eBay Turbocharger

Alright, here's the deal; the seals in the MHI S16G are going, well, pretty much gone. I don't know how a bad the internals are, but I can't imagine they're good considering it's spitting out plumes of black smoke at each shift.

So, I'm wondering if anyone's had any luck with an "eBay" brand turbo. Specifically, CXRacing or CX Motorsports. That's the budget I've got for the time being, thank god for tax returns.

But, before I get harped at for spending money on something that's not OE, Garrett, or otherwise, just know that that is literally my budget; cheap. Not that I want it to be, but the turbo has got to be replaced.

3 months ago I installed one of the big16g non mitsu turbo on a 2ed gen.a few problems it had was boost creep at high rpm porting the waste gate fixed the problem, it also needed a new AN fitting and banjo bolt, we had to use an extra copper (part # 683980)washer to space the AN fitting high enough to have the hose nut fit. The turbo was rated for 14.6psi and he was at 15psi. after 2 months his car started to severely smoke. I tried talking him into buying a genuine Mitsubishi turbo but we ended up rebuilding the knock off. the td05 rebuild did work on it except for the turbine seal. (the one that was causing the smoke). with no option we had to reuse the same turbine seal. surprisingly it stopped smoking he has been really easy on it the past 2 weeks not doing any pulls. to me it seemed like the turbo failure was due to it not being balanced. The turbine was cast iron and really heavy compared to a mitsu big16g, there were file marks on the compressor where it seemed to be some what balanced but not enough to keep it from failing after 2 months. after buying the turbo, the oil fittings,porting the waste gate, paying me to remove, re install and rebuild, he had over $350 in to it keep in mind it could fail again.

the knock off turbo seems like it will be OK for temporary use. but with it not being balanced it will eventually fail. I personally would buy a used mitsu 16g and rebuild it.it will be a lot cheaper than re buying knock off parts.

hope this helps
William

Helps quite a bit actually. I really like the review; very in-depth, no BS, and exactly what I needed to know. As a temporary turbo, I don't believe I'll go with it. I'd like to rebuild the one I have, but I'm not sure how badly it's damaged, or even if it's repairable. Ill give it a shot with a rebuild kit, cheaper thsn buying a new/used one.