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Thread: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

  1. #1
    turbo addict
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    Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    Trying to order a couple T03 turbo rebuild kits. Called or emailed three places that I've ordered from before. Ron's Turbo Service (Ebay), Turbos-R-Us (Ebay), and G-Pop Shop. All claim to use high quality rebuild components. None of them seem to want to return phone calls or emails. Didn't realize it was going to be so hard to spend money... Any suggestions on where else to try? Local turbo diesel service wants to rebuild turbo's not sell kits.
    Todd

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    Rhymes with tortoise. Turbo Mopar Staff cordes's Avatar
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    I recently used the G-Pop Shop and was very pleased with the service. It was my first turbo rebuild, but the components seemed nice. They were very much on par with the turbo I pulled apart. It was leaking from the compressor seal and doesn't appear to be doing so now.

  3. #3
    Supporting Member Turbo Mopar Contributor
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    Which Kit is best for my S60?
    For my TII Garrett?
    I assume T03 kit for both...
    Regards,
    Miles

    DD '87 Sundance T1, SLH with rear disks
    '87 CSX #432 2.5 CB TII, SLH

  4. #4
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    Quote Originally Posted by chromguy View Post
    Which Kit is best for my S60?
    For my TII Garrett?
    I assume T03 kit for both...
    Miles,
    The real MP S-60 I had came with a dynamic compressor seal (at least the ones I had did) while all the Mopar Production TI and TII's came with a 4 piece carbon seal. Carbon seal will work with draw through or blow through, while most people feel dynamic seal is better for blow through applications. You have to have the matching backing plate to use the dynamic seal. Yes, T03 rebuild kit will work for both.
    Now to find a place that will answer their phone and sell me some parts... Crazy world we live in today.
    Todd
    Todd

  5. #5
    Super Moderator Turbo Mopar Staff contraption22's Avatar
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    Quote Originally Posted by 4 l-bodies View Post
    Miles,
    The real MP S-60 I had came with a dynamic compressor seal (at least the ones I had did) while all the Mopar Production TI and TII's came with a 4 piece carbon seal. Carbon seal will work with draw through or blow through, while most people feel dynamic seal is better for blow through applications. You have to have the matching backing plate to use the dynamic seal. Yes, T03 rebuild kit will work for both.
    Now to find a place that will answer their phone and sell me some parts... Crazy world we live in today.
    Todd
    Todd
    The OE TI and TII turbos were built by Garrett. The S60 turbos were built by Turbonetics.
    Mike Marra
    1986 Plymouth Horizon GLMF "The Contraption" < entertaining sponsorship offers
    Project Log:
    http://www.turbo-mopar.com/forums/showthread.php?69708-The-Contraption-2013-14&highlight=

  6. #6
    Supporting Member Turbo Mopar Contributor GLHS60's Avatar
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    Miles:

    The Dynamic seal is also known as a 1 piece carbon seal.

    Sometimes called an encapsulated back plate Carbon Seal.

    Garrett part# 409695-0000

    Hard to find by application as few recognize the M.P. S60 Turbo.

    From my research:

    OEM in 78-83 Buick 3.8, 79-80 Ford 2.3 and 80-81 301 T/A.

    Some Nissan's as well, early 280-300 ZX?

    Prices vary widely, I paid $50.00 locally for a Garrett seal!!

    G-PopShop have an installation guide and listing.

    Thanks
    Randy
    Last edited by GLHS60; 06-30-2020 at 01:51 PM.


    There is no logical reason to call an Engine a motor.

    Randy Hicks
    86 GLHS60
    86 GLHS 373 : SOLD, but never forgotten
    89 Turbo Minivan
    83 Turbo Rampage : SOLD
    Edmonton,Alberta,Canada

  7. #7
    Supporting Member Turbo Mopar Contributor GLHS60's Avatar
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    How are you doing Todd??

    I keep seeing Minneapolis on the news and think of you often.

    It can be hard to trust the mainstream news media.

    It sure is a crazy world we live in today!

    Thanks
    Randy


    Quote Originally Posted by 4 l-bodies View Post
    Miles,
    The real MP S-60 I had came with a dynamic compressor seal (at least the ones I had did) while all the Mopar Production TI and TII's came with a 4 piece carbon seal. Carbon seal will work with draw through or blow through, while most people feel dynamic seal is better for blow through applications. You have to have the matching backing plate to use the dynamic seal. Yes, T03 rebuild kit will work for both.
    Now to find a place that will answer their phone and sell me some parts... Crazy world we live in today.
    Todd
    Todd


    There is no logical reason to call an Engine a motor.

    Randy Hicks
    86 GLHS60
    86 GLHS 373 : SOLD, but never forgotten
    89 Turbo Minivan
    83 Turbo Rampage : SOLD
    Edmonton,Alberta,Canada

  8. #8
    turbo addict
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    Why not use our vendors like Turbos Unleashed?

  9. #9
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    Quote Originally Posted by Reaper1 View Post
    Why not use our vendors like Turbos Unleashed?
    Saw this response coming. Simple Chris, because I can rebuild a turbo easily by myself. I don't need to spend $300-400 + shipping 2 ways to rebuild a turbo I can do myself. Our vendors sell some misc. turbo hard parts, but don't sell rebuild kits. That would cut into their rebuild services one would think, right?
    Todd

  10. #10
    Rhymes with tortoise. Turbo Mopar Staff cordes's Avatar
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    Quote Originally Posted by 4 l-bodies View Post
    Saw this response coming. Simple Chris, because I can rebuild a turbo easily by myself. I don't need to spend $300-400 + shipping 2 ways to rebuild a turbo I can do myself. Our vendors sell some misc. turbo hard parts, but don't sell rebuild kits. That would cut into their rebuild services one would think, right?
    Todd
    While we're a pretty handy group as a whole, I bet enough guys would mess it up and send it in afterward that I'm surprised they don't offer a kit.

  11. #11
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    Quote Originally Posted by 4 l-bodies View Post
    Saw this response coming. Simple Chris, because I can rebuild a turbo easily by myself. I don't need to spend $300-400 + shipping 2 ways to rebuild a turbo I can do myself. Our vendors sell some misc. turbo hard parts, but don't sell rebuild kits. That would cut into their rebuild services one would think, right?
    Todd
    I won't deny your point, except to rebut with, if they do the work, you get a warranty. If you do the work...well...it's on you. Some people are OK with that (you and I might be, right?), but others out there wouldn't be.

  12. #12
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    Quote Originally Posted by Reaper1 View Post
    I won't deny your point, except to rebut with, if they do the work, you get a warranty. If you do the work...well...it's on you. Some people are OK with that (you and I might be, right?), but others out there wouldn't be.
    With that logic if you expect a warranty, one shouldn't be driving a 35 year old car.

    I once had a turbo built by TEC. It leaked oil out the turbine seal from the moment it started. TEC supplied all upgraded rotational parts. When I sent it back for them to fix under warranty (pulling the top half of engine all over again at my expense), "their" employees tore it down, supposedly couldn't find anything wrong with it, so because of that they wouldn't cover any charges because they couldn't bill someone (in this case Turbonetics or Garrett) to recover their labor. Furthermore, the POS owner came right out and said, look I have your turbo, so if you want it back, you will pay me again for another cost of rebuild and shipping. Otherwise, you need to purchase another turbo elsewhere, and I will sell your turbo, to recover my labor. I also will add I had the .63 exhaust housing and swingvalve ceramic coated and flow coated inside and out. That turbo ended up costing me like $1250 back in the late 1990's. Bolt it back on and what a surprise the mysterious oil leak was fixed. I was so pissed off, I was tempted to drive to Colorado and throw an old turbo core through his storefront window. It would have been worth the 12 hour one-way drive.

    I later heard the owner died of a massive heart attack a short time later. Shop immediately closed it's doors. Karma is a Beatch... My point is, warranties are sometimes worth less than nothing. I have life experience proof of that.

    Wonder what percentage of rebuilt turbos are bad out of the box, and what percentage of those people receive a no questions asked warranty? Does any turbo rebuilder reimburse for labor and parts (headgasket & headbolts)? Doubtful... If you were paying someone to R&R top half of engine, the labor and parts cost would far exceed the cost of any turbo warranty you might be receiving. I've rebuilt at least 30 turbos over the years without any startup failures, so I'll take my chances rebuilding my own thank you.

    Todd

  13. #13
    Rhymes with tortoise. Turbo Mopar Staff cordes's Avatar
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    I've heard that TEC ripped off a bunch of people on S60 VNT turbos back when. I don't know the whole story, but I've heard just that much many times. I'm sure there are quite a few people who weren't sorry to hear of the owner passing.

  14. #14
    turbo addict Chris W's Avatar
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    TurbosUnleashed did sell turbo rebuild kits a long time ago. We also offered precision turbo balancing services. Back then there were no YouTube videos to learn from so we spent most of our days fielding tech support calls from first time builders. Of course if their turbo failed they would declare that it was probably the kits fault or maybe we gave them wrong information. Rarely would someone accept responsibility for their novice skill level. Coincidentally, the majority of them would skip on the balancing services because they just felt it wasn't really that important. For the few dollars we made on those transactions and the aggravation we received we felt it just wasn't worth it anymore. If all of our turbo kit customers had the skill level of Todd we probably would have never stopped offering them.

    Our Turbo Rebuild pricing is EXTREMELY reasonable and since TurbosUnleashed opened in 1997 we have only raised our price one time from $275. to $295. We also offer a very liberal 2 year warranty when a new $40. oil supply line is purchased. In the case of a customer induced turbo failure we usually do the repair for free or charge them a fraction of the repair cost rather than charging them the full amount a second time. Rest assured, our technician has been rebuilding turbos since 1977 so odds are it's done right the first time. We are all human though so a thorough failure analysis is always conducted to determine the actual cause. We always provide suggestions to our customers if we find something that might cause a repeat failure.

    Our turbo rebuilding services have never slowed even when the YouTube videos hit the internet. Perhaps it's because a good percentage of our rebuilds are fixing the mistakes of novice builders. We also complete a fair amount of compressor wheel upgrades and we are Fully stocked in our own brand of unique Chrysler style .63 A/R turbine housings in Stage 1, 2, 3 and Garrett Dual Ball Bearing sizes.

    We are dedicated to this community and a percentage of every dollar we make gets reinvested into new unique products to keep these little cars on the road just a little bit longer.

    Chris-TU
    Chris Wright www.TurbosUnleashed.com Chris@TurbosUnleashed.com 602-76-BOOST Tech/Sales#: Monday-Saturday 9AM-7PM MST Proudly Serving the Turbo-Mopar Community since 1997 TU is a performance, not marketing company. We provide accurate performance data on all our performance products. Fabricating data to make us appear better is just not our style. Do the research before you buy. ROCK BOTTOM PRICES WITHOUT THE HIDDEN HANDLING FEES.... -----HOME OF THE 9 SECOND FWD T-M CLUTCH-----

  15. #15
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    Isn't it refreshing to have a discussion without all the drama and without anyone getting their panties in a bunch? I appreciate everyone's cooler heads. I can understand TU decision not to offer kits. Makes perfect sense to me. I too get plenty of phone calls myself from enthusiasts wanting info about cylinder heads, engine builds, and electrical snafus. What I don't get is why companies don't monitor their phone lines, emails, etc. Wanted to buy but couldn't get a response from 3 different companies for a week! One finally returned a call, asking did anyone get in touch with you yet? He had no idea if anyone called me back or not. Finally got them ordered. Waiting patiently for them...

    Business must really be good to leave money on the table like this. I personally know Ron's Turbo Service seems to struggle returning calls, emails, getting someone to man their phone, receptionist, etc. In Ron's case, it's not the service, it is the correspondence. I lost some turbo parts at Ron's for about a week several years ago. Sent him some rotational parts for balancing two turbos I was putting together. I was sort of in a time crunch for these, so Ron told me as soon as they get here, I will get them turned around in 24 hours and sent right back out. I sent the package out overnight and then heard crickets. After a few days I called Ron and he told me he never received them. Huh? He was still waiting/looking for them to arrive. I had courier check on package. Yup, it was delivered right on schedule. Signed for too. Call Ron back up and told them they were signed by this person. Ron knew this person. Ha, getting somewhere. It was a temporary receptionist that was working there last week. Ron continued to look all over the shop, couldn't find them anywhere. Couple more days go by and he then sat behind the desk where the temporary worker was sitting. As he sat down, his feet kicked a box under the desk. Yup, my parts were being stored under the desk so they wouldn't get lost. I least I was relieved that the parts were found. They would have been expensive to replace. Sometimes you just can't make this stuff up...
    Todd
    Last edited by 4 l-bodies; 07-03-2020 at 12:07 PM.

  16. #16
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    I've bought mine from G-pop Shop, kits were complete and of very good quality, never had an issue with their rebuild parts. Rebuilding a turbo is easy.

  17. #17
    Rhymes with tortoise. Turbo Mopar Staff cordes's Avatar
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    While my turbo isn't leaking from the front side of the compressor any longer, it's now leaking from the bolts which hold the compressor backing plate to the center section. Any ideas on that? I can only imagine that I either messed up getting the rubber o ring gasket to stay in place while bolting the compressor backing plate on, or there is some sealant required on those bolts and I was unaware of it. Either way, the turbo is going to come back off. Good times...

  18. #18
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    Bryan,
    The 4 bolts are blind, so they don't lead to any coolant or oil passages, but they typically have a thread locker or epoxy patch on them. Presumably to keep proper torque on the bolts. Some kits include a serrated bolt much like nuts on muffler clamps. One thing I just noticed on one turbo I'm rebuilding currently is the thrust bearing is bolted to the center section. Well of the two screws holding the thrust bearing in place, one is drilled through into the water jacket of the turbo! So without some thread sealant on that screw, some coolant would be mixing with the oil. Wonder how many times that has happened to people?
    Did you use a new o-ring, or reuse your old o-ring? I would imagine they might compress a bit if re-using the old o-ring. In fact, I checked that, and found some a few thousands thicker than others. Can you try to tighten the bolts some and see if they're loose?

  19. #19
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    Quote Originally Posted by crusty shadow View Post
    I've bought mine from G-pop Shop, kits were complete and of very good quality, never had an issue with their rebuild parts. Rebuilding a turbo is easy.
    I bought one major kit from G-Pop shop and found both bands to hold the compressor cover and the turbine housing to be the wrong size/style. My label says T3 4 piece carbon seal major kit. Clearly what I received was for a T04B or E housings. No workie for me :-( Rest of the kit was okay.
    I also called and sent email to them about machining compressor covers for upgraded wheels, and got no response. Kind of knew that was going to be a long shot. I bought a spare additional 4 piece carbon seal from them, along with my major rebuild kit. They're website lists either a dynamic or carbon seal a $12 option on their basic kit, my price... $24. So I would have to say my experience with them was a grade C at best.
    IMO, the Ron's Turbo Shop kits are the better quality kit. If only he would answer his phone or emails...
    Todd

  20. #20
    Rhymes with tortoise. Turbo Mopar Staff cordes's Avatar
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    Re: Where are you purchasing turbo rebuild kits from?

    Well, the G-pop Shop got right back to me, which is nice.

    "There is no sealant required for the bolts (Locktite is recommended but not a sealant). Here are the three most likely causes of the oil leak:
    Pinched/damaged o-ring (like you mentioned)
    Seal plate and bearing housing mating surface is not clean and the seal plate is not seated properly
    Seal plate is cracked
    The o-ring should keep any oil from getting to the bolt holes, that's why there is no sealant required. I have attached the instructions for you, let us know if you have any other questions.

    -Gerald"

    What's not nice is the fact that I'll have to pull the turbo again. I'm getting pretty good at it by now...

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