Free Spinning Turbo Fan

[Caghan]

  Quote

if an engine that is fitted with a turbo from the factory has very low or no oil pressure, the first thing that will fail will be the turbo, this is because the engine itself is making the pressure before it can feed it to the turbo, (I am explaining this as simply as I can so that you can understand what I am saying) the next thing that will fail will be the bearings on the engine, as these feed first, they are next in line to fail, when I removed your sump to rebuild the oil pump, I also removed a couple of bearing caps to assess their condition, as I stated to you in my last mail, (they are SCORED), this means that even if your oil pressure was normal, your oil pressure reading will NOT be normal, the oil pressure will of course be much lower, this is because as the bearings wear etc or

become scored, it is perfectly normal for the pressure to drop, how much it drops depends on how worn or scored they are, this is why I said to you oil pressure is a very good way to determine what condition an engine is in. (do you understand so far) now do you understand why your turbo failed ? there was not sufficient oil feed at the turbo for the bearings to survive. This is I think very simple to understand, but in any case I have now contacted Mr kennedy at Garrett in the UK and I have asked him to give me a written report on the analysis they did on your old turbo, as I said they agree with me in every aspect of my diagnosis that the reason your turbo failed was (lack of lubrication).

It is logical that the next step other than (changing the bearings) is to find a way to boost the oil pressure, I worked on this for several days, in order to bring the oil pressure up to where it is now. At present the oil pressure when cold is reading as follows ;- bear in mind that this is with Mobil 1 full synthetic oil and with the oil filter you gave me.

At idle of 800-850 rpm – 50 psi engine cold

At idle of 800-850 rpm – 25 psi engine hot

At approximately 4,000 rpm – 85 psi engine hot

This can of course be improved upon, but please note that in my mind there is only one way to sort this out professionally, the correct way to deal with this is to have the bearings replaced as I cannot in any way give you any kind of guarantee that ;-

1./ the oil pressure will stay at this level consistently or 2./ the turbo will not fail again as consequence, of the oil pressure dropping. This is why I insisted that we fit an oil pressure gauge capillary type (not the type you gave me) so that we can monitor the oil pressure, there by trying to prevent another failure.

this is the next email I got when I asked for the readings.

[ZAP]

I would not doubt the oil starvation of the turbo as it is a common problem because Ford used a $0.02 gauze screen that blocks easily.

You have not mentioned how often and what oil you have been using to service the car.

Please answer the following question:

Have you owned the car from new or know the service history ?

What oil & Filter have you been using for service ?

How often is oil changed ?

How do you drive the car (thrashed or pussy) ?

We need to better understand the history of the car before we can guide you in decisions further as the mechanic may be telling you the truth, but more info is required.

[seduced]

Agree. More info required.

This guy knows you trust him as he is the only one on the island who can do the work. You have obviously told him you know nothing about engines hence all the "trying to explain it simply for you" references in his emails to you. So he could tell you whatever he likes, no-one else can verify his work and you would have no idea anyway. Any figures he provides could be dodgy. If he wants to earn some serious cash working on an exotic, he could tell you anything. My bet is when you go ahead with the bearings, he will find scored bores, or questionable rods, or cracked block.

MY concern would be that he hasn't mentioned the filter in the turbo oil line as yet. A whole new bottom end with a billet oil pump will not fix a blocked filter!!!!!

[Caghan]

  On 21/03/2010 at 11:32 PM, seduced said:

Agree. More info required.

This guy knows you trust him as he is the only one on the island who can do the work. You have obviously told him you know nothing about engines hence all the "trying to explain it simply for you" references in his emails to you. So he could tell you whatever he likes, no-one else can verify his work and you would have no idea anyway. Any figures he provides could be dodgy. If he wants to earn some serious cash working on an exotic, he could tell you anything. My bet is when you go ahead with the bearings, he will find scored bores, or questionable rods, or cracked block.

MY concern would be that he hasn't mentioned the filter in the turbo oil line as yet. A whole new bottom end with a billet oil pump will not fix a blocked filter!!!!!

I mentioned the blocked filter to him when I took it to him, he told me it was alright. so its taken care of.

[Wenier]

What type of oil pressure gauge did you give him that he doesnt want to use? Brand, etc..?

[Caghan]

  On 22/03/2010 at 9:20 PM, Wenier said:

What type of oil pressure gauge did you give him that he doesnt want to use? Brand, etc..?

I bought it from Oz I forgot the name but it was something plazma. it was an electronic one.

[Caghan]

  On 21/03/2010 at 11:09 AM, ZAP said:

I would not doubt the oil starvation of the turbo as it is a common problem because Ford used a $0.02 gauze screen that blocks easily.

You have not mentioned how often and what oil you have been using to service the car.

Please answer the following question:

Have you owned the car from new or know the service history ?

What oil & Filter have you been using for service ?

How often is oil changed ?

How do you drive the car (thrashed or pussy) ?

We need to better understand the history of the car before we can guide you in decisions further as the mechanic may be telling you the truth, but more info is required.

the car was bought brand new so I owned it. when I brought it over to cyp, I serviced it myself at 5000ks, changed the oil with a synthetic kind that's available over here with an oil filter from a honda or somesh*t(there was NOOOOO way to get the original one that time). then I got it serviced by a very mindless mechanic(was the best around but still sh*thouse). he put another filter on which was very small and some other oil that I didnt see. the next oil change was at 15000k.

I drive the car between pussy and thrashed. I never ever thrash that bad. maybe a 2-3 minute session that's it.

I have no doubt the oil and the filter used had an adverse effect on the car. I mean the filters were tiny compared to the genuine one.