On my friends 04 dodge, his turbo does only up to 5lbs boost til 2200 rpm, then shoots up to 30. needless to say, pain to drive and can't pull anything. Any ideas? truck has no codes, took it to the dealer and they found nothing on the DTC. Engine was brand new 4k ago, he doesn't know, but might be the original turbo, which would put over 200k on the turbo.

 

The oem turbo on the so/ho sucks but mine was better than that. Off the line was unpredictable and I had dead spots below 2200 and the top end wasn't great but I still got up to 27 psi at top end. My turbo change by itself made it a completely different truck. Maybe it's not getting the fuel to spin the turbo. Does it smoke? Is the egt low? Is the waste gate opening or leaking? Has he checked for boost leaks? Has he checked the turbo shaft for play? A little radial play is normal but the wheels don't touch the housings. End play is bad. New fuel filter? Fuel pressure at the cp3? There's more but those are basic things he can do himself. Craig

 

I had thought of some of those, but he has been working late so no chance to do any testing. With my DTC it said something about fuel rail pressure, or at least to the effect of fuel something pressure. but, as mentioned when taken to the dealer they didn't find anything. It doesn't smoke, so hopefully we can narrow some things down. I told him just to get a new turbo either way for sure.

 

Is there excess smoke? How are the EGTs?

 

The thing I was getting at about smoke is... if it's smoking unusually, that means it's getting the fuel but not the air. I doubt if the whole problem is the turbo if the shaft feels OK. The fact that it can hit 30 psi is at least one good sign. Like I said, my oem turbo sucked but it wasn't nearly that irratic but mine only had 30k miles on it. Maybe they CAN get that bad. I guess if it were me, that would be a good excuse to buy a better turbo but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the total cure. Craig