IHI IS20 turbo damage

[Antomck]

Hey guys, first time joining a forum. Happy to be here.

Got my turbo refurbed a few months ago (may). Was changing the turbo inlet elbow yesterday and took a look inside the turbo for a nosy and found this.



Should I stop driving the car? It seems to drive perfectly. What would you do?

Sent an email to the guys that refurbed it but they haven’t got back to me. Suppose it is the weekend.

[willni]

Definitely stop driving.

You don't want that piece of the turbine coming off and going through. What intake are you running? Seems like a foreign object has damaged it.

[Antomck]

Definitely stop driving.

You don't want that piece of the turbine coming off and going through. What intake are you running? Seems like a foreign object has damaged it.

Completely stock intake. Decided to leave the original inlet elbow installed as I didn’t want to change anything incase they think I damaged it. Really not sure how something could’ve got into the turbo like that.

Just after tuning it to stage one and was about to stick a downpipe on it. Tested the bearings and it still seems tight so hopefully it’s just a matter of replacing the compressor in the turbo and not another full rebuild.

That piece that broke off must be stuck in the intercooler.

[madstaff]

That looks, in my opinion, to be too neat for damage caused by a foreign object being drawn into the compressor housing.

Perhaps removed a bit of material whilst balancing??

[Antomck]

That looks, in my opinion, to be too neat for damage caused by a foreign object being drawn into the compressor housing.

Perhaps removed a bit of material whilst balancing??

Was thinking the same thing myself, but it does look like it sheared off instead of neatly shaven off with a dremel or whatever . Really weird. Don’t see any scoring on the inner wall of the turbo either which would’ve been noticeable if a piece of metal was spinning around there at 100,000 rpm 

[willni]

That looks, in my opinion, to be too neat for damage caused by a foreign object being drawn into the compressor housing.

Perhaps removed a bit of material whilst balancing??

That's a good point. Only other thing I could think of is if there was a flaw in the metal (recycled material?) prior to the turbine being manufactured and the heat and rpm finally got to it?

Either way, it's a good thing you caught it.