Turbos from China

[Lextreme II]

I have been looking at turbos on ebay and its full of cheap turbos from China. The price is very attractive but i am affair the quality, reliability, longivity and support. Anyone in have use them or heard of stories of them? The T3/4 price is extremely alluring.

 

[JBrady]

Tempting? Yes. Good choice? Depends both on your definition of the word and luck.

China production is basically slave labor. America is somewhat unwhittingly supporting this abuse of humanity with our need for "stuff" and propensity to buy cheap.

Like the other cheap Chinese produced products quality control is questionable. You may receive a perfectly functioning part. You may receive junk. A cheap junk turbo is actually expensive especially if you install it before realizing it is trash. Hopefully all you will loose is R/R time and money and nothing on the engine is damaged.

Of course you can get junk domestically as well. Just seems more likely to get warrantied stateside.

Another consideration is market erosion. As more and more is purchased at the lowest price from slave labor the market price in the states drops to the point that there is no profitability left. When this happens we loose yet another "made in America" product and with it the choices and jobs therein.

I realize this is not what you were asking directly but it is something that has been on my mind more and more.

 

[Pro]

honestly - most of the "made in america" stuff we get in AUS isn't of decent quality anyway. toys, car parts, furniture...it seems the japanese and chinese are doing it better. bolt on kits don't "bolt on", toys fall apart after a sandpit trial etc etc.

it may just be the companies that have the most weight over here using inferior quality materials (SUMMIT hardened die cast rocker arms....?WTF?).

but yes - buying anything offshore always has it's customer support drawbacks. as much as the WTO wants you to buy someone elses product and pay tax upon tax upon tax to do so, you should ALWAYS try to buy local.

Australia, America and China included.

 

[stevechumo]

I believe all of you are correct, but you're off the track from David. He only asked if anyone of us had the experience with those China made turbos...As regardind to David's question, I used to check the sellers' feedbacks on Ebay and most of them are pretty good. However, most of those items are intercoolers, some blow off valves...etc, which are not very vital for low boost.

Please let me go off track with you guys regarding to other China products & jobs. I just know one thing. That is if I want to buy a basket, a flower vase, or a bucket , I'll go to Walmart to get a China product. However, as I remember, their bicycles are pretty good. And for jobs...uhm..hum, I feel a little patriotic for the United States because I need jobs here... to make a living...Sorry guys, I'm back in track.

 

[krayn]

Ive read it many times before that most "brand name" turbos are made in china anyway. Large company's like garret simpily cant afford to not use developing countries cheap labour. So I think if you were wanting to buy local , your only kiding yourself that all the money is still staying in your "land of the free" country.
I myself have used a cheap super t70 turbo. It has not yet proved its self as its only days from being run on the road for the first time, although its only going to run sub 10 psi pressure.
I think if I had my chance again I would bite the bullet and pay the extra for a known quality ball bearing name brand type. Wank wank. Using the turbo I have has created alot of doubt whether it will work/ last.
Kris

 

[Toysrme]

Some of the stuff is actually OK, but most of it is bad.
Avoid anything that was not originally a one piece compressor manifold. Many of them split in half (weld seam on the housing).
Tho it's not possible to check for it, poor compressor/turbine wheels & bearing construction is also a very common place for the knock-offs to fail.

Most of the problems show up because of the heat cycles. In all honesty, I would give one a chance if you're not mounting it on the manifolds, provided it's a one piece compressor housing. I wouldn't think twice about using one if it were a remote setup where heat isn't in th equation.



It's sad really... As they only tend to fail because of poor metal choices & poor choices on constructing certain pieces. If they'd just spend the few more dollars & a little bit longer making them they wouldn't have quality problems.
Ahhhhhhh third world asia LoL! It's like chinese aviation. Decades behind no matter who's technology they rip-off!

 

[stevechumo]

Well, I'm off track again. Well, there're actually many middle to low-good quality products made from China such as electronic parts..etc. The reason for them to be somewhat ok is because they have to follow a larger consumer market, which is governed by the American National Standard Institution, plus the contracts with the American companies to manufacture products. However, for the turbos market, which is only a very small consumer market, there's no such things as consumer protection for us. Especially when they're all illegal for modifications. Heh..heh..That's why I only want a Garrett to put on my SC, or maybe a China made turbo that has similar specifications & dimensions as the Garrett. So in case it breaks down, I won't have to do a lot fabrications & tuning to switch to the Garrett.

 

[COFFEE]

Well not knowing enough to comment with any weight and after reading the threads i have come up with a mere sugestion ?
Toysrme claims there are worth the money and thought ?
I would agree.
I have found that some cheap things have there benifits, you just have to be aware of what you are getting and it flaws and if you can make it work for you ?
How to make it work for ?
Some things will last a third of the life of the quality product though the quality product is five times the price.
Can you be bothered with the hassel of replacing it ? If so, maybe it's worth it for you then.
Say you here these turbo's are for sale, you find they are one peice housings.
You question the integrity of the unit because the price of the unit is so cheap.
Whats it worth to buy the unit and replace the bearings with quality items or even a complete rebuild is it still worth it ?

Regards

Stephen

 

[Toysrme]

Toysrme just claims there worth a look if they don't look like the real crappy units. Dont' skip them, just excersize caution & judgement against them so you dont' wind up with one that splits in half.

 

[Lextreme II]

There is a guy on ebay selling GT35R Style for about 600. I have been talking to him. The turbo is original Garrett GT35R BB internal with XS turbine and compressor housing. I am very interested in it.

 

[Cobolt]

Have you guys heard of internet poker? it´s supposed to be quite fun and also a good thing for you guys that need a little mor gamble in your life... IMHO it seems like a little bit more fun than Russian roulette with a $10.000 engine.

A bearing that doesn´t seal and the engine smokes is one thing...

In the future, remember that various people have warned you guys, so lets hear NO whining on the forum when parts from your bargain china turbos turbine blades has destroyed your engine internals.

Yes, I´ve seen it happen, have even seen a turbineshaft fail on a turbo copy so I´m not impressed with them, but ofcourse, as Toysrme says, some units may have a good lifespan - but how will you know? material X-ray analysis???

 

[WDoherty]

There is a guy on ebay selling GT35R Style for about 600. I have been talking to him. The turbo is original Garrett GT35R BB internal with XS turbine and compressor housing. I am very interested in it.

Is it from seller turbo183, if so, is it just a ball bearing t3/t4?

 

[Lextreme II]

Yes, I have been talking to him about the turbos he is selling. What do u think?

 

[WDoherty]

Sorry, don't know enough to make a judgement call, any turbo experts want to take a look at that link?

 

[monaro-azz]

My mate just did his dyno run on his freshly built Kawasaki zx9r with a "arrett" $600 chinese turbo it ran for around sixty mins at idle while fuel maps and timing were set then on the first power run as soon as it hit 11psi @ 10,000rpm it let go blew a **** load of smoke and destroyed the intake turbine and left alot of oil through the intercooler/plenum/intake/head. i've got a couple of pics of the tubo if you want them.

In my opinion if your building your car as anything more than a hack job then you need to have confidence in the parts your using, which is something these chinese parts just don't inspire.

 

[cowboy bebop]

These turbos on e-bay (EXCEPT for the REAL Master Power turbos) should be avoided. The reliablility track record is horrendous.

On the other end of that, most everything else on e-bay, (manifolds, lines, ect..) is pretty much dead on)

Eric

 

[stevechumo]

My mate just did his dyno run on his freshly built Kawasaki zx9r with a "arrett" $600 chinese turbo it ran for around sixty mins at idle while fuel maps and timing were set then on the first power run as soon as it hit 11psi @ 10,000rpm it let go blew a **** load of smoke and destroyed the intake turbine and left alot of oil through the intercooler/plenum/intake/head. i've got a couple of pics of the tubo if you want them.

In my opinion if your building your car as anything more than a hack job then you need to have confidence in the parts your using, which is something these chinese parts just don't inspire.

Yes, please post some pics, especially with the brand of that turbo.