alternate turbo oil feed

[DIGGLER]

i bought a LBZ with a broken crank. rebuilt the engine AND turbo, put it all back together, and the turbo vanes have never responded properly. sometimes gets stuck in a random position.
i only put new bushings in the turbo and cleaned all the vanes, did not disassemble the actuator assembly. when you fire the truck up, it goes into "hiss" mode after 2 seconds which i believe is normal, but still acting up while driving.

my question- i dont remember checking the #4 cam bearing for rotation... i dont want to remove the turbo to check it. i am thinking it would be easier to fab up an extra oil line from somewhere else and run it to the turbo oil inlet. if i give it plenty of oil and it still acts up, i'll order a turbo.

where would be the best location to get my oil from to send to the turbo?

 

[Cknight199]

Driver side block, right after the oil filter. It's blocked by a bolt. BUT I would recommend checking your turbo vane actuator assembly first because VGT/water cooler turbos don't require as much oil as a fixed vane charger. You may want to run a restrictor if you pull oil from somewhere out to prevent any seals in the turbo to blow out

 

[DIGGLER]

so far i have tried commanding the turbo to different positions using efi live, and when it was stuck it didnt move. at that point i robbed a position sensor out of another turbo. after that i swapped the actuator solenoid from the other turbo as well. nothing made any difference.
so then i made a tool to go inside the actuator and screw into the piston. it was stuck. i tapped on it a little bit to knock it further in, and that free'd it up and allowed me to pull it all the way outward to the stop. i moved it in and out a few times, and it would hang up sometimes requiring me to tap on it again.

i know this sounds like its an actuator problem, but im still unsure about my oiling.

 

[x MadMAX DIESEL]

If that wasnt getting oil it would probably be blown up by now. Turning 50k rpms or what ever ignorant number it is, that thing would heat up in a few seconds

 

[DIGGLER]

If that wasnt getting oil it would probably be blown up by now. Turning 50k rpms or what ever ignorant number it is, that thing would heat up in a few seconds

Maybe it's getting "just enough"? Like enough to lubricate the bearings but not enough to operate the vane control?

 

[Burn Down]

Driver side block, right after the oil filter. It's blocked by a bolt. BUT I would recommend checking your turbo vane actuator assembly first because VGT/water cooler turbos don't require as much oil as a fixed vane charger. You may want to run a restrictor if you pull oil from somewhere out to prevent any seals in the turbo to blow out

Wasn't aware of any restrictors in a VVT journal bearing turbo... Ball bearing yes but not in journal bearing turbos.

I agree with Ben, if you are not getting sufficient oil to the turbo it would die in minutes... I have witnessed it

Sounds like the actuator linkage is shot or sticky... Might have to tear it back out and spend some extra time cleaning Or just replace the whole turbo.

 

[Cknight199]

Wasn't aware of any restrictors in a VVT journal bearing turbo... Ball bearing yes but not in journal bearing turbos.

I agree with Ben, if you are not getting sufficient oil to the turbo it would die in minutes... I have witnessed it

Sounds like the actuator linkage is shot or sticky... Might have to tear it back out and spend some extra time cleaning Or just replace the whole turbo.

Oh my bad, I was under the assumption that vvt turbos were ball bearing

 

[DIGGLER]

Sounds like the actuator linkage is shot or sticky... Might have to tear it back out and spend some extra time cleaning Or just replace the whole turbo.

i never could figure out how to disassemble the actuator.... i know there is a piston in there that moves a rack and pinion so to speak, but couldn't for the life of me figure out how everything was held together. garrett had a thing on their website that said they didn't recondition vvt's and simply threw them all in the scrap bin as they would never be able to "recalibrate" them again? that got me worried, so i hoped it was still ok and put it all back together. the turbo seems to perform great, just gets stuck in one position sometimes.

if i go through the trouble of pulling this thing back out, a new one will most likely go back in its place. omg what a pita, and i dont trust anyone else to do it.