How to Rebuild a Turbo: Grassroots Motorsports forum: Grassroots Motorsports Magazine

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Sept. 29, 2010 10:21 p.m. RexSeven Dork

When I bought my turbo FC it came with a spare stock turbo that had blown seals. Rather than get rid of it I would like to rebuild it to sell or to keep as a working spare. I would also like the practice since my early MS3 has a known issue with blowing turbo seals. The MS3's turbo is fine now but I would like to be prepared in case the seals fail once the car is out of warranty.

Anyone know of any good turbocharger rebuild write-ups so I'm not messing anything up? The stock FC turbo is a Hitachi HT-18 and the stock MS3 turbo is a Borg-Warner (KKK) K04, so if there are any specific steps to take for those turbos please let me know.
Sept. 29, 2010 11:09 p.m. BoxheadTim Dork

No links to any writeups, but the one thing that would concern me is - how do you plan to balance the wheels + shaft?
Sept. 29, 2010 11:29 p.m. daytonaer Reader

BoxheadTim wrote:

No links to any writeups, but the one thing that would concern me is - how do you plan to balance the wheels + shaft?

Mark the wheel/shaft/nut before you take it apart, make everything match when you put it back together. Assumes it was in balance before you took it apart.

Be careful with the shaft nut, I twisted a shaft because the retaining nut was left hand thread.

Good luck :)
Sept. 29, 2010 11:37 p.m. thatsnowinnebago Dork

daytonaer wrote:

BoxheadTim wrote:

No links to any writeups, but the one thing that would concern me is - how do you plan to balance the wheels + shaft?

Mark the wheel/shaft/nut before you take it apart, make everything match when you put it back together. Assumes it was in balance before you took it apart.

Be careful with the shaft nut, I twisted a shaft because the retaining nut was left hand thread.

Good luck :)

That sounds terrible
Sept. 30, 2010 12:06 a.m. Keith SuperDork

This book has a chapter on rebuilding a turbo. It's a dry read in the expository bits but when he gets his teeth into the technical aspects he's great. He knows his stuff.
Sept. 30, 2010 11:33 a.m. cemike2 New Reader

Here's a link to a T25/T28 rebuild...

http://www.sr20forum.com/turbo-guides/254779-how-rebuild-t25-t28-turbo.html
Sept. 30, 2010 6:56 p.m. RexSeven Dork

cemike2 wrote:

Here's a link to a T25/T28 rebuild...

http://www.sr20forum.com/turbo-guides/254779-how-rebuild-t25-t28-turbo.html

Cool, that helps a lot!

Keith wrote:

This book has a chapter on rebuilding a turbo. It's a dry read in the expository bits but when he gets his teeth into the technical aspects he's great. He knows his stuff.

I'll have to pick this book up sometime.