo does blow (if you didn't descreen it).

[robertisaar]

MAF, what MAF? only the a-bodies got them...

the turbo has yet to be installed, but i have taken it apart MANY times....

once too many actually...... bad story there.