Compressor wheel damage - what caused this?

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david_brown_mt

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Aug 23, 2009
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I started hearing a funny "howling" noise when cruising at ~2psi boost on the highway. This is what I saw when I took the cold piping off. There is some pretty sharp pitting in the housing in front of the wheel, is this from the wheel coming apart? The turbo is still tight and the wheel has not made contact with the housing.

This is a he341 in a small twin setup with a hx55. The hx55 wheel has no damage or discoloration like the wheel on the he341.

What do you guys think could have caused this?
Can overspeeding a turbo cause this damage to a wheel?

I was thinking maybe some weld scale from the cold piping got ate by the wheel, but that would not explain the soot on the wheel. There is no noticeable oil in the cold pipe. The turbo has been making this noise for about 700 miles and it doesn't seem to be getting any worse.

(Sorry if I've posted these pictures wrong)









Thanks for any suggestions.
 
The "soot" looks like oil to me but the pictures are so big i cant really see whats going on. Try usuing a photobucket account for the pics. Looking at the last pic you definately had something or things go through the wheel.
 
RJM06590 said:
The "soot" looks like oil to me but the pictures are so big i cant really see whats going on. Try usuing a photobucket account for the pics. Looking at the last pic you definately had something or things go through the wheel.
Click to expand...


Just click on the pictures and they do size down. ;)
 
Yeah they wouldnt on my phone lol. Id say thats oil on the blades and I think you guessed it right some slag or extra wire if you mig welded it could have broken loose and went through it.
 
That damage is definatly from something hitting it you can see all around the inlet that something bounced around in there. The oil on the wheel could just mean your turbo needs a rebuild. Although oil in the compressor side is common. You said the piping isnt soaked so just look into gettin it rebuilt. The oil seals in a turbo are just tiny piston rings, so its not a complete seal all the way around, oil has room to escape.
 
Thanks for all the responses so far.
This hx55 was a new/rebuilt turbo from a Cummins dealer, and I've only put about 15K miles on it so far.
It has no shaft play and feels tight.
I'm not sure how to tell how much oil it is leaking but the cold pipe connecting the primary secondary is completely clean and dry inside. I've seen turbos with bad seals cause the boots to blow off from the oil leaking and that hasn't happened here so I figure the oil leak is pretty minor.

About all I can figure at this point is weld scale from the cold pipe. The sharp pitting directly in front of the wheel is a little baffling to me.
 
IMO a fairly long piece of wire bounced around in front of the comp before being chewed enough to go through causing all the pitting and blade damage. the black is just aluminum oxide dust from the grinding of the blades. Pull off everything you can to see if you can find the rest of the wire before it gets into a cylinder or hangs a valve and clean all the debris from the piping/IC/head.
 
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