samb03

Turbos can be high maintance. The turbos push more air when they are scrolled up and making boost. The more you have to have a safe Air/Fuel ration (stoichiometric prefection is 14.7) They usually tune it a little lean on the low end were you cruise with low load for better fuel miliage and rich (more fuel) in the higher revs to be safe. Lean tuning makes more power but produces more heat. Heat can melt pistons and heads, it can spontaniously ignite the fuel and jar the piston on its way up. This is known as spark knock or detonation. It can damage piston ring lands. So you have to be careful and get a good tune.

Since most turbos are lubricated with the engines oils if the seals leak you can burn loose oil in the engine and make the bearings run dry(catostrophic failure).Most turbos inherently burn some oil. I have heard stories of Suburu's burning a quart of oil every oil change right off the lot when brand new. It is easy to forget that the turbo maybe spinning at 100K rpm. If you get a turbo a turbo times is a good investment. It lets you take your keys out of the car and lock it up and the engine will idle for a predetermined amount of time (usually a minute or two). This keeps the oil flowing to the turbo while it is slowing down. Because if you gun it coming into a parking lot, the turbo is spinning fast. You park it and jump out of the car like normal with engine off the turbo is spinning with no new oil. It cooks the oil off and is very hard on the bearing. If the bearings go out in the turbo the prop will hit the housing and chew the prop and send metal into the engine. this was a rebuilt turbo that didn't make it 1500miles in my 89 240sx (CA18DET).