JimX

I think they make both types. The guy at the workshop knew at first glance that it was a sleeve bearing. Either way, I'm sold on sleeve bearings now. The price of rebuilding them is ridiculously cheap.

Ok, bit of an update. Since the turbo is Garrett, I took it to Garrett in Chipping Norton. The guy there had a look and told me that the small side-to-side play was completely normal, and that the axial play was the only direction in which there should be no movement. He checked the housing for evidence of the wheels touching and there was none. So he went to the wastegate, and found that at some point in the turbo's life someone had welded it shut. Presumably after they decided this was a bad idea they cut the weld off. But because of the welding dags still present on the pivot, it was sticking open and rattling around. I believe that this is the noise (it made the same noise I heard when he moved it around), so I asked them to fix it. I should get the turbo back on Wednesday. He also said he could do a full rebuild for only $345 because it's a sleeve bearing turbo. While this is pretty cheap, I've decided that it only takes me a couple of hours to get the turbo off so I'll rebuild it when I start getting axial play in the bearing. Now that I know how to check a turbo for wear, I'll include the check as part of my regular servicing.

Can someone let me know which Nissan dealers in Sydney have them for $155? I've found that prices between dealers vary a LOT. And some have items in stock, and others make you wait 6 weeks and pay the full shipping cost from Japan.

Autosol might get it cleaner quicker, but be careful not to get it anywhere important like your valves.

Hmm, I was lucky and found the AR ratio stamped onto the housing But you can also work out the AR ratio (roughly) by measuring the diameter of the intake and the distance from the middle of the turbo to the middle of the intake. Probably hard to do very precisely but good enough for a rough idea.

Hills Motorsports in Castle Hill. 8802 0777.

I finally got the turbo off, only took another hour of stuffing around The bearings are stuffed Oh well, rebuild/replacement, here I come. Edit: Turbo is not dead! I took it to Garrett and the guy said the side-to-side freeplay was completely normal. Neither wheel touches the housing and there is no axial (forwards-backwards) play at all. So it's got a long life ahead of it still. Which is good, because I was surprised when I thought it was worn out. Looking at the rest of the turbo, it looks to be in excellent condition. No pits/chips on the blades, no corrosion or anything. Anyway, I'm happy

Thanks for the info, I'm going to jack the car up tomorrow and have a look from underneath. Well, that was the plan regardless, but now I know what I'm looking for

I tried removing my turbo today, and everything went very easily and quickly up until the last bit. Underneath and towards the front there seems to be an oil line, but it's very difficult to fit a spanner in there and I can't even see it from above. Does anyone know an easy way to get this line off? I also removed a coolant line, but should there be another coolant return line somewhere else? I've found 3 coolant/oil hoses, but I suspect there should be 4. Any advice appreciated! I'm ready to take a long break.

I would like to repeat all of tofu86's questions And I'll add one more - does it fit easily into the space next to the battery/HICAS stuff in the boot of an R33?

Hippy, I don't think they're illegal, but ask the shop guys. If you don't want to take their word then maybe ask the RTA, or just ask the cop when he pulls you over Kdawgboostin33, I wouldn't bother changing the parkers. Why would you want to?

Has this been sold yet?

Hmm, this is starting to sound complicated and expensive. I think I will take the easy option and get a Walbro pump. Anyone want to buy an unused 044?

The guy that did the testing on SDU still found that Optimax was over 98RON. It was the worst of the three though. I was using Synergy 8000 in my bike for awhile but stopped because they jacked the price up to 20c above their regular unleaded price. I guess they were hoping that the other companies would follow suit but they never did so now it's back to normal (ish) again.

The Philips Vision Plus I want to get are $40 a pair from Autobarn. I think Covingtons might be a bit cheaper, I will check there before I buy. I think the blue ones are in the same price range.

I had a chat to the guys at Hills Motorsports today about my 044 fuel pump, and they said that it can be mounted internally, but would be rather difficult and would take a lot longer than the original hour of labour quoted. For this reason, he suggested that I sell the pump and get a Walbro pump which is much easier to fit into the existing bracket. While I would have liked to have done this, it might be difficult for me to even break even on the changeover of pumps despite the fact that the Walbro pump is less powerful. I was just wondering if anyone's had any experience in fitting the 044 pump internally, and what they had to do to achieve it. I might have a shot at it this weekend, or if it sounds too complicated and/or time consuming, just cut my losses and try to sell this pump and buy a Walbro.

There's absolutely not point in putting a V8 in a sportscar the size of the GTR. Assuming you can bundle it with forced induction, which you can. Doing it just for the noise? Pfft. As has already been said, a V8 will just add extra weight for absolutely no benefit. Well, aside from maybe giving you more low-down torque for if you want to tow something... Need I say more?

Wow, you learn something everyday. I thought our turbos were oil cooled Thanks for that, makes my decision-making a lot easier.

Thanks for the info guys, I'll see what happens tomorrow when it comes off.

Do you have a ballpark figure for how much they cost to repair? If it's over a grand, I'm tempted just to buy a near-new second hand unit for around $1k to save on delays on getting the car back on the road. But if it's only half that, then that sounds like a better option.

How much does it cost to remove and replace a turbo? If it can be done in an hour, I'll pay that to have the old one put back in until I can find a replacement. But if it's a 4 hour job or more, then I'm in trouble.

Yeah they can, but I like to have options Mark has a few second hand turbos on hand, if everything's too expensive I might just get one of those and start saving for something newer/better.

Tony, pm me details. I don't know what I did to the turbo, it just gradually started making more and more noise over the past 6 months or so. The guys at Hills said it could be either the wastegate or turbo bearings, but I'm not losing any power so fingers crossed it's just the wastegate. I'm planning for worst case scenario regardless. He said the whole thing looked like a bodgy job so they might not have installed any of it properly. Steve, the turbo is Garrett, is there something similar you can get for Garrett turbos? Whether locally or from Japan.

Three questions about turbo rebuilds. Sorry if they have been answered previously but I did a search and could not find anything on the first couple of pages. 1. I know that you can't rebuild ball bearing turbos, but can you keep the old housing and put all new internals in? Even if this saved me only $50-100 on a new housing I think I would prefer to do this. 2. I don't know if my old turbo is sleeve or ball bearing. Does anyone know the rough price differences to rebuilding a sleeve bearing turbo and putting all new internals into an old housing, assuming question 1 is possible? 3. If there are no identifying marks on my old turbo, is there a way to find out what size the turbine and compressors are? Just for curiosity's sake, especially if I can rebuild it with the same wheels.

Thanks for the info Warpspeed. Have you got a copy of your flowmap handy? Or know somewhere I can download one if you only have a hard copy?