Ok lads and ladies,
I've finally come to terms with the fact that my turbo is stuffed.
It's been smoking on long idle for a while and now is starting to smoke when pulling hills and any time I have to give it a bit of a boot-full. Because of the previous irregularity, I was hesitant to call it the turbo but now it had become suspect so I inspected it.
It has perceptible shaft play front to back. The rotational bearings seem to be fine as it spins freely and doesn't flop up and down and side-to-side. The thrust bearing(s) have packed it in.
So the question is, what is the advised way to go? The engine has 221,600 miles and counting. The turbo was last replaced at 80,000 miles.
I've rebuilt Mitsubishi turbos in the past for the Dodge Shelby Daytona and Turbo Z so I'm not unfamiliar with what it takes to keep it approximately balanced and I realize that without having over/undermilled bearings, I'm not going to get the longevity out of a rebuild that I'll get out of a new cartridge or full reman turbo. I know the downsides as they stood with the older Mistus I used to work on. With that said, this is only my second Garret and the first one was bodged onto the carburetor of my Chevrolet Luv (small Isuzu, basically). That turbo was worn when I bought it and I positively flogged the bits off of it (to the point I tore the teeth off of the ring gear in the rear end twice). It never smoked so I never rebuilt it and eventually sold the truck.
Based on that, they don't seem to be particularly weak and as long as the seals are intact and the bearings are holding they work reasonably well.
I won't be buying a kit off of "The Bay" so don't worry there. I'd buy a reputable rebuild kit. Just wondering what everyone's take is on them. If a bloke has a reasonable amount of skill in having rebuilt chargers in the past, is there much to lose by giving it a go here?
