Acclaim Turbo Toast...?

[GeeBee]

Sad such short lives due to lubrication. I have two turbo diesel vehicles that run on pure synthetic that have a combined 300,000 miles with zero turbo problems. I don't even do idle downs on them. If we could only get rid of leaded fuel we could have better lubrication technology and longer turbo life.

 

[Bolter]

16 minutes ago, GeeBee said:

Sad such short lives due to lubrication. I have two turbo diesel vehicles that run on pure synthetic that have a combined 300,000 miles with zero turbo problems. I don't even do idle downs on them. If we could only get rid of leaded fuel we could have better lubrication technology and longer turbo life.

 

Not really a fair comparison, as the road vehicle technology has been allowed to evolve.  Especially if you have smaller automotive turbos on ball bearings.  It was not that long ago that most turbo car owners expected a new turbo at 75k miles or sooner, and we all tried to stay away from them.  And that was several decades after our aircraft turbos were designed.  

Many cars today have turbos, but they no longer emphasize "turbo" on the car because of the stigma of the 90's turbos.

[ArtVandelay]

Not really a fair comparison, as the road vehicle technology has been allowed to evolve.  Especially if you have smaller automotive turbos on ball bearings.  It was not that long ago that most turbo car owners expected a new turbo at 75k miles or sooner, and we all tried to stay away from them.  And that was several decades after our aircraft turbos were designed.  
Many cars today have turbos, but they no longer emphasize "turbo" on the car because of the stigma of the 90's turbos.

And auto turbos doesn’t spend almost it’s whole life being run hard. Pretty sure if we drove the auto engines to 65% or better the turbos wouldn’t last very long.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Mooneymuscle56m said:

You are absolutely correct. I consider myself a fairly handy guy, but have no formal aviation maintenance training, I usually look for obvious things.  I will be adding a turbo wiggle to my checklist when the cowl is removed. 

Buy yourself an old Filter Queen vacuum cleaner, make 2 plastic or rubber plugs that fit the inside of your turbo tailpipe.  Fit this plug on the end of the hose, connect the hole to the discharge of “blow” side of the vacuum cleaner.  Push the plug connected to the hose into the tailpipe and push the other plug into the opposite tailpipe, turn on the vacuum cleaner to pressurize your exhaust system.  Use soap and water spray to find leaks.

Clarence

[jlunseth]

I run Phillips XC in mine and have a little over 1300 hours on the turbo. No complaints.

[Davidv]

6 hours ago, aviatoreb said:

The word mouse milk always makes me laugh.  I imagine a mouse farm with lots and lots of little heifer mice hooked up to tiny milking machines, squeaking and milking their special lubricant.

"Almost no mice were harmed in the production of this lubricant"

[carusoam]

Somewhere around here is a discussion about using a magnet on a stick to check the turbo wheel axle for its stability... possibly pre-flight or a common maintenance activity...

I think Tom/ @Yooper Rocketman may be familiar...?
 

As far as Heiffer mice... they are much bigger than the ordinary mice...  

Best regards,

-a-

[GeeBee]

16 hours ago, ArtVandelay said:

And auto turbos doesn’t spend almost it’s whole life being run hard. Pretty sure if we drove the auto engines to 65% or better the turbos wouldn’t last very long.

Yeah,  those Peterbilts and K-Whompers are not running that hard or long and they go hundreds of thousands miles on turbos. LOL! Here is the secret. For the ICE turbo, the major key to longevity is......lubrication. Good synthetics keep the shaft and bearing from coking which causes overheating of both the turbine (because it is slowed) and the damage to the bearings and they carry away heat. Without synthetic lubricants there is no way chemically to prevent coking, the material is insufficient. If you look back at jet turbine development, the lives were very short without synthetic lubricants due to coking and heat. Modern jet engine technology is impossible without synthetic lubrication. The modern ICE turbo does not have close tolerance turbine blades like a aviation turbine engine, so blade creep and deterioration is not as significant, but no insignificant. The way to control it again is heat sinking and synthetic oil is superior in that regard. Go to any turbo overhaul shop and you can tell immediately which units were running synthetic and which were not. Compare the hours in service of those units and it will become immediately apparent. Equally so, besides the diesel turbos , I have a gasser twin turbo. Warranty on it is void without running synthetic lubricant. Guess why? Think about it, using the the "easy use" claimed in an auto, why would synthetics be mandatory?

 

[Yooper Rocketman]

I flew my Rocket to 2100 hours TBO (1600 TBO engine, TSIO520NB, same as the C414).  I bought it with 300 hours on the engine.  I replaced/rebuilt the turbo twice, each time at +/- 1,000 hours.  If you are flying a turbo airplane, I would really be watching any turbos over 1,000 hours pretty closely.  As Erik @aviatoreb and I have well documented here in the past, an in flight turbo failure will give you a very exciting (and stressful) flight experience.  A 1300 hour turbo is running on borrowed time.

On the Rocket, with a Bracket air filter, you can remove the filter and stick a thin magnet through the mesh at the back of the filter housing and grip it to the turbo shaft.  I would guess the most common failure on older (high time) turbos is the bearings (was for me).  You could prevent an in flight failure by finding play on the shaft from worn (but not yet failed) bearings.

Tom

 

[jlunseth]

Thinking like you, I had the turbo closely examined during the annual this past year. They put a borescope in it among other things. All is still good.

[aviatoreb]

32 minutes ago, Yooper Rocketman said:

I flew my Rocket to 2100 hours TBO (1600 TBO engine, TSIO520B, same as the C414).  I bought it with 300 hours on the engine.  I replaced/rebuilt the turbo twice, each time at +/- 1,000 hours.  If you are flying a turbo airplane, I would really be watching any turbos over 1,000 hours pretty closely.  As Erik @aviatoreb and I have well documented here in the past, an in flight turbo failure will give you a very exciting (and stressful) flight experience.  A 1300 hour turbo is running on borrowed time.

On the Rocket, with a Bracket air filter, you can remove the filter and stick a thin magnet through the mesh at the back of the filter housing and grip it to the turbo shaft.  I would guess the most common failure on older (high time) turbos is the bearings (was for me).  You could prevent an in flight failure by finding play on the shaft from worn (but not yet failed) bearings.

Tom

 

A small typo Tom - TSIO520NB