I need help with diagnosing my turbo problem and a few other things. My truck is giving up on me and I need it for work. Reaching out as these forums were my saving grace for years now and I appreciate this entire community. Turbo makes noise at idle that gives me a headache and whilst driving from red light to red light. and the truck keeps stalling. I replaced a whole bunch of things and nothing helped.

 

Pull off the rubber intake to the turbo and push the wheel around with your finger. It should be mostly solid. Also look for evidence of the wheel contacting the housing around it. Pics will help!

A list of things replaced will also help us diagnose the issue.

 

I can get pictures tomorrow, a list of parts replaced will only help the other problem I'm having. As for the turbo making that sound that's driving me insane and concerns me, it only has 30,000km on this turbo a reman gtp38r I got from a reputable shop in my city. I do have a home made water/meth injection system that I haven't used much but it could be the problem

 

38r is know for high pitch whining.
But scratchy and grinding is no good.

Can you post a video of that sound?
Have you read codes yet?

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A video would help us.

Check the compressor wheel for movement or contact as has been mentioned already.

It sounds to me based on your description like the turbo is failing. The 38r is a roller bearing turbo so if it comes apart you could have bearings headed towards your engine. It also has been known to have issues once someone takes the center section apart. Most commonly seen when adding a billet compressor wheel.

A few options, assuming your turbo is failing:

1- replace the entire center section. It’s expensive. https://kcturbos.com/products/garret...erstroke-99-03

2- buy a new KC Stock Plus turbo (selection may vary depending on how you use your truck) https://kcturbos.com/products/7-3-jo...-03-super-duty

3- Of you still have the stock turbo you could rebuild it or better yet rebuild with with a KC Balanced Assembly. https://kcturbos.com/products/balanc...-3-powerstroke

Worth noting, I hated the 38R. It’s loud and likes high rpm. Much preferred the stock turbo with billet wheel.

 

I'm not sure if it let me upload the video or not but i posted it. I can't run the stock turbo at all, I burnt through them once every 2 days. The shaft would snap or melt In half and grenade the bearings, I went through 5 stock oem turbos and finally upgraded to this one and I've never had any problems with it other than having to use 6.5 detroit knurled starter bolts to hold it down because the original turbo bolts weren't long enough and kept ripping the threads out of my brand new Riff raff EBPV delete pedestals, left me on the side of the road twice because it leaked out all my oil. I have very high egts and I put in a home made water/meth injection system in putting out about 30psi of boost on this turbo. I checked this gtp38r and there's very little play side to side/up and down its actually pretty tight but it has a little bit of back and forth play which to my understanding there shouldn't be any. Thrust bearing? How common is that?

 

Truck starts and drives fine until at any random time it will cut out and act like its running out of fuel, bucking, shaking, loud injector ticking and no throttle response as it slowly bogs down and dies out stalling on the side of the road. Starts up just fine with no hesitation but takes a minute sometimes to idle up fine and not chug, lope and surge. Then it drives fine until the problem happens again. I replaced icp, both valve cover harnesses, fuel pump and filter, idm, did a whole bunch of mods but nothing worked. It's getting good volume of fuel with good pressure. Did a buzz test and it passes sometimes, it's never the same result with what injectors sound loud and which ones sound muted. On forscan it shows all 8 cylinders are high to low side open, and both banks are the same. I ohmed the harness from the idm and it was all 3.2 ohms across the board. Harness doesn't seem to be damaged. Is it possible it killed my 2nd idm? My turbo is a separate problem.

Truck is a 2000 f250 ECSB 4x4 7.3. 600,000 kms with a bit of blow by.

 

Sounds like the fuel pump is running out of brushes inside the assembly. Or the relay is intermittently shutting off for whatever reason, turning off the fuel pump.

 

With that said, the only advice I can think of giving you right now is for you to decide if you want a work truck or a race truck. I don't know what you've done to cause it to eat turbos for lunch, but if you want to play, then most times you have to pay. Not trying to be offensive here. Want a reliable work truck, then consider dialing back the power output a little?

 

I love my 38r, ive looked at kc turbos options and it's quite appealing. Their drop in center section for the 38r looks pretty good to me since no one else has it. I paid 2900 CAD for my turbo and they are asking 1000 CAD for center section. My housings are fine and don't appear to be chewed up. It's just making internal noise.

 

I totally agree with that, it's my daily driver and work truck, I don't do any towing but I do travel for work. I don't know what my ts6 chip has on it for tunes but with my research I run it on a 100hp tune and it only runs and drives the best on that one. I've probably only got 300hp to 325hp going to the rear wheels. Truck weighs 9500lbs loaded with tools and slip tank, 6 inch lift with 38s and 3.73 gears. It's sporty enough for what it is but it's a real dog. I assume the turbos got eaten by too high of egts, being overspun and too high of boost pressure and not to mention the stock turbos surge like crazy.

 

That video sounds like a bearing going bad to me. Kind of a grinding whine during decel. My 38r had a nice spin down noise when shutting down but it was a clean sound.
FYI, you’ll probably get more views and responses by uploading to YouTube and providing a link rather than the imbedded video download.

You shouldn’t be eating turbos with stock injectors. This is concerning.

Stock turbos can surge. The billet wheel is a cure for that. I have always felt like exhaust drive pressure leaks exacerbate a surge. More on that in a moment.

You also shouldn’t be having crazy high EGTs driving empty with just a tuner on stock injectors. Something is wrong here. What is the actual EGT you’re seeing?

My guess is exhaust drive pressure leaks and possibly boost leaks. Those will drive up EGTs and kill performance. You should test for both and address as needed to get them sealed up. This is likely your cause of high EGT and turbo failures, with a potential of surge helping to kill them as well.

Do you have bellowed uppipes? A cheap set is a good investment and helps to get things sealed up and remain sealed.

My initial thought on the engine stalling issue is IPR but more testing will be required to confirm. A couple quick items for this.
Is the tin nut still on the IPR and snug?
Carry a can of air duster and use it to cool the IPR when this occurs to see if it makes a difference.

 

That is a lot of dead turbos..... what is you lpop pressure?

 

Money very well spent would be 4:10 gears. That's half your problem with all that weight. Engine is laboring against tall gears.

 

I wouldn't be scared of 4.30s with a 38-inch tire. But that would only solve some of your issues. You shouldn't be melting multiple turbos with stock injectors.