I'm a homebuilder by trade and somewhat new to equipment. My Cat 320C with 3066 engine was blowing a lot of black smoke. The turbo was not turning. I removed it from the engine and was able to free it up with a wrench. It now turns by hand with some difficulty. There is no play in the shaft. How do I determine if it needs replacing? Should I work oil through it and re-try it? Thanks in advance.
Sounds like it is froze up. No amount of fiddling will get it right at this point. You are much better off getting a reman turbo, or taking yours to a shop that rebuilds them. The shaft / bearing clearance is critical and if the fresh air turbine hits the housing and breaks, those little fins will do alot of damage to the engine. Much better off to replace it than attempt repairing it yourself. A few hundred for a turbo, or a few thousand for an engine.
Thanks Mjr. Where I am, a new OEM cartridge is $1100. I have seen aftermarkets for $300, should I trust them? Also, should I replace just the cartridge or the entire turbo?
You would be best getting a good rebuilt turbo. Cheap can be very EXPENSIVE if the $300 turbo dumps it's cookies into your cyl's. Later Bob
I agre with Bob, better off with reman. if turbo spins free you should recieve full credit for core, every time i send core back later i never recive full credit, i like to have old part when i pick up new so i can exchange and recieve my credit, lots of cores are more than the replacement.
Becareful of a lot of the OEM's out there i have seen some brand new out of the box that have so much play that you would think it had already done 6,000hrs
Also if you take your old core with you, you know you got the right part to take home. Sometimes you buy the right part# but the one in the box isn't right. Later Bob
Thanks all. Cat doesn't offer a reman turbo - it's either a cartridge or entirely new turbo. Any thoughts?
You don't say how long you've had the machine, or how it's been operated, but since you say you're somewhat new to equipment, this might be worth mentioning going forward from here--Has the engine habitually been shut down without allowing any time for the turbo to cool down?
I'm surprised Cat doesn't offer a reman, Kinda figured if anybody would Cat would. At any rate, if you are confident that you can remove the housings without damaging or breaking them, go with a reman cartridge. I have had problems in the past getting the hot housing loose from the cartridge without damaging one or both. You will not get core credit if the cartridge is damaged. A binding shaft should still get partial credit so long as the cartridge isn't damaged. It all depends on your relation with your local dealer, if they will push for full core credit or not. Also digger brings up a very good point, any turbo'd engine that has been worked up to temp should be given 5 minutes or more of cool down at idle speed. If the engine is shutdown without cooling off the turbo, the shaft can warp, the oil bakes in the bearings, along with other problems leading to turbo failures.