Turbo question

[TURKEY131]

How do you know when your turbo is working correctly?

 

[Jakob]

It makes boost.

 

[roger-wilco-66]

It makes noise.

 

[cranetruck]

Install a boost gauge and you'll know. Just about any mechanical 0-20 psi pressure gauge will do and plumb it to the intake manifold with an 1/8 to 1/4 inch fuel resistant tubing....

 

[FreightTrain]

the truck runs good.Trust me.If your turbo is bad you would know it.If you hear a squeel SHUT IT DOWN NOW AND CHECK THE TURBO!I had one that squeeled a couple times(3 times to be exact) and on the 4th time it finally quit warning me and just let go.Blew the oil seal outta the exhaust side.Talk about some smoke!I got lucky.If it had been the intake side I would have blown the engine or worst wrecked the truck since you cannot shut down a diesel if the intake seal lets go without getting out,opening the hood,pull the filter can and put something over the intake to block ALL the air.Also,another way to know if the turbo is not working is NO power and TONS of black smoke.That would be if the turbine was not turning and choking the air.Pretty much,if it run good,pulls ok,and doesn't make funky squeels it is working fine.

 

[cattlerepairman]

Re: RE: Turbo question

since you cannot shut down a diesel if the intake seal lets go without getting out,opening the hood,pull the filter can and put something over the intake to block ALL the air

In another life I worked on a tug boat and one of our Mirrlees-Blackstones did exactly that. I will never forget that beast starting to revv up, out of control. Yeah, they are machines, but that engine was screaming like a living being. The chief engineer ripped the air intake flex off (no idea how he managed to do that so quickly) and I used a three quarter inch piece of plywood that happened to be there and shoved it over the intake. The suction was so great that the plywood sheet cracked right away. Fortunately, it held together long enough for the Diesel to start choking and we got it stopped, eventually and brutally. The amazing thing was that there was no damage, no bent rods, no damaged valve train. Just the turbo was a goner. It was spontaneous failure, no advance warning. We were so lucky.

 

[roger-wilco-66]

RE: Re: RE: Turbo question

has anybody here experienced this to happen to a deuce turbo (or other m-series vehicle turbo) ?
I think before I would be able to pull myself together, remove the mushroom, plug the other little pipe on the aircleaner (all that next to the screaming motor!!), and extract the piece of square wood from the toolbox to block the opening, the motor would have taken itself apart...

 

[M543A2]

I have had an exhaust side seal go, but not an intake side seal. If I were in the cab when an over-rev happened, I would shut off the fuel, hit high gear, stand on the brakes and let out the clutch. It is about the only thing I would have time to do effectively.
Regards Marti

 

[FreightTrain]

That won't work.Me and wreck tried that.He got a junk yard truck he was going to cut up.We decided to fire it up and see if it would run and pull itself up to the shop.Fired up easy and went WIDE OPEN THROTTLE.He dumped the clutch and all it did was slip the clutch and start moving foward.At 3000 RPM that engine has a lot of power and torque working against that little clutch.

 

[otisroy]

The fuel cutoff won't kill it?

 

[scooter01922]

It won't if the intake seal on the turbo has gone, then you are using the engines own oil as fuel, till you either run out of oil ( not so likely) or over rev the engine and cause it to self destruct ( more likely). Unless you stop the flow of air into the engine its pretty much a gonner either way.

 

[otisroy]

Thanks for the explanation. I was racking my brain trying to figure out how you have combustion without one of the components

 

[FMJ]

It won't if the intake seal on the turbo has gone, then you are using the engines own oil as fuel, till you either run out of oil ( not so likely) or over rev the engine and cause it to self destruct ( more likely). Unless you stop the flow of air into the engine its pretty much a gonner either way.

Has anyone ever toyed around with fabbing up a cable operated shutoff installed somewhere in the intake air system?

 

[98hd]

It won't if the intake seal on the turbo has gone, then you are using the engines own oil as fuel, till you either run out of oil ( not so likely) or over rev the engine and cause it to self destruct ( more likely). Unless you stop the flow of air into the engine its pretty much a gonner either way.

Has anyone ever toyed around with fabbing up a cable operated shutoff installed somewhere in the intake air system?

I seem to remember reading somewhere that they use these in the oild fields, I think it was up in the arctic.

 

[cattlerepairman]

The Volkswagen TDI engines have a shutoff valve just before the intake manifold that is momentarily activated (closes and re-opens after a short period) when the ignition is switched off. It is an additional safeguard in addition to switiching off the fuel supply. It would also reliably shut down the engine in a runaway condition (where the engine is running on engine oil that is being sucked across through the turbo seals).

 

[cranetruck]

Suppose one could use an exhaust brake butterfly valve.

Picked up one of these 3-3/4 inch fuel shut off valves (think large jet engine) on ebay some time ago, haven't found a use for it yet. It takes about 2 second to close....it seals very tightly with its polished metal to teflon seal.

 

[maddawg308]

How often do turbos do like this? I had my deuce making some squeeling noises from the engine compartment a few weeks back, I tightened the alternator belt a little, since then nothing. But the alternator belt wasn't really loose enough for me to say "yup, that was it". Now I'm worried about the turbo going.

 

[CCATLETT1984]

you will not mistake the turbo squeel for belt squeel. Its a shrieking sound like nothing else.