vnt's.... how do they die?

[DonGTI]

Will do and when rebuilt and cleaned will get a mate of mine who knows the dark ways of turbochargers to go over it again to make sure i haven't screwed anything during assembly...

as regards overhaul kits... which ones do you reccomend?

[the caveman]

If you have one that seizes on you and you have the luxury of time or an extra one , just fix it the Mr  Hsu way- stick the seized one in a bucket with a combination of atf and varsol. Leave it in there for a couple of months and it'll be like new. Like i said if you have time and are too lazy to take it apart and spend money  actually fixing it. I've seen at least 3 that were " fixed " this way.

[DonGTI]

If you have one that seizes on you and you have the luxury of time or an extra one

well, how its actually going to work out is:

I give dad my VNT15 which i was planning to put on my car (professionally refurbished with les than 4000 miles on... car it was on written off in traffic accident).

I then keep dad's to "experiment" with repairing and running it and when i have played enough i'll install the modified vnt 15 i have hopefully bought from foxracer1 (unless jimfoo makes him a higher offer, or one "which he cannot refuse" )

cleaning wise my friend uses a chemical bath to clean engine parts (24 hour 150 celcius pressurised vat) and he offered me to clean it, but will keep your suggestion in mind for future parts

Thing is if i have it all apart i really wished to put in a service kit, but as yet no ideas reards bands or what should i look for, for a complete kit

[DonGTI]

Update...

took it off the golf and replaced it with the other vnt 15 i had... perfect fit/match, only difference is the actuator, its a non-original replacement item and has the boost/vacum input on the side rather than on top... Car started and running fine, performance also improved with the car pulling hard well into 4k rpm rather than loosing steam above 2800

The damaged one was taken to a turbo shop where it was taken apart by my friend and damage inspected.  I have to say the first thing that struck me was how stuck the actuator was! it was as if it was superglued in one position... He kept disassembling it and compressor was fine, center section was fine, center shaft has a bit of play but just a bit, however he said that with a refurb kit it should be ok... Shaft was pulled out and inspected and since he won't be running any hard ammount of boost will stick with the original vnt 15 item rather than replace/upgrade to a 17... unless its a good idea.

The vanes were coated in a layer which the guy described as "more than he usually finds"... they were also very hard to move.  

Right now everything is sitting in the heated chemical bath and to-morrow he will re-assemble it and hopefully will be able to start playing on how to fit it to my engine.  I have the old 1.6 motor sitting on the floor, will mock fit on it and see what i get before plumbing it on the aaz.

[DonGTI]

VNT 15 ready and refurbished...

It has a refurb kit in, not sure what was refurbished or what not but cost me $ 110 parts only. He also put a VNT 17 shaft in... just in case i decide to play with it a bit, that set me back a further $40... then balanced the lot and tested it on an air and oil thing (supposed to flow oil in housing, air in exhaust turbine and read off boost from the compressor). After 30 minutes operation at various pressures playing with vanes there were no visible oil leaks and shaft developed no play.  

Got charged $150 for parts and $60 for the rest, not bad me thinks...