turbo rebuild help

[kckeener]

Has anyone rebuilt a t3 turbo? I have a few questions hopefully someone can answer. From the begining: I have a 79 2.3 turbo. It was smoking a little and I figured the turbo would be a good place to start since the car sat for a while and maybe the seals were bad. I bought a different turbo so I could rebuild it and learn a little. First the kit came with the wrong seal and then the wrong bushings. The bushing fit loosely in the housing but the book say they should slide in. How tight should they fit? I see you can get oversized outside diameters. How much play should be in the assembled turbo. This is the second time I have had it out. I am itchin' to see what this thing will do when its right but I have been working on it for months and it seems to be one disaster after another for me. any help or advice would be great.
Kerry

[Zap's 85 GT]

Was it smoking at startup or after it warmed up? Valve guide oil seals help cure the startup oil burning.

[kckeener]

The head was next after the turbo. It was smoking all the time. the car has 65k on it but sat for a few years. valve seals I am sure are shot. On the turbo, I got my answers. .002-.003 is the outside bearing to housing and .001-.002 bearing to shaft clearance. reason being, if the bearing floats, It cuts the speeds in half. I learned this from turbos-r-us on e-bay. they had the cheapest kits and the guy is sending me new bearings because mine in the kit were out of tolerance.
He was very helpful and I even offered to pay for the bearings since I purchased the kit over a year ago! He said no problem. VERY impressed with there service and he did not treat me like an idiot....even though he had to think it. Again, I have no clue about this turbo. I hope I have better luck this time.
Kerry

[Zap's 85 GT]

Even new turbo's have some side to side play as there needs to be some room for the oil to float the shaft. When I had mine rebuilt he said he had to spend a lot of time balancing the main turbine and compressor shaft as mine was tweaked. I got it as a box of bits so it didnt surprise me. Mine had busted off studs and just being a big box of parts didn't instill a lot of confidence to rebuild it myself. Good luck with the rebuild. Some turbo's you can and some you cant do at home.