I just won a Fiatallis Ft110 at auction and tried to drive it home, but it doesn't have full power and produces excessive smoke. I pulled both air filters out and no change. My first thought might be the turbo. Does this sound accurate? How do I start troubleshooting? Any experience with this type issue?
Could be the turbo is seized or broken. Take the clean air inlet pipe off of the turbo and see if its spins free or is stuck. Or if shaft is broken the impeller will be really loose in there. Only reach in the turbo inlet with it NOT RUNNING.
Once you have it opened up find a dial indicator with a magnetic base and check to end play. It should not be more than a couple 3-4 thousands of an inch. Remember that the thing spins about 100,000 revs under load so any excessive wear could be your problem.
farmerlund, That one goes under the title "Things that make you go OUCH! Yes, DO NOT TOUCH THE TURBO WHEELS WHILE ENGINE IS RUNNING! Even it it is not turning while engine is running as it could just be stuck with a bit of carbon that could pop free just as your fingers are in a bad place! This could damage the turbo wheel and also not be nice on finger tips. I would suggest having the key in your pocket with engine shut off before removing the pipe from air filter to turbo inlet. May sound a little paranoid but I worked on these big machines for over 40 years and still have all my fingers, maybe a little scar here and there but never a broken bone and can still count to ten without removing my shoes! With engine shut down the turbo wheel should spin very easy with your fingers and not make rubbing noises.
If there's a port in the intake manifold somewhere, run a line to the cab and hook up a 0-30 PSI gauge for your boost pressure gauge. At full load it will probably have 10+ or virtually no pressure, if it's in between then look it up... How does the engine sound? and how does the coolant temp and oil pressure look? You could check the injectors too, if it was a bad injector that would be more serious quicker than a bad turbo. Either pull them and have them checked, check the exhaust manifold temperatures after each cylinder with a non contact thermometer, or loosen lines to see how the idle changes.
Any experience with is type of issue?? SORRY I had to chuckle.. I see your a newbie to posting.. WELCOME.. Probably like myself, you've been reading this forum FOR A LOOONG TIME.. and finally decided to ask a question..?? ALL the replies are EXCELLENT answers to your question.. so I'll leave it at that.. and again.. WELCOME..
Oops, I missed a line in the original post, I hope nobody read this before I edited it.
If you remove the inlet piping you may be able to observe where the blades have been scraping the housing if the turbo is in fact the problem.
Wow, 5 replies in 5 hrs. I have always read a lot of on this site but never realized how active it was. Thank you for all the replies. So, I got the intake off, and as suspected the turbo is seized. Lots of Coke buildup post turbine. I removed the turbo after work today, but can't dig anymore into it tonight. I plan on pulling it apart after work tomorrow to see what integral damage there might be. My next big concern after the turbo itself gets fixed is what caused the problem. The turbo oil drain was clear. Wonder how I can check the oil feed side? Or is 2,500 hrs a life expectancy? Thank you again for all the help and experience
Overfuel can do this, unburned fuel in the exhaust builds up at a restriction/hotspot. Restricted air intake has the same effect. The biggest killer of turbos by far is shutting the engine off too soon after running at a high power level. With the turbo red hot the heat transfers into the core where the shaft spins in a flow of oil. Since the oil is no longer flowing, it can't carry the heat away and the oil film that is left turns into carbon, which is much harder than the metal parts. This leads to premature wear, too much clearance, and oil leakage out into the hot housing, making more carbon. Or so I'm told, lol.
That theory is sound to me. So, maybe check oil passages for any restrictions and move on if nothing is found. Put a note to myself on the key as a reminder for a 1 min warmup and cool down idle period. Thanks. I will report back after turbo is torn down.
Something else that's easy to miss and causes lots of black smoke and low power is an air leak between the turbo and engine intake side. All it takes is a crack in the hose or a loose clamp.
I got the turbo apart meaning the two snails off. It was tricky with all the rust from the heated up exhaust side. The giant circlip wasn't fun either. The center section is locked up. I haven't dove into it yet, but a buddy of mines father in law who used to rebuild turbos back in the day said that if there is a lot of Coke the thing most likely has stress fractures and should be replaced. Sound fair? I still would like to pull it all apart, clean it up and see if I can rebuild it. I can take it into work and run it through the magnaflux machine or dye pen it for cracks (I am an aircraft mechanic). What is everybody's thoughts on a rebuild? Where would I buy just a center section from?
Give this a though; if you make a mistake and it goes haywire, you will have just pumped all sorts of metal pieces into your running, but soon to be junk engine.
Wouldn't be worth your time to even mess with it I think, just buy the cartridge, clean the housings up if they look good, and get her running.
LANS, suggestion on "the cartridge" is VERY GOOD.. Turbos are VERY SIMPLE// The problem is tooling and knowledge.. and cleaning.. Normally. its just a "coking" problem.. the compression/ oil ring is stuck in its bore and allowing the cooling oil to pass.. Do you have the #'s off the turbo?? there is normally a tag on them.. 1 is the assembly # and 1 is the mfg #, 1 is the seriel # and sometime there is 1 for the "cartridge" # The cartridge is the "center section" MINUS the 2 housings.. and require a "core".. Hundreds and hundreds cheaper than " A WHOLE TURBO".. on account of the clean-up of the housings.. + the cost of the metal..
Great advise from all, thank you. Where do I buy a "cener core", "cartridge", "CHRA" from? The p/n on the turbo is 465153-3
Some light reading for you. Apparently used in Ford New Holland also. http://www.turbomaster.info/eng/garrett_parts_list/465153-0003.php http://www.invasionautoproducts.com/gat2chca442.html http://www.ebay.com/itm/FORD-NH-TUR...991489-465153-0003-465153-5003S-/130627011753 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Turbocharge...65153-0003-F0NN6K682BA-83999247-/321051973419 http://highwayandheavyparts.com/i-16235839-f0nn6k682ba-ford-new-turbocharger.html