Sensei

I purchase my 91 as a fixer upper, rolling chassis parts in boxes. Turbo appeared to be in great shape, clean low miles, no shaft play. As the car was assembled I ran the kit as provided, overlooking that there was NOT an oil restriction going into the turbo as is reccomended. So I over pressureized the turbo and blew the hot side seal. Talked to some people they said, it'll either go away on its own or the turbo will need a rebuild but since there is no shaft play you may as well run it until it goes. So I did, took the car to the Dyno for tuning, first pull at 206hp blew it up, major shaft play fins hitting compressor. Time for a rebuild. So I read the tag on the turbo, which ends in 5001- a part number corresponding to the Garrett 2860rs, I ordered a new CHRA from the guys at Turbokits.com (HIGHLY RECOMMEND). CHRA comes.....problem....


Here's the turbo. Clean right? I know some here would measure the wheels, but you would need reason to, and I never had reason to think it wasn't what the part number said, just figured turbo looks good, guy told me it's a 2860 part number says 2860rs, no reason to question.

Sensei

I get the CHRA and immediately it's obvious the genuine 2860rs piece is not the same 9 vs 11 fins and no way it'll fit in that exhaust housing!



Call Jessie at Turbokits.com and explain, he says time to measure....




I also notice that that as I pulled off the cold side inside it is plainly written 2560, so pretty good guess that's what this turbo is. Jessie sends these and many more pics to his rep a Garrett, who says he suspects what happened is someone rebuilt it or replace a wheel at some point. However, Garrett ball bearing turbos CANNOT be rebuilt and the core exchange program they run to get a new CHRA does not usually accept non Garrett cores. But Jessie goes to bat for me and gets them to agreed to take the core, look it over and if they can, give me the core discount. We arrange shipping, but I realize I'm shipping the core 1hr from me to Auburn NY. I asked if it I could deliver it myself and they say sure. So I take it to Garrett, the guy there Rick takes it quickly looks it over and says he'll swap it for me no problem! So I get a new 2560 CHRA and I'm back off motoring!

Now onto the educational stuff.....

Sensei

I get the CHRA and immediately it's obvious the genuine 2860rs piece is not the same 9 vs 11 fins and no way it'll fit in that exhaust housing!



Call Jessie at Turbokits.com and explain, he says time to measure....




I also notice that that as I pulled off the cold side inside it is plainly written 2560, so pretty good guess that's what this turbo is. Jessie sends these and many more pics to his rep a Garrett, who says he suspects what happened is someone rebuilt it or replace a wheel at some point. However, Garrett ball bearing turbos CANNOT be rebuilt and the core exchange program they run to get a new CHRA does not usually accept non Garrett cores. But Jessie goes to bat for me and gets them to agreed to take the core, look it over and if they can, give me the core discount. We arrange shipping, but I realize I'm shipping the core 1hr from me to Auburn NY. I asked if it I could deliver it myself and they say sure. So I take it to Garrett, the guy there Rick takes it quickly looks it over and says he'll swap it for me no problem! So I get a new 2560 CHRA and I'm back off motoring!

Now onto the educational stuff.....

psyber_0ptix

iTrader: (4)

O_o

Sensei

First a look at the tag. Originally this tag was painted over which I figured no biggie someone painted it and didn't bother to mask. After hitting it with a wire wheel I find numbers but no Garrett logo- that's a clue- there should be a Garrett logo on the tag- also Garrett part numbers are stamped much more neatly that this...

Sensei

Next look the wheels. The inducer wheel had this emblem on it.

As both Rick and Jessie said- WTF is that? A fish??

Garrett puts a flying A on all their parts. This turbo had the A buried in between the fins on the exhaust wheel (could not get a pic).

The A looks like this:

Sensei

So in summary:

Garret tags always say Garrett, the wheels always have the flying A on them. Ball Bearing turbos are not rebuildable, but Garrett does have an awesome core exchange which in my case got me a new core/turbo for $400. Turbokits.com is awesome the guys there are very helpful. Hopefully if your reading this you can learn from my mistakes.

chicksdigmiatas

iTrader: (11)

Nice. If you have an unknown turbo, that is the best way to check. The previous owner may have been mis informed, or just only measured the compressor wheel and figured it was a 60mm so it is good. The compressor wheels should have been the same between the 2560 and 2860, no? Someone may have gotten a CHRA rebuild or other CHRA and stuck it in Garrett housings. In all honesty, even the most hard nosed could fall for it unless they scrutinized the tag.

On the bright side, you actually wanted a 2560 anyways, didn't you?

Sensei

I did want the 2560 so I'm very pleased with the outcome!

The previous owner (who lives 3 miles down the road) was quite surprised when I told him, he bought it was a 2860, he's trying to track down the seller. I honestly didn't question it, saw the at for both snails matched a 2860 offering, tag was part number for 2860, so I didn't even question it. It's a good looking swap which is why I thought it was worth sharing. You'd have to be pretty experienced to have caught it. Measuring the wheels is certainly the easiest way to tell, but that's not exactly simple.