Limit Engineering TE-44 Turbo Fails

D

dejacky

New Member
Joined
May 2, 2005
After about 12-15,000 miles on a rebuilt TE-44 turbo after a year of use, the exhaust journal was worn down really badly according to Majestic Turbo in Irving, Texas (www.dallasturbo.com) and they want $415 to fix it :( . I already paid $450 for the limit engineering rebuild..akh i'm pretty bummed considering I always used 10w30 synthetic oil and changed the oil religiously. Any advice?
 
I'd call Limit and see if they will do anything for you. Maybe they will cut you a break on the 2nd rebuild.
 
dejacky said:
After about 12-15,000 miles on a rebuilt TE-44 turbo after a year of use, the exhaust journal was worn down really badly according to Majestic Turbo in Irving, Texas (www.dallasturbo.com) and they want $415 to fix it :( . I already paid $450 for the limit engineering rebuild..akh i'm pretty bummed considering I always used 10w30 synthetic oil and changed the oil religiously. Any advice?
Click to expand...

There are some "how-to's" over at gnttype for rebuilding your own turbo. I priced a rebuild kit from them (about 6 months ago)(360 deg rebuild) with everything I needed (provided your shaft and wheels are good and haven't hit the housing)..... it was like $125 or so..... just dis-assemble your turbo.... mic the shaft..... call him with the measurements.... and they will sell you the kit... get it out to you in a day or two.....

HTH

I have a TE60 waiting to rebuild..... waiting on some spare $$.... some time I will get around to it...
 
Also make sure you have good oil pressure going to the turbo before putting the rebuilt turbo back on.
 
Im seriosuly wondering if theres just something wrong with these TE44s...in the past 4 weeks Ive heard of at least 4 different TE44s failing....including mine, which failed after only 200 miles. (it was brand new)
 
GNAsuka said:
Im seriosuly wondering if theres just something wrong with these TE44s...in the past 4 weeks Ive heard of at least 4 different TE44s failing....including mine, which failed after only 200 miles. (it was brand new)
Click to expand...
Where was your from? What failed on it? Was it a Precision?
 
There isn't anything wrong with the TE-44 turbo itself, it's bad rebuilds or mis-treatment of the turbo that leads to premature failure.
 
I had aproblem a while back, My PT63 took a crap and was not that old. Come to find out I had the turbo saver lines crossed. Easy mistake to make.
 
My turbo was precision yes...and my previous turbo had lasted 20 years and when I pulled it off....there was zero shaft play.
 
Limited87 said:
TurboTnZ06 how do you go about checking oil pressure at the turbo?
Click to expand...

I've only heard of ppl pulling the oil feed line off and seeing how much oil comes out. Usually not much. I meant to say that your oil feed line may be blocked up from 20 years of use, keeping enough oil from getting to the turbo, which may be one reason you hear of a lot of turbo failures lately.

My solution- toss the oem oil line out, block off the hole in the block, and got a remote mount oil filter kit. The kit feeds filtered oil line directly from filter to turbo. Problem solved. I think the kit came from precision. Plus it doesn't make a mess when I pull the oil filter off. Pretty well worth it for $150 or whatever it was. Cheaper than a turbo rebuild every other month too.

You can also just replace the oil feed line with a new braided hose. I had one for a while and then upgraded to the relo kit.
 
TurboTnZ06 said:
I've only heard of ppl pulling the oil feed line off and seeing how much oil comes out. Usually not much. I meant to say that your oil feed line may be blocked up from 20 years of use, keeping enough oil from getting to the turbo, which may be one reason you hear of a lot of turbo failures lately.

My solution- toss the oem oil line out, block off the hole in the block, and got a remote mount oil filter kit. The kit feeds filtered oil line directly from filter to turbo. Problem solved. I think the kit came from precision. Plus it doesn't make a mess when I pull the oil filter off. Pretty well worth it for $150 or whatever it was. Cheaper than a turbo rebuild every other month too.

You can also just replace the oil feed line with a new braided hose. I had one for a while and then upgraded to the relo kit.
Click to expand...


Thats what a turbo saver is. A remote filter. Thats what I had the lines crossed on. I was pushing oil through the filter backwards. A costly mistake.
Precision still sells them.
 
No response from John Craig yet and everytime I call, he's not available. I think this just means I'm officially screwed and Limit Engineering has no intentions of helping me :( .
 
I hope this gets resolved. Limit is talked about quite a bit here on these boards.... and all I have heard up to this point has been good things. I have talked to Chopper before about my turbo on the phone..... never had any luck with email. They are one of the good vendors that really do good work for the Turbo Buick community.
 
I read on t6p that you took the turbo in for a bracket and this shop determined the problem when you had no previous issues. Hard for a vendor to agree to fix something that has been taken apart by someone else.
 
Even though I was able to move the shaft on the compressor side with my fingers side to side (very slightly) and spinning it would cause the fins to scrape against the inner side walls, Majestic Turbo determined the turbo failed. I'm not a turbo technician to determine that.. So I can't say it was a perfectly working turbo before.
 
Here is a picture sent to me by Majestic. What do you all think? Needs a rebuild or not?:

TE-44.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Stock IC, Dutt neck, Stock turbo, TE-44, Stock stereo, TT street chip/injectors, more...
Replies
17
Views
1K
LEW_86
L
B
TE-44 turbos/ 1 used: 1 new
Replies
5
Views
443
Michael McCoy
M
B
TE-63 turbo and new TE-44
Replies
15
Views
2K
brian
B
B
TE 44 turbo *NEW*
Replies
0
Views
275
beermoney
B
D
Limit Engineering TE-63
Replies
17
Views
1K
mcponch
M
Top