What No Boost ! Turbo Chewed Up !

[J.C944TurboMan]

Had a ride out last night to buy some door cards , on route about 30miles from my home up in the hills of Buxton I lost the Turbo boost ! I could still hear the whistle from the Turbo, louder that ever! Then there was a strong smell of burning engine oil! I feared the worst. Bought the door panels , they are the 8 speaker option ones in Black leather type mint condition. So then set of for return journey home about 35 miles , the engine revs would not develop , restricted to about 3500rpm just managed to limp home at 70mph on the motorway , by the time I reached my house the 944T was bellowing thick smoke when coming of boost ! O dear today I started the strip down and I found a strange revelation! Looks like the captive nut has come off the end of the shaft and been chewed up by the compressor wheel . I am so glad that I have a spare KKK ready to go in! Life is so dull without Boost! I am now fitting a low mileage 27K 250bhp model so I should notice some extra power. I have been using the Lindsey racing boost enhancer and I think I have been over boosting!!! Big job breaking out! Can't wait to get the 944T back on the road!!!

 

[Diver944]

Yikes![] The worrying question has to be 'where did all the bits of chewed up metal go?'. The sad answer could be straight into your cylinders [&o]

Your turbocharger looks similar to mine when it chewed up a loose bolt and it completely trashed the cylinder walls of my engine, causing plumes of oil smoke out the back. Have you thought about checking your bores before simply changing the turbocharger?

Looking positively it could be an ideal excuse to drop in a budget 3 litre engine from Hartech

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=48&t=766383&mid=0&nmt=300bhp, 350lbs feet torque 944 3 litre turbo

 

[robwright]

Ouch!!! Looks exactly like mine did lol when it chewed up a stray bolt. Luckily enough the bolt ground the compressor veins up into something resembling dust so no additional damage done. Hope your removal goes better than mine as the 21 year old bolts attached to the old turbo weren't going to come for love nor money!!! I had to hack the turbo out with a junior hacksaw [] Consequently it cost me a new crossover pipe and exhaust turbine outlet pipe as well!!! Well I say new - second hand from douglas valley - the robbibg b******s that they are [] I take it you can drop the 250 turbo straight in??? I considered upgrading to something bigger than that even but when the cost of new injectors and chips and everything else was added I just couldn't afford it [] Good luck with the swap mate.

 

[Fat Albert]

I had the same thing happen on my Abbott-chipped SAAB 9 3, I carried on using it for the run to teh station for a couple of days until the cload of white smoke became just too embaressing....

 

[sawood12]

What a bummer - strange failure though. I would have thought that the direction of rotation of the compressor wheel would have tightened the bolt onto the shaft rather than try to loosen it, maybe there was something else arry in the turbo. Still you'll never know now. Hope the bores are OK but it might be worth checking the IC for signs of debris because if you're lucky enough to have escaped bore damage but there are still some fragments left in your IC (or any downstream part of the intake) then it could release at some point in the future when you get the car back up and running.

Buxton - that's up my neck of the woods. I'm originally from Disley. I used to do alot of swimming and cycling around that area. And the old Buxton Road that drops into Whaley Bridge is one of my favourite driving (and riding) roads.

 

[Suffolk944]

ORIGINAL: sawood12


Buxton - that's up my neck of the woods.  I'm originally from Disley.  I used to do alot of swimming and cycling around that area.  And the old Buxton Road that drops into Whaley Bridge is one of my favourite driving (and riding) roads.

I lived in Whaley for around 5 years - Yes that road between Buxton and there is brilliant, one of a quite a few in the area. First time I drove the Whaley/Buxton Road was in my 5 Gt Turbo - fabulous ! [8D]

Couple of years ago I toyed with the idea of a group 944 driving weekend round the High Peak. Reckon it would be brilliant.

Back on topic - Hope the damage is limited to the Turbo JC. [&:]

 

[robwright]

[Couple of years ago I toyed with the idea of a group 944 driving weekend round the High Peak. Reckon it would be brilliant.

Back on topic - Hope the damage is limited to the Turbo JC. [&:]
[/quote]

I'd be up for that Peterborough not too far from the peaks. Could bring my mate and and his dodgy old air cooled 964 if you guys will have him lol. Could fit in a bit of walking as well. How sad.

 

[TTM]

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. As said above, make sure cylinder bores are fine, otherwise you might be just postponing a major bottom end rebuild.

I don't understand why the nut can happen to get loose... Isn't it supposed to be fitted with threadlocker?

 

[DivineE]

love the crawled back at 70 bit but very sorry to hear your woes! I hope the metal was caught in the intercooler or stuck in oil in the hoses somewhere. After you've checked your bores (if all is good) I'd take all the hoses off and clean them thoroughly plus have the intercooler cleaned out or try to do it yourself by capping both end and shaking it around with some petrol in maybe.

Both mine and Pauls 3.2's originally started because a bit of metal had scored the bores ...worst comes to the worst though you could always build another 3.2

 

[zcacogp]

Sorry to hear of your woes, JC, but this worries me, possibly more:

ORIGINAL: J.C944TurboMan
Looks like the captive nut has come off the end of the shaft and been chewed up by the compressor wheel ...

ORIGINAL: Diver944
Your turbocharger looks similar to mine when it chewed up a loose bolt ...

ORIGINAL: robwright
Ouch!!! Looks exactly like mine did lol when it chewed up a stray bolt.

Why so many failures of turbos from ingesting bolts? All different random happenings, or some common weakness?


Oli.

 

[robwright]

Why so many failures of turbos from ingesting bolts? All different random happenings, or some common weakness?


Oli.
[/quote]

I have to admit mine was completely all my fault!!! A simple job of taking the air filter housing apart eneded up costing me dear [] You can imageine the scenario when reassembling. Now where is that least M6 bolt. Oh never mind I'll just replace it with another one. It wasn't long before I found out where that M6 bolt was!!! At least I managed to retrieve the bolt and strangely enough I could have used it again lol. I hope the OP has managed to find the stray nut!! The compressor veins are very soft and will probably turn into dust, which you will find most of in your boost tube and intercooler. The nut may be a different story!! The whole top end has got to come off anyway to change the turbo so bar taking off the cylinder head then any damage should be evident.

 

[TTM]

ORIGINAL: zcacogp
Why so many failures of turbos from ingesting bolts? All different random happenings, or some common weakness?

I'm not sure this sort of failure happens any more often than broken cam chains on 16V engines ... []

 

[944Turbo]

I know of one other that lost that bolt, i wonder if there is already some minor blade damage that creates vibration and it works loose. Minor blade damage can be started by crud from the oil breather pipe under the inlet manifold, they get rusty and grotty and exit just in front of the turbo inlet. Good reason for a recirculating catch tank.
Tony

 

[DivineE]

That makes two out of three failures caused by loose bolts in the air filter so I don't think you have anything to worry about

 

[sawood12]

ORIGINAL: Suffolk944

ORIGINAL: sawood12


Buxton - that's up my neck of the woods. I'm originally from Disley. I used to do alot of swimming and cycling around that area. And the old Buxton Road that drops into Whaley Bridge is one of my favourite driving (and riding) roads.

I lived in Whaley for around 5 years - Yes that road between Buxton and there is brilliant, one of a quite a few in the area. First time I drove the Whaley/Buxton Road was in my 5 Gt Turbo - fabulous ! [8D]

Couple of years ago I toyed with the idea of a group 944 driving weekend round the High Peak. Reckon it would be brilliant.

Back on topic - Hope the damage is limited to the Turbo JC. [&:]

Small world! Unfortunately I didn't tackle that road very often in the 944 when I had it - though the A515 between Buxton and Ashbourne then the A52 to Derby was a route I did hundreds of times if I fancied a sunny Sunday drive out in the 944. Again - another good driving road, if you can avoid the Sunday drivers, but overtaking was easy enough in the turbo. In fact i'll be travelling that route next weekend as I'm heading back to Disley for the first time in about 5yrs. Should bring back some memories. In fact when I get into Buxton I think i'll take a detour and do the Whaley road instead of taking the bypass. Though it wont be the same in the Smax. It is drives like that I could do with the 944 again!

Anyway - back on topic. I'm not so sure that bolts releasing from the turbo is so common - I think this is the first i've heard of it. It is usually bolts released from the airbox. The plastic of the airbox becomes brittle over time and the repetative tightening of the airbox lid bolts eventually cracks the lugs and the airbox wall allowing a path for the bolts to enter the airbox.

 

[J.C944TurboMan]

Thank you all for your replies and concerns ,No one comented on me stating I was fitting a K27 ! Sorry I meant to state another K26 250bhp version ! I to hope that the small amounts of metal bits have done no internal damage ! I think the nut may have been worked loose by Turbo stall , this may have caused the compressor wheel to suddendly stop and apply reverse force onto the nut , with time undoing it ! I did suffer from what I thought was Turbo lag but someone said it might be Turbo Stall ! new to me , but of concern from now on !
I will tackle the turbo change some time next week and update you all , fingers crossed ! but would be a good excuse to fit some forged pistons from the US and polish and port the head !!!

Thanks best regards J.C