Hi,

I have recently noticed a little blue smoke on start-up, so I pulled my AFE air filter to find that the compressor shaft has a lot of end play (in & out)! Obviously, I need a turbo, but the question is....have I done any damage to anything else?? There was noticeable soot on the fins, but they all looked in good condition and the compressor spins freely.

The truck has 126K with the mods in my signature. I'm a little dissapointed that this happened so soon! Anyway, I guess I'll be in the marked for a low mileage take-off!

Thanks,
Tim

 

I called HTT on shaft play, they said the in and out play is normal. Up and down play is ok unless the fins hit the the housing. If you are sucking oil past the seals then the air filter maybe to small or dirty. This info is coming from HTT.

 

Interesting. Thanks for the reply... I'm sure that the air filter is not too dirty & its not too small as it is the AFE unit designed for this truck. I guess I don't know for sure that it is pulling oil through the turbo seals, but I seriously doubt it is the valve guides on a 126K motor.

Thanks

 

If you go stock, go with an 04.5 or newer stocker.

 

Yea...'04.5 + is the plan, however I will need to find something soon

 

in and out play is NOT normal... not sure what the spec on your HE341 is, but I'm willing to bet it's not much greater than the .0037" max tolerance on an H1C or HX35

less than .004" allowable. That's pretty tough to feel by hand. If the thing is easily moving in and out, it's thrusted.

 

Please Let HTT know, I too thought in and out a was not good.

 

I guess it's semantics... it may be "normal", but it's not desirable! LOL

the bottom line is if you can easily feel thrust on the turbine shaft, I would be looking to replace the turbo ASAP

 

That was my understading as well and with developing blue smoke on cold startups, it only seems to make sense. Thanks for the help.

Any of you guys have a take-off in good condition?

 

I sold my HE341 take-off... I'm about to have an HE351 take-off of my 06, but you'll probably find one before it actually comes off

 

Ron - thanks for the reply.

This is crazy...I just checked the turbo again as I wanted to pull the intercooler hose to check for oil and found NO play in the compressor wheel. Either I am making all of this up, or something??

Anyway, there was no trace of oil downstream of the turbo...great...so *** is with the blue smoke? This truck has never done any really tough pulling...just boats and my equipment trailer up to about 14K on an occasional basis only. I did a search and it seems like many people have this situation as part of a normal cold weather start-up. I don't remember this happening last winter...just a quick puff of white when she fires, then off we go with no problems.