Twin Turbo Problems.
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Twin Turbo Problems.
Well I had a bit of a scare last week. I lent my very cursed friend my TT 02 convertible to take his new girlfriend for a ride. He gets 2 blocks away and an alarm in the car goes off so he turns around and comes back. Turns out the TT system I bought has a low oil pressure alarm that was going off. Brought it back home and looked at a few things. It was down a quart of oil so I added 1 and started up the engine again. The alarm went off again and this time I noticed raw oil puking out the tail pipes
Shut off the car and tried not to cry.
Being it was Saturday on a long weekend I had to wait until Tuesday to get it towed to my mechanic. Course all my friends, and enemies had their own take on what was wrong, from blown turbo seals to ringlands letting go and taking out the turbo's. I drive the car hard but I built it to handle how I was going to drive it so I was on the blown turbo seals bandwagon.
Turns out it was a melted connection on a $10 resistor that controls the oil pump for the turbo's. When it melted it sent a faulty signal to the oil pump which set off the alarm and pumped oil directly into the turbo's. I am so happy it was a cheap easy fix and can now laugh at all the people who were hoping for catastrophic failure. LS1's rule!
Shut off the car and tried not to cry.Being it was Saturday on a long weekend I had to wait until Tuesday to get it towed to my mechanic. Course all my friends, and enemies had their own take on what was wrong, from blown turbo seals to ringlands letting go and taking out the turbo's. I drive the car hard but I built it to handle how I was going to drive it so I was on the blown turbo seals bandwagon.
Turns out it was a melted connection on a $10 resistor that controls the oil pump for the turbo's. When it melted it sent a faulty signal to the oil pump which set off the alarm and pumped oil directly into the turbo's. I am so happy it was a cheap easy fix and can now laugh at all the people who were hoping for catastrophic failure. LS1's rule!
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RULE #1
Don't let other people drive your modded Vette.
If they wreck something you loose a friend. If something breaks you'll think it was their fault even if it wasn't.
Don't let other people drive your modded Vette.
If they wreck something you loose a friend. If something breaks you'll think it was their fault even if it wasn't.
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I drove it stock for 1 year then decided to upgrade. I traded in a supercharged 93 mustang interceptor I bought brand new for it. It was 13 years old and had only 98000km and was super quick so I needed that or more from my vette. Well with the TT I got way more. I can break free in 3rd gear at 90mph in it and it kicks *** on everything I've come up against. It never gets dirty cuz I wash it about twice a week or more and it's been waxed more times than Jenna Jamisons ***** LOL. There's nothing better than driving a car you love anytime you want.thats why I joined this site, so I could be around others that share the love of one awesome car. I only wish there were more in my home town so I could see them wherever I go.
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So what you're saying is that when that resistor got fried, it changed the signal from the pump sending too much oil to the turbos, which then got by the seals and into the exhaust? I'm just wondering if that's going to be food for seal failure down the road now that it's gotten by once.
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What brand Twin Turbo set up is this???
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It's an STS rear mounted set up. And no there will be no seal failure later on cuz these turbo's don't have seals they are sealed and they have never had one fail yet. It actually pumped the oil into the pipes going to the turbo not through the turbo seals.I believe they are a Garrett T2. They are small but capable of 750rwhp and they spool up quick. And it actually was a free fix cuz the $10 resistor is still good it just needed the connector resoldered. Because it gets so hot we now mounted it by my radiator so it will get better airflow and keep it cooled.
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It's an STS rear mounted set up. And no there will be no seal failure later on cuz these turbo's don't have seals they are sealed and they have never had one fail yet. It actually pumped the oil into the pipes going to the turbo not through the turbo seals.I believe they are a Garrett T2. They are small but capable of 750rwhp and they spool up quick. And it actually was a free fix cuz the $10 resistor is still good it just needed the connector resoldered. Because it gets so hot we now mounted it by my radiator so it will get better airflow and keep it cooled.
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Sure glad it was nothing catastrophic. 
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It's been a long time since I took a look at one, but I'm almost certain the Garrett turbos have two bearings, with the pressurized oil line attaching to a "nipple" on the shaft housing between the driven turbine and compressor turbine. There had to be significant pressure to force oil past these bearings and seals. Oil forced past the bearing on the intake (compressor wheel) side is not a good thing - - it'll get sucked into the engine and potentially screw up the engine's fuel management system.
Have the turbos checked out thoroughly. A couple of turbos turning at a hundred grand or so do nasty things to themselves (and the engine) when they become starved of oil. Gets real expensive - - real fast.
Have the turbos checked out thoroughly. A couple of turbos turning at a hundred grand or so do nasty things to themselves (and the engine) when they become starved of oil. Gets real expensive - - real fast.
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when I got my c5 my friend came over and wanted to test drive it around the block. When he got back the check engine light came on, I didn't say anything but in my mind I was swinging a baseball bat on his windshield.
You can throw my 2 cents back at me anytime
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im glad everything turned out to be simple. Take my advice though, DONT LET ANYBODY DRIVE YOUR VETTE!!!!!! I learned this one the hard way. I had a problem last week with my TTix twin turbo set up that scared the crap out of me too. Little fire under the hood while i was driving on the highway. Once i put the fire out and got the car up in the air i saw the turbo was covered in oil so i tried not to cry. Right away i though i blew it up but it tured out to be an oil cooling line that ran right above the turbo that had burst and sprayed oil everywhere. The idiot that put the line in originally ran it so it was touching the manifold right befor the turbo... Not a good spot to run a steel braided line with rubber on the inside.
Last edited by transamer79; Aug 7, 2008 at 08:25 AM.
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How did it pump the oil into the pipes?? Please explain that one to me. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think all turbo's are going to have a shaft seal to keep oil from escaping into the housings. I just don't understand how the pump could have just magically pumped oil straight into the pipes unless it was already hooked up there, which makes no sense in the first place.
It makes sense to me but I know nothing about turbo's so anything probably would. A sink has the hole near the top so the water doesn't overflow and these turbo's have the same principle. Never really studied it so I'm taking their word for it. Everything is warrantied so I'm safe but they said they've never had a turbo fail yet so, if their telling the truth, thats pretty good. Plus they knew what the problem was as soon as I explained it to them so it's happened before. All the others are still working well. I would expect, so mine should too.