MD321t dies :-(
 

To cut a long story short my md321 t has shat itself. Bought it second hand, not off anyone on here, assured by the guy that it had only done 3500 road miles from new (feb 09) as wasn't a daily driver. Had lots of other performsnce bits for sale so had no reason to doubt him. Turbo looked ok, no play in shaft and all seemed ok. Since fitting ive Had it mapped and done aprox 300 miles. It's mapped to 1.6 bar so nothing that should be pushing it. Then the other day, it let's go, clouds of blue smoke. Limped her 2 miles home. There is no noise after you switch off like you normally get with these turbos so I'm pretty sure it goosed. Haven't removed it yet so can't comment on damage etc.
Question is, do I ring the guy and try and get some honest info? The turbo is well capable of how it's mapped and should hive more than 4k miles surely to god.........?

u sure its the turbo bud?

Assume mapping went and was no smoke etc.

If so not sure how seller is at fault. sounds like sold in good faith.

Part of buying second hand risks imo

99%. new forged engine. It still sound exactly as it did when I first fired it up. I first thought ringland failure, but like I said, you can't hear turbo spinning when you switch engine off like it did do. My old man has same turbo and his carries on spinning when engine switches off for 30 or 40 seconds.
Very pissed off tbh. Won't know for sure till I take it off.

Yeh mapping went fine, pulled well with no smoke etc. Just expected it to last longer than 300 miles. My cheap eBay 20g did 3500 miles when I removed it and still going strong. Only upgraded to the MD for peace of mind of turbo not letting go. Found a low milage example at the right money so was happy. Like I said just expected it to do more than 300 miles for me and find his 3500 road miles Thingy a bit suspicious now.

Agreed re mileage. but sure thats cars.

Sure get it off and take it from there.

My MD321t is running 450 hp at 1.8bar ... been no probs of any description over last 18 months.

TX.

PS

Been at Marham twice too ... full bore blasts from just below 30mph all the way to 158mph.

I can understand that you are really pi$$ed just now, but i would have stripped everything off first, before you wrote this thread. It could be a number of things the matter with your car.

When you say you limped home, was it driving ok or was it coughing and spluttering?

100%.

Seems happen lot though....

After speaking with mark @ lateral today I'd just like to point out that this is not a dig at marks turbo but purely a thread to see where you guys are thinking i stand with the guy I bought it from.

Its hard to answer your question, when you haven't got any idea whats happened.

When I get chance to take it off, I'll post up my finding. I have a family and work for myself so as you can imagine time is not something I'm flush with......

but surely for seller involved as said above if mapping went ok then turbo was sold in good faith from seller.


And regards mark sure turbos have proved themself again and again but anything can happing car..

as in failing oil pump with as pressure drop the has this time round killed turbo and not engine.

but then posting of this thread should have been delayed imo

Totally :wonder:

Update please ;)

^^^^^what he said ^^^^^

Who fitted the turbo?
When you bought it were you also supplied with the appropriate oil feed pipe?
I expect Mark explained to you what was required in terms of oil feed and a bit different to a sleeve bearing TD05 20G.

Any chance you had a lamba in your up pipe that tip has broken off and went through the turbo?? heard of this before

Now there`s something to think about,as harvey as mentioned above the MD321T requires a specific oil feed pipe,if the incorrect one has been fitted then turbo death will be inevitable.:eek:

What is the correct size oil feed pipe ? Is there a certain length it has to be and diameter ?

Nothing to do with length but it is a BB turbo and needs less oil flow than a sleeve bearing and for that reason a specific oil feed pipe is required.
Not sure it will kill the turbo as such but I would strip i9t down carefully and the cause of failure will probably become evident.
They are generally reliable turbos, copied from my original Ion turbo..

Thanks Harvey

Just wanted to know as my md321t has gone too . Sounds like the bearing has gone in it , when u turn the engine off and turbo is spooling down u can hear like grinding noise from it :-(

Normal to hear it spinning down. If bearing was gone there would be no spin down noise as it would stop straight away.

Simon

It's in the process of being sent to turbo dynamics to be checked out , what else would that noise be ?
Was getting it males last week and I was told the turbo was generating a savage amount of heat , and when turbo was spooling down u could hear " like steel on steel " .

I will have a looked after used MD321T for sale in a couple of weeks if that helps anyone. About 5K miles over 18 months - runs on a turbo timer - build by David @ API Impreza.

I'd bet it ain't the turbo they're pretty strong bits of kit. It will have severe rock and end to end slackness of the shaft and blades if it is broken. If that seems reasonable, look elsewhere. There will be an amount of rock across the bearing as the oil supports the rollers / balls when pressure is there. I mean enough rock for the blades to touch the casing.

Do a compression test as soon as. That might save wasted postage.

David APi

Forgive my ignorance but what is getting it males?
You will hear any ball bearing turbo run down as Simon and David said above. When the bearing is failling it may still run but the noise is horrid, often accompanied by a loud squeal as the compressor wheel rubs the casing side.

Do you mean a possible piece of metal has entered the turbo like from head or piston??

EGT's generally caused by mapping issue where exhaust gas temps rise can have effect on head components or piston damage..

Forgive my ignorance but what is getting it males?
You will hear any ball bearing turbo run down as Simon and David said above. When the bearing is failling it may still run but the noise is horrid, often accompanied by a loud squeal as the compressor wheel rubs the casing side.[/quote]



@Harvey

Think he meant mapped..

Was getting mapped on rollers at the time..