It obviously did not wobble like this before. click for video*

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4393/...f0d63699_z.jpg20170807_193614_41726342286578 by , on Flickr

Yea that needs to be sent back to comp and replaced. I seriously doubt a bad install would have caused that

Yeah, Im going to remove both. I think I might try to figure out a way to slightly pressurize the intercooler and run water through it or some type of liquid to try to rid it of any debris lodged in there....I just feel that blowing air through it only could possibly leave stuff behind............Thoughts on this?

Then just flush the motor 3 or 4 times with a very light viscosity oil or the marvel mystery oil stuff just to try to get rid of anything that might be in the engine.

Thank you for the support.

I don't see how either. It idled fine and ran good for a short time maybe a half mile or so before doing this so it seems as if something happened while it was running......which leads me to believe that the bearings changed clearances just enough while getting some heat to them to cause this............or it just wasn't right from the start and it was off just not something you could see with the naked eye.

The Precision turbos perform equally or better than the Comp. The benefit of the Comp is not requiring the oil system. I was never a fan of an oil-less turbo. That's a lot of heat to deal with to not have proper cooling.

I would use air conditioner flush to clean the intercooler.:twocents:

I've never really felt ok with an oil-less turbo. So, you add grease every few thousand miles, but you never open it up and clean out the old grease - how does it not turn into a sticky gummy mess after 30k miles?

:iagree:

For the industrial bearings I've worked with, the new grease pushes the old grease out the sides of the bearing (or some type of vent). In the case of a turbo, I would assume most of the grease will ooze out on the exhaust side and be sent out the tailpipe.

Based on my experience with high-temp bearings, I would give the bearing a shot or two of grease* much more often than 3000 miles. Maybe once a week for a DD.

YMMV. All my experience is with industrial equipment and not turbos.

* Just how much would depend on type of bearing, size, etc.

Yea that's me. Fully built block with Comp bp kit. When everything was done, started the car, everything was good for about 10 min, then I noticed a slow drip of coolant from the exhaust. Started checking everything I could, made sure to verify it wasn't coming from the engine since I just built it. After removing the turbo and removing the housings, I found the turbo housing soaked with coolant. Turbo manifold was dry, indicating turbo seal coolant leak. Sent back to comp, they replaced the entire center section, and had it back within a few days. Comp was actually a pleasure to deal with, and they corrected the problem quickly, and correctly free of charge with free return shipping.

Since this failure, I have put about 1000 miles on the car with absolutely no problems. These turbos are fairly new, maybe its a quality control issue, maybe its a poor design, I am not sure. But I can tell you, they will warranty it for you, and everything is running perfectly since being replaced. I will be greasing mine every 2000 miles or so, personally think that is the longest that should be gone.

Call Comp directly and get it handled. The guy I dealt with was Joe.

Just to clarify for all the community here, Sasha has been great and I do not have any issues with him or his product....just the turbo from Comp.

I had the same coolant seal issue, was pushing out coolant smoke out exhaust. Sent to them and they fixed it and sent back. Have about 3k miles on her now running good.

That's interesting, same issue as me. Sounds like a quality control problem more than a design flaw.

Altogether much less concerning than the OP's issue which could result in metallic dust finding its way into the combustion chamber...

That being said, I've seen a few turbos go south like this in my time as a car enthusiast and none of the motors seemed any worse for wear.

Yea, metal particles are concerning. I would inspect inside the intake manifold, and all intake piping/intercooler for debris. clean everything thoroughly, change oil and filter, drive a couple hundred miles, then change oil and filter again. You should be fine.

In most bearing set-ups that I have dealt with. There is a hole that has a pipe plug in it that has to be removed when greasing the bearing. The hole is 180deg from the zerk fitting. This hole is where the old grease is suppose to come out of. If the old grease is hard. You have to use something to poke a hole in the hard grease to get it to flow out of the hole. An auto-greaser might work. We was trying these when I retired.

Ya the coolant leak isn't very damaging compared to the metal shavings going into your engine. But seriously it's like I'm expecting my turbo to fail when I put it in. There's been what 9 new VHR comp turbo kits and maybe 10 HR kits. Out of 19 comp turbos not one not two but THREE turbo failures. That's just insane.

I'm sorry I love BP and Sasha's customer service but I think we should have stuck with the precision turbo.

It's probably worse than that. We don't know whats going on with the other kits. As far as Comp kits go, 100% of the ones we've heard about have had issues. One wasn't the turbo itself, but then again, maybe it was. The filter melted and split. Too much heat? Imagine running w/o a filter and not knowing it.

People still have the option of going with the Precision turbos from Sasha. As far as the filters in my own experience relocation would be optimal but we know that is'nt an option. So you're left with heat mitigation or fabricating a shield. I'm on my third filter now; The first was completely my own ignorance as a result of removing the turbo and reinstalling it to many times and flattening the gasket. The second filter bubbled around the snout and eventually cracked open at the base. I sent pics to Buschur Racing and they said they don't know and had never seen it happen. I've gold wrapped the base of the third filter and we'll see the results when I snatch it off.

I was thinking about taking the intercooler to a semi repair shop, figured they would have some type of cleaning tank for the big intercoolers for the semi's.

That sounds like a pretty clever idea!

Al?

Knuckles, Did you get my PM?

All this seems odd on the coolant leaks. Though I haven't seen their design, typically, most turbo housing incorporate a water jacket around the bearings that does not contact the shaft or require any form of seal. The coolant could never get into the compressor or turbine.

Replied

I had a 1984 Daytona Turbo Z with the water jacket around the bearing and the wall was so thin, that it actually cracked and caused major leaking into the exhaust manifold. Funny, I had been losing coolant for a few years (never could find a leak) and it turned out to be the water jacket around the bearing...

:happydance:

Would be nice is Sasha chimed in here..

Just mailed the turbo back to Comp and spoke to them. I asked them if they have seen anything like this and basically they have not. They are going to send my turbo to engineering and R&D I guess so everyone can get a better idea on what potentially happened. They said this version of the oil less CTX 4 is the latest version .....the one with the zert fitting. I guess cooling seal issues have been present before but nothing to this extent. They said when they take it apart that they will have a better understanding on what went wrong. I asked if turning the housing (aka clocking the turbo) causes this and it did not seem like it would cause this type of failure. He did say though that removing the nut that the actual turbine is secured by would be an issue, like dissembling the turbine itself which I did not do thankfully. Comp did say that actual engine damage from this failure is likely minimal to none, intercooler probably caught most of the metal dust / particles. I offered to send photos of my air filter to show how its in all one piece and they didn't seem to want anything more at this time.

Overall, so far so good for customer service. They sent me a return shipping label and have been a pleasure to speak with.

I will keep everyone posted with what their findings are once they examine it.

Are they sending u a replacement right away? Or waiting to see wat happened to the other one first?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They want to inspect it first.

I guess that makes sense on their part. I wouldn't be to happy being out a car until they decide that oh ya it was a design flaw or quality control issue. But wat can u do!! Good luck keep us posted


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't know if this is proper etiquette but here is Sasha's post from the other forum on my350z.com just to keep everyone updated on the Forum.
I also received a email from Comp Turbo today asking for my phone number to discuss what they found. I should be able to update everyone tomorrow evening.

"OP, sorry about your troubles with this turbo. This is a very extreme and unfortunate case, not seen before.

Based on your description of the failure, there is no way anything would have made it's way up past the FMIC. Metal is of course heavier than air, and will simply sit at the bottom of the IC (provided it even made it that far).

these turbos feature a triple ceramic ball bearing centre section, which is water cooled. The centres section is billet aluminium, and features a grease nipple. The bearings get greased once per oil change, so the bearings stay lubricated. The water cooling prevents the grease from liquefying, so the bearings are kept lubricated. So despite being Oi-less, there is grease in the centre section to keep the bearings lubricated."

And to add to this, I have been in touch with COMP as well regarding this particular case. It is indeed the first time they have seen a failure of this nature. COMP is striving to reach a 1% or less failure rate, which is much better than what Precision turbo was when I compile failures and the number of kits/turbos sold.

The worst part about Precision is that it was never their fault. Typical answer was "oil contamination" and this is why the turbo blew up...which of course is a load of BS.

COMP is the exact opposite. They will take care of any and all repairs, no questions asked. The turnaround time has also been extremely good, with 2nd day air return of turbo to customer, which I appreciate.

I have now sold 26 of these oil less units, this is one of those that failed. There were two more, one was where a customer removed the zerk grease fitting, causing issues. COMP repaired it and had it back to the customer within a week. Another turbo had a small coolant leak, which again was repaired and returned to the customer with a very quick turnaround.

EDIT:

I would have chimed in a lot sooner, but didn't know there was a thread here.

Also, to clarify... The original oil less design did not have a grease nipple so the entire centre section was sealed with the grease that is put in at the time of assembly. There were issues with those units, but that was in the year 2010-2014. I researched the crap out of these new units, and simply could not find a single bad review on the new versions of the turbo which have the grease nipple. For that reason, I made the switch to COMP turbo.

Wonder what caused the failure.

Could you opt for the oil feed comp turbos?

Yes, that is still an option. You can go with a journal bearing turbo or a ball bearing oil cooled turbo.

The ball bearing oil cooled has the same centre section as the oil-less units, just uses oil instead of grease.

I think the JB units would be on par as far as cost goes as the triple ceramic ball bearing oil-less units. The oil cooled ball bearing units would be more expensive than though than the oil-less, due to the addition of an oil pan, two oil lines, RTV, scavenge pump, and pump bracket.

I'll be ready when you start making the kits again

The verdict is in on this.

This was not a quality control issue, and the problem occurred at the time of the install (to no fault of the installer).

When the compressor cover was clocked (not sure if it was removed and replaced) for proper fitment, the seal or O-ring that sits between the compressor cover and the compressor cover back plate was pinched. This cause the compressor cover to sit at a tilted angle, which means the compressor itself was in contact with the cover.

As soon as some significant amount of exhaust gas went through the turbine, the compressor wheel overcame the resistance due to exhaust force, and stated to rotate while still in touch with he cover.

This is why in the video it looks like the shaft is almost bent...when it is not, it is the compressor cover not sitting square to the compressor wheel.

COMP is going to warranty this unit regardless.

Good to hear they are taking care of it even though it was not a manafacture defect.