# I blew my turbo ( can someone tell me why? ) **URL:** \ **Category:** SON240sx Automotive\ **Created:** [December 16, 2005, 9:54am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/i-blew-my-turbo-can-someone-tell-me-why/91216 "2005-12-16T09:54:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Iceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/46a35a/32.png) [@Iceman](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Iceman)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 2:46pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/i-blew-my-turbo-can-someone-tell-me-why/91216/21 "2005-12-29T14:46:25Z")
> Take a look at legitimate race cars running turbos. Oil lines only. Why? They don’t turn them off to get groceries. Take a look at any legitimate race car. It won’t be running a oil/water cooled turbo with the water jackets blocked off, either. ---
**Author:** ![Titan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Titan](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Titan)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 2:51pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/i-blew-my-turbo-can-someone-tell-me-why/91216/22 "2005-12-29T14:51:40Z")
> [@mr200](#): > > I wouldn’t call that significant cooling. I’d call that an OEM manufacturing decision. See, same reason Dodge stopped selling turbo cars in the first place. People would race around, shut them off immediately and wonder why they kept having to take them back. Simply because an advantage to running water lines is heat soak after shut off does not mean it doesn’t provide significant cooling while the engine is running. Infact, since water-cooling is so effective in reducing oil cooking after shutoff, that alone is testament to its applicable heat absorption characteristics, wouldn’t you say? > [@mr200](#): > > If your coolant leaves the rad nice and cold, then goes through the cylinder head, then into the turbo … it will have already absorbed the heat from the engine BEFORE it hits the turbo. > > Yes, it is all rushing very quickly through the system and is quickly cooled once it hits the rad, but you’re missing the point. > > You are introducing heat to the cooling system. You cannot physically take heat away. All you can do is absorb it. **By absorbing the heat, the coolant makes the component it passes through cooler.** But the coolant doesn’t stay cold. It heats up. Exactly what I said. By having the coolant pass through the cartridge, you are ultimately extracting heat from the cartridge. Thereby reducing heat within the cartridge. What I am trying to say is that the benefits of water-cooling may very well extend beyond their duty to heat soak after shutoff. > [@mr200](#): > > Now your rad has to deal with extra heat. In a stock system, not so big of a deal, it is what it was deisgned to handle. If you increase boost pressure, everything gets hotter. > > And more heat is added to the coolant, from underhood temps, motor temp, turbo temp, > > The problem is as you add more heat, it gets harder and harder to get rid of it. The rad can’t keep up, so the coolant is coming through a bit hotter and a bit hotter each time. This is what makes cooling a car down on the race track sometimes impossible, no matter how much airflow you can get across your rad. Hence why you must upgrade your cooling system in one form or another. It’s not impossible to run high amounts of boost with the proper equipment, as it has been proven on many professional racecars. **If your setup cannot cope with the heat, then something is either broken or inadequate to begin with and your car is not fit for the track in its current state.** Besides, I can imagine the majority of heat generated, and likewise absorbed by the coolant, is from the increased temperature of combustion. In other words, the heat of the cylinders and head contributes the most to raising coolant temperature. Here not only is the temperature higher, but also spread over a larger area, contributing far more heat to the coolant then when passing through the turbo. Basically, although I have not done any calculations, I can imagine the heat transferred to the coolant due to the turbo is negligible in comparison to heat transferred from the block itself. > [@mr200](#): > > But I ran my turbo all day at 12 psi with water lines attached, then tossed them altogether. I then ran the turbo at 17 psi until I stretched and snapped 2 headbolts. And that turbo is as happy and shaft-play free as ever. Not to discredit your experience, but there are far too many variables to simply state water-cooling is non-effective while the motor is running. Variables such as time spent without water-cooling. A short test of a few thousand miles means very little. Did you check the shaft play with a dial indicator? Otherwise, this is entirely subjective, as all journal bearing turbos must have some degree of shaft play. Checking the play by hand afterward and comparing it to the play beforehand by memory is highly prone to error. Once again, **I never said the lack of water-cooling was the culprit for the failure**. I merely said it didn’t help the situation and there is the possibility of it being a contributor. > [@mr200](#): > > Take a look at legitimate race cars running turbos. Oil lines only. Why? They don’t turn them off to get groceries. Why? Because they also have a budget, a large one in certain cases. Certain teams can afford to replace the turbo every race, or every other race. Several legitimate turbo racecars also run no filter before the turbo inlet. Would you also recommend this for street use? I didn’t think so. Many of us do not have the funding, equipment, time or experience of a professional race team. Consequently we have to make compromises for the sake of reliability. ---
**Author:** ![Hector](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/43a26b/32.png) [@Hector](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Hector)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 8:40pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/i-blew-my-turbo-can-someone-tell-me-why/91216/23 "2005-12-29T20:40:30Z")
go petey go petey , its ur birthday, u gonna own kids like its ur btrithday ---
**Author:** ![Uniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/34f0e0/32.png) [@Uniac](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Uniac)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 8:47pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/i-blew-my-turbo-can-someone-tell-me-why/91216/24 "2005-12-29T20:47:25Z")
> [@Hector](#): > > go petey go petey , its ur birthday, u gonna own kids like its ur btrithday haha it’s funny cause it WAS just his birthday haha ---
**Author:** ![Hector](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/43a26b/32.png) [@Hector](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Hector)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/i-blew-my-turbo-can-someone-tell-me-why/91216/25 "2005-12-29T20:51:28Z")
> [@lucky](#): > > [quote=Hector]go petey go petey , its ur birthday, u gonna own kids like its ur btrithday haha it’s funny cause it WAS just his birthday haha[/quote] did u give him the yearly reacharound ? ---
**Author:** ![Uniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/34f0e0/32.png) [@Uniac](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Uniac)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/i-blew-my-turbo-can-someone-tell-me-why/91216/26 "2005-12-29T20:52:32Z")
> [@Hector](#): > > [quote=lucky][quote=Hector]go petey go petey , its ur birthday, u gonna own kids like its ur btrithday haha it’s funny cause it WAS just his birthday haha[/quote] did u give him the yearly reacharound ?[/quote] no i’m saving that for his roomate ---
**Author:** ![oujakov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d9b06d/32.png) [@oujakov](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/oujakov)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2006, 8:20pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/i-blew-my-turbo-can-someone-tell-me-why/91216/27 "2006-01-02T20:20:06Z")
As I see everyone agreed that not connected waterlines do not extend life of a turbocharger. 😃 Shaft assembley strted to get “loose” and therefore blade started to scratch housing…this is gut a guess, but its possible… Need to see things firsthand, at least pics, to make an educated rersponse… ---
**Author:** ![ADAM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4af34b/32.png) [@ADAM](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/ADAM)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 10:53am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/i-blew-my-turbo-can-someone-tell-me-why/91216/28 "2006-01-04T10:53:42Z")
having raced a turbo 240sx many years… I can safely say HEAT is your worst enemy… I would not run a turbo without water cooling it 100%, as it would quickly overheat…and fail… the duty cycles of street cars is no where near the EXTREME duty cycle of a turbo race car… you need extreme cooling measures for racing turbo cars… 1=biggest rad you can fit into the car… 2=proper ducting 3=proper venting 4=oil cooler… 5=increased oil capacity 6=oil and water cooled turbo 7=proper oil 8=tons of heat shielding and even then you can exceed the cooling capacity of the system in extreme heat situations. [Previous page](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/i-blew-my-turbo-can-someone-tell-me-why/91216.md?page=1)