Well Shit.
Its taken me nearly a week to sit down and write this, and that’s because I needed to calm down, everytime I sat down to write something, anger over came me and I had to put it away.
Let me start at the beginning. Approx six months ago my car, Snuffy the Patrol, started blowing butt loads of smoke, oil smoke, the original turbo had crapped itself only 30,000km earlier and I had only been able to afford a secondhand unit in unknown condition from a wrecker on the mainland. Of course, I instantly assumed that unit had also crapped itself and so we went hunting for a replacement, I dearly wanted to fit an upgraded unit, maybe a Mamba kit or similar, but at about this time a low km (10,000km) set of 4.88 ratio diffs with ARB lockers came up for sale locally really cheap, I paid about $2000 plus my diffs, for perspective its nearly $5000 in parts alone! Its an upgrade I have long wanted to do, as it will return the gearing to standard with my 33" tyres on. So we bought the diffs, and opted for an aftermarket turbo.
Mistake number one.
The aftermarket turbo barely lasted a day, the test drive went really well, but on the first trip to work it started smoking again, the unit came with a 24 month warranty, which we attempted to claim on, but as it turns out upon a close reading its not worth the paper it is written on. So there goes $700 down the drain. Not to mention all the stress and headaches that went along with it.
That scared us away from aftermarket turbos, including Mamba kits and the like, so I went on the hunt for the best replacement, I didn’t want a genuine replacement as they just arent good enough for the engine, and also cost a ton to replace because they are a ‘s’ model, meaning Garrett built them specialy for Nissan for the RD28. Long story short I got onto a turbo specialist in Melbourne who was able to supply me a modified VNT Garret GT2056, which we jumped at, both dad and I have long thought that the RD needed a VNT, so despite the high cost we ordered one, knowing that a Garrett would last and not give us any trouble.
Fitting it turned out to be far more difficult that we were expecting, the supplied manifold adapter didn’t fit, the seller had made these units for other RD28’s and so had built mine to the specs he had in his records, even he couldnt understand why it didnt fit and offered a refund and his apologies. I was determined to make it fit and so we had Spreyton Engineering make up a new adapter.
In hindsight, mistake number two.
During all of this our Mini also had some issues, though these have been a long time coming and were only delayed due to lack of funds. Funds became available and after a series of, what we considered at the time to be very annoying events, but that I am now sure had the hand of God behind them, we found a new mechanic who was able to do the work, and I soon discovered, was very very good at their job. I have never been so impressed with a mechanic, and I have NEVER found any mechanic I was completely comfortable to leave my cars with. The best part is they are in Shearwater. Praise God.
I asked them to finish the turbo install on Snuffy for us because it was simply outside of our ability. I was blown away by the work they have done, the care taken, and the extra effort they went to.
That leads us to today, on Wednesday this week just gone they started Snuffy up for the first time since December of last year (2017), and that’s when the shit hit the fan.
It turns out that the turbo was never the problem. The problem is actually far more serious, the piston rings are stuffed. Why, I have no idea, its only done 100,000km, its been well looked after, regularly serviced, I’ve done everything right, but here we are. The only thing we can put it down too is a dodgy rebuild. We will of course know more once they get it apart, but you understand why I am so angry.
Basically whats happening is compression is making it past the pistons and into the crankcase, causing it to pressurize, because a turbo essentially relies on gravity to drain the oil from the bearings, if the crankcase is pressurized, the oil cannot drain, and so it gets forced past the seals and into the intake/exhaust, causing the engine to burn it. The reason the aftermarket turbo lasted a short while is because it took time for the crank to pressurize and also for the oil to make it through the intake plumbing, intercooler etc and into the combustion chamber.
This whole debacle has made me very angry, and it has taken time to calm me down. I just have to remember, at the end of the day it is just a car, and all its going to take to fix it is money, its just really really disheartening to put your very best into looking after something, and have it fail on you. I guess its just a fresh reminder of how broken the world is, and how much it needs Jesus.
