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Yeah, I think you're right. I'm really trying to avoid the head gasket. At the point I'm doing the head gasket, I might as well be installing the 3.0L engine. I guess I can find other uses for the borescope so I'll order one and have a look. If I see any metal in there, I'll pull the head. I don't want to risk the turbo hotside.
Strangely, the hot side on the K27 looks fine even though I know metal ran through it. Did you find metal in your cylinders when yours went?
I find it strange that the turbo wall blew out. The gasket was all deformed in other spots as well. It's like something detonated in the thing. I can see shrapnel puncturing the wall but why all the gasket is buldging out is surprising to me. It's like it had too much pressure, but there should only have been the 18PSI it was generating.
I noticed that the turbo midsection is a different color than I've seen it. It looks a lot more brown and tarnished colored. Maybe it was getting a lot hotter. None of the oil lines or water lines are plugged up.
Is there anyway to look at the turbo bearings themselves to see why they might have failed?
I'd be more concerned about the cylinder walls than a head gasket.
Looks like we both had bearings overheat whatever the cause. It would take expertise to analyze the bearings and come up with answers. Charlie at Evergreen Turbo said he'd look at mine when I'm in Florida. You might open yours up and email him some pictures to see if he has any comments. Yours does seem spectacular.
Is there anyway to look at the turbo bearings themselves to see why they might have failed?
Since your turbo was rebuilt recently there's a chance the bearing housing and shaft may have had some wear that produced slightly looser clearances. If the oil clearance is too loose it might let the rotating assembly wobble slightly under certain conditions and lead to increased wear. Other contributing factors can be a BOV that's too tight and hot oil temps. Sometimes a failure can be caused by several minor factors that might be fine by themselves, but when they're added together can lead to catastrophe.
Funny you mentioned the diverter valve. I had a Forge 007 unit and I was running the blue spring. This was probably too heavy for 18PSI.
I was reading earlier today about compressor surge occurring at WOT. I never had fluttering with this valve and it did seem to purge okay. Why I switched from yellow to blue is a mystery. I don't remember doing it, but it seems wrong.
So surge at full throttle could certainly have damaged it over time. So could the incident with the plugged water cooling socket. And the filter in possibly poor condition.
Evergreen turbo did the service, I doubt it had 5000 miles on it since. I may have looked that up and mentioned it earlier, I don't remember now. It was mostly track only on that turbo. He replaced the bearings and adjusted everything.
Let me be clear, I don't blame the service in any way shape or form. It was top notch. If I didn't have other reasons why the turbo might have died, I might consider looking at a faulty job.
But I'm a lot more likely to blame me and that blue spring in this instance, having read about compressor surge issues all day. I find that the core source of the majority of my problems in life is me.
Since you know Charlie having done business with him, you know he would be more than willing to look at this for you. His background is extensive and he has seen a lot. Doubt you have a better resource to analyze this.
No, no news yet, but we were talking end of July for stuff. I still need to finish removing the old exhaust components. I got my inspection camera in so I'll be able to look down in to the cylinders finally.
Hard to see, but that looks a lot like a chunk of turbo stuck between the cylinder wall. If not a piece of turbo, it's a piece of something surrounded by a rather large hole. And there's lots of scratching in the wall, something which will get worse.
Other cylinders look okay in the parts that I can see, but there's epic carbon build up and oil so it's hard to see. And by 'okay' i mean, no holes. However, some of the cylinder walls have pieces of turbo stuck to the sides, either fused in or just glued on by oil.
Hard to see, but that looks a lot like a chunk of turbo stuck between the cylinder wall. If not a piece of turbo, it's a piece of something surrounded by a rather large hole. And there's lots of scratching in the wall, something which will get worse.
Other cylinders look okay in the parts that I can see, but there's epic carbon build up and oil so it's hard to see. And by 'okay' i mean, no holes. However, some of the cylinder walls have pieces of turbo stuck to the sides, either fused in or just glued on by oil.
I do not see any of the damage I expected to see. Must have been an optical illusion. It looked like there was a little turbo powder in the head but I don't think it was causing any damage.
This motor has 100 miles on it and cylinder walls 1 & 4 look pristine though I haven't measured them. 2 & 3 have scratches towards the top. 2 is the worst with bumps I can feel through gloves where those scratches are. 3 scratches are less pronounced.
Rings are intact. The engine ran fine before dis-assembly. Plenty of power too, just low compression.
Carbon doesn't look to bad. Could use a bit of a valve job sure.
Pistons #1 and #4 have big valve shaped... dents in them. I am not sure this is stock. I need to go look. Does anyone know? #3 has a slightly less large indentation. Has this engine lost a timing belt in the past?
How long does an engine with scratches like that have left? The bottom end is in good shape and I just had all the oil seals done including balance shafts. The bearings too. Should I just get a cheap valve job, throw the head back on and run it until it starts smoking? If I could get another season or two out of it I'd be super happy.
06-28-2015, 10:33 AM
