Were there any US Marshals around, to confirm the story? :P

 

I haven't blown a turbo, but going across wyoming when I still had my w900 I was pulling a grade and then it sounded like a loud bang and the truck fell on its face....NO power....hit the shoulder and one of the band clamps that holds the ducting to/from the turbo came off...

 

More often than not, turbos do not simply seize. The shaft breaks and the engine starts drinking oil. Yes, they do take off like a bat out of hell sucking oil. They won't shut off with the key either. You get lots and lots of smoke and absolutely NO power. None.

Prices of rebuilt turbos are BS and ridiculous. I have rebuilt many many turbos for $200 or less. Most are less. People will pitch crap at you about they have to be perfectly balanced, which they do. But when all the parts are zero balanced anyway, well, that's pretty simple.

 

Oh, by the way, yes, they will seize if you shut the engine down with the turbo still hot. Oil doesn't hang out very long in a 500 degree environment. When you shut the engine off, the turbo continues to spin for a short while. The oil runs away from it and you have parts spinning dry. Bad deal. If this practice is continued, yeah, she'll seize.

800 Degrees exhaust temp. (on your pyro) equals quite a bit higher actual turbine temperature and much higher pre-turbo exhaust temperature.

 

This just may be stupidity on my part and i am not asking to be a smart a** just out of sheer curiosity...but how does it take off like a bat out of hell but you have NO power? Does it just take of when burning that oil but no reaction on the pedal or what...seems like if it takes off like crazy it is pumping some power....I am not even close to being a mechaninc so please explain this to me.

 

Diesel engines burn engine oil quite well. The oil supply to the turbo, mostly on older, non intercooled engines, gives the engine a basically unregulated fuel source. They will not pull a load this way, but once out of gear or with the clutch in, they run away. On today's intercooled engines, I would think that the engine would run itself out of oil before it filled the intercooler and actually started taking oil in to the engine, I'm not sure though. I've not lost one myself.

With no manifold pressure (no turbo) your engine will develop very little power. The huge amounts of black smoke come from fuel measured for the air that should be present from the turbo but is not. Exhaust temperatures also go very very high when you lose boost.