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

PF&PM wrote:
When you say "actuator" do you mean "waste gate valve" ?

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No, I mean the electric motor. This turbo has a variable geometry (VGT). The mechanism is operated by a DC brush motor working off the ECM command at 5 Volt DC. The mechanism moves a sliding nozzle ring in and out in the turbo unison plate on the hot side of the turbo to increase or decrease turbo speed.

See details here:
http://www.dieselusa.com/productinfo/HE341Ve.pdf

Here is a HE351HE, same principle of the ring moving in and out but the driving gears of the VGT is not the same.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDAu6hlRU-A

When you say "actuator" do you mean "waste gate valve" ?

When I had the turbo 79 Mustang the turbo was rebuilt. I haven't see a shop, for that ,in a long time but they are out there. Custom compressor sides and so on. I had been using a blend of true synthetic and dino oil. The dino oil turned into what looked like brown or caramalized sugar granules and did a number on the shaft and bearings.
The cost of essentially new turbo was about half. They did not cost anything like what they do today with variable vanes, more than one compressor stage etc.
They can be rebuilt obviously but I would want to do it on a junk yard unit first and then still maybe buy it from the pros.

If coolant gets in the motor, you could do as I did with my electrical jacks on my truck camper. Drill a small hole at the bottom to let coolant / moisture out, be very carefull not to touch anything in there. This could be scary cause you are drilling in a very small motor. But this could be your last resort to save $3500.00.

This is if your motor is still at least functionning intermitently.

WILDEBILL308 wrote:
If you go to YouTube you can find videos about repairing your turbo. One recommendation was to drive it often and and occasionally hard. They had one good recommendation when in storage for extended time to plug the exhaust so moisture can't get to the turbo and cause rust and sticky operation.
Bill

Yes, letting it stand for many months without driving it could result in rusting things up and the ring on the VGT will not slide properly in the hot side portion of the turbo. This would prevent the turbo from working properly. Having the exhaust brake working also prevent the VGT system to stick as the EB is using the VGT on this turbo for exhaust braking action.

The problem with my turbo is not the hot side ring, the ring goes in and out no problem and the mechanism is not worn. The problem is in the VGT mechanism itself which is attached to the turbo. This mechanism could freeze up the gears or motor if moisture or coolant gets in. It could also fool the position sensor. You could probably prevent seezing if you drive it at least once every couple of weeks, but coolant or moisture should not get in there at all in the first place, it is all sealed up to prevent it.

I could not find any videos for the HE341VE turbo, there are some for the HE351ve turbo introduced in 2005 which is close to mine, except that the VGT mechanism is using a brushless electric motor. The HE551VE is another version that I think was used starting somewhere in 2005 and up probably but I am not sure.

My turbo is at page 7, figure 2. If you want to know which type you have, just look under you engine. If you see a black motor sticking out, it is a HE341VE.

http://www.cumminsturbotechnologies.com/CTT/CTTContent/CTTUS/SiteContent/en/BinaryAsset/PDFs/Downloads/HTi_edition_10.pdf

CT_WANDERER wrote:
Where is the coolant coming from? Should not have any coolant leaking into the turbo.

The turbo is cooled with coolant in two places. Between the hot and cold side and in the VGT mechanism, electric motor side.

The VGT has an in and out coolant line to cool the VGT electrical portion, but the coolant is not suppose to bypass in the motor area, there is a seal that is suppose to protect it, poor design and Cummins has made not effort to fix it. This turbo was remanufactured by cummins in 2008 and sure they knew the problem. They could have easily prevented this to happen by improving the seal. Since this problem probably occur only after a few years, the warranty is out and you are stock with a non serviceable motor and have to send another $3500.00 to Cummins for a new assembly. If I have to buy another one, I will modify it with some high temp sealant.

If you go to YouTube you can find videos about repairing your turbo. One recommendation was to drive it often and and occasionally hard. They had one good recommendation when in storage for extended time to plug the exhaust so moisture can't get to the turbo and cause rust and sticky operation.
Bill

Where is the coolant coming from? Should not have any coolant leaking into the turbo.

Ok, here we go, the two caps from the electrical mechanism can be taken off, just two caps held on with screws. One with a gasket, one with a seal. You could reseal it with some high temp sealant. The sensor can be taken off too, there could be some coolant in it, probably the cause of motor failure.

Coolant can bypass the seal and coolant got in the electrical motor and sensor. Just clean it good.

The electric motor would be pretty hard to remove. It is timed with the position sensor and the shaft is press fit. You would need special tool to time it.

More to come

Got the turbo out today, couples of hour, not too bad of a job. Drain coolant, remove muffler to gain better access, disconnect all the tubes from the turbo (intercooler, exhaust, air filter), remove 2 coolant lines from turbo plus 2 from electric motor mechanism, remove oil lines and oil drain, remove all electrical connections.

I used some hydraulic and acetone mix to ease out the removal of the the 4 bolts holding the turbo. Turbo will come out by moving it foward, twist, and remove from the bottom, it is heavy.

I took the hot side off and there is a little soot and rust, but is was not too bad. I saw that you cannot replace the electric actuator if you do not have the gasket, which seems to be pretty hard to find.

More to come
I will clean it and reinstall and see if it fixed the problem.