Bearings Trashed FI ETR 72 turbo

J

Jordan Koehn

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This is not a bashing thread against Forced Induction. It's for answers.

I had a billet 66/74 on my truck for 4k miles before the turbine wheel snapped off and flew out my exhaust.

I then ordered a etr 72/83 from FI for a great price and installed it. I broke it in nice and easy. 80 miles I drove it, not going above 10 psi. I did a few 1/2 and 3/4 throttle runs. And then I floored it around 20 mph, held on tight, and around 90 mph, there was a sound like a tin can full of marbles under the hood.

I drove it the mile back to my house, popped the hood and took off the air filter. Lo and behold, my brand new turbo was shot. The compressor was hitting the housing. I shipped it to forced induction.

They tell me it wasn't getting any oil. The shaft is blue and has melted brass on it. They're sending me pictures later today. I believe them. But what I can't figure out is, I have a oil pressure gauge on the oil filter housing where the turbo oil feed line is hooked to and it reads 25 psi at idle and 75 over idle all the time including when my turbo went. I unhooked the turbo supply line and cranked the truck. It's a #6 line and oil was shooting out a couple feet. I have a video but it's too big to upload.

I'm at a loss. They're rebuilding the turbo with new bearings and new turbine wheel for $300. Very fair price. But what should I do? Is the oil pump getting starved for oil above a certain rpm? Is it going bad? Did I get a faulty turbo? How can I be sure this won't happen again? Could there be debris in the oil pan blocking the oil pickup?

Since the 66/74 went out like it did, I'm kinda believing the oil thing. But it was getting pushed hard and with a 500 cfm air filter. So that could've been the problem. The 72 had a 1300 cfm filter on it. The 72 was bad to the bone. It lit within a couple hundred rpm of the 66/74 and still flows 20 lb/m more.

Any ideas or suggestions what to look for?

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Jordan Koehn said:
Any ideas or suggestions what to look for?

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Click to expand...

Check for a blocked oil feed line, make sure oil is coming out of the feed line when the engine is running. Clock the turbo cartridge so the oil feed is straight up. Make sure you are feeding oil in the feed side, not the drain side. Lubricate the new turbo with CLEAN 5w40 oil directly before installing the oil feed line.
 
I've already checked all that. I filled the turbo twice with 15-40 oil.

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well if you checked all that already the only other thing it could be if it were in fact an oil issue is the return. Make sure its free flowing with no restrictions.
 
I asked FI if a restricted oil return could cause the damage and he said no. There would be other issues if it was blocked off or restricted. José said it wasn't getting oil.

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How could the crankcase vent cause this? How do I check it?

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That's not strictly true, if the return was restricted it would reduces flow around the bearing surfaces which could cause them to over heat and fail.

Have you checked your supply pressure? What mm diameter pipe are you using to feed?
 
The hole coming from filter housing to feed turbo is 1/4".
Where feed, enters turbo, hole is necked down to 1/8".
I drilled mine out to 1/4". After drilling out there is still a .070 wall.
A lot of guys are buying larger lines. I didn't see any need for that
as you only have a 1/4" feed.
 
I'm going to replace that line with a longer one and run it to the outside of the turbo instead of it being between the turbo and manifold like it is now.

Do most people drill out that hole? I'd rather not take that all off to drill it bigger, but if I need to, I will.

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Stanton said:
That's not strictly true, if the return was restricted it would reduces flow around the bearing surfaces which could cause them to over heat and fail.
Click to expand...

Jose said it didn't look like any oil was going through the turbo.

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All you are doing is drilling the end that goes on turbo.
If you buy a new line, it will have same restriction.
Look at the end of line that goes to filter housing, the
hole is 1/4." Look at end that goes on turbo, it is closed
to a 1/8" opening. There is your restriction.
I put line in a vise, made sure it was vertical, and drilled with
drill press.
 
Jordan Koehn said:
But what I can't figure out is, I have a oil pressure gauge on the oil filter housing where the turbo oil feed line is hooked to and it reads 25 psi at idle and 75 over idle all the time including when my turbo went. I unhooked the turbo supply line and cranked the truck. It's a #6 line and oil was shooting out a couple feet. I have a video but it's too big to upload.
Click to expand...

That low of a pressure at idle seems to be weird to me..anyone else? If you have a blockage and it restricts flow, whether on the feed or return, it won't affect the PSI reading on your gauge, it will only allow less oil to flow. The regulator in the filter housing controls pressure but doesn't gaurantee flow. It is a positive displacement pump which means oil has to go somewhere or it blows up. If it isn't going through the turbo, you have a restriction and casuing it to divert elsewhere. I would say you have something else going on but not quite sure what it is right now.
 
Last edited:
Forrest Nearing said:
One thing I've never really seen on a Cummins is oil starvation.
Click to expand...

This.

I have seen a brand new S400 with some machining debris in the bearing cartridge that would pass only very small amounts of oil. If you fed the charger from the engine as per normal and drained it into a pail, instead of back do the pan, it would hardly drip even though it was being fed by 70psi+ oil pressure. Couldn't see the debris until it was torn right down. Once cleaned up it was fine.
 
dvst8r said:
This.

I have seen a brand new S400 with some machining debris in the bearing cartridge that would pass only very small amounts of oil. If you fed the charger from the engine as per normal and drained it into a pail, instead of back do the pan, it would hardly drip even though it was being fed by 70psi+ oil pressure. Couldn't see the debris until it was torn right down. Once cleaned up it was fine.
Click to expand...

I bought a new S400 turbo. When they machined the
slots in cover, they left large hanging burrs. I caught it
before I installed it.
 
4x4dually said:
That low of a pressure at idle seems to be weird to me..anyone else?
Click to expand...

On my old vp truck with the juice on it the alarm/alert would go off at idle sometimes. It was set to 19psi i believe. I dont think that is too low of pressure at idle.
 
I'm hoping that the oil supply line was kinked. It's stainless line and was not kinked on the outside. I'll definitely drill out the line though I'm not convinced that caused my issue.

My oil pressure gauge is hooked up to one of the npt ports on the filter housing. 25-30 psi at idle. Above 11-1200 rpms it goes up to 75.

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