Anyone has taken their turbo apart to clean it? 2003 Cummins

I want to clean the hot side of the turbo, the part that gets dirty from the exhaust. It is impossible to remove the motor while the turbo is in there. I talked to a turbo rebuilder and he says turbo start to stick when they sit for too long, but he would not just take it apart, he would sell me a rebuilt turbo for $2000.00, probably take mine, clean it, change a few parts and, bingo $2000.00.

I took the turbo apart on my Ford and it was very dirty with soot and rust. It was sitting for long period.

The turbo on this engine has a ring that slide in and out on the hot side. There is something sticking in there but not all the time, I can hear it with engine off / key on, it clicks in the turbo assembly, 5 click every 5 seconds. It also does it sometimes with engine running. In the manual, there is a check to do with the motor, it should move winthin 5 second. Either the motor has not enough power or the ring is sticking.

I've had the turbos on a Ford 6.0L apart a few times and it is harder to get them off of the engine than it is to separate the exhaust housing. Scrubbed the vanes and unison ring with a scouring pad and some parts cleaner. It really is an easy process (at least it was on the 6.0L stock turbo), and wouldn't hesitate on yours.

In my opinion there is no reason to pull one apart unless you are experiencing sticking issues (overboost/overspeed, or underboost) and could even be causing the engine to defuel.

As for tolerances, you must be extremely negligent to get something out of line (drop the turbo while it is apart and bend the compressor or exhaust wheel or even bend the shaft), break one of the wheels and cause an unbalance, ect. The compressor (intake) side stays together, you are opening up just the exhaust side for cleaning.

I'm a little surprised a 03 has a variable vain turbo which are bad about not varrying if you do not get on them hard. I would find something that dissolves carbon and spray it down in the hopes it's just stuck and the motor is still good without taking it apart. You should be able to get to the arm that moves the vains by taking the activator off, not apart. Apply 12V to the motor if you separate it from the turbo to see if it will move the yolk. You can buy the center cartridge if you cannot get the vains to move for less than $200.

Double post

I have taken mine off my ford 7.3 to install a aftermarket compressor wheel. As far as cleaning it there should be nothing to clean. Your sucking in clean air through your air cleaner. Diesels don't like to injest dust and dirt and if they do your looking at that 20k repair bill.

Been a trucker most of my life. Have turbos on many engines. I have NEVER heard a mechanic say to "clean out the turbo".

Leave it alone.

There is a lot of things I would tear apart and play with on my Cummins but the turbo is not one of them because of all the fine tolerance, one little screw up and your engine will quickly eat that turbo in a few seconds and there go's your whole engine to the tune of $25-30 grand, not a thing to play with, let the expert's @Cummins fix it if it needs fixing. Just my thought's.

You may have better luck Here.

Here is a picture of the turbo
http://i651.photobucket.com/albums/uu235/Kidoo/_35_zps51e5faac.jpg