brianpgriset

Background: I am doing an HE351 swap on my truck. Purchased turbo and it came with both some black looking ink and a white paint looking substance on one of the impeller blades. That isn't there for balance is it? Makes no sense as 1. I thought they balance by grinding the nut that holds the impeller 2. The paint could flake off.

I want to clean it all off but don't want to mess it up. Thanks.

infidel

I've never seen paint used to balance anything.
Like you said, it could easily come off.

Lary Ellis (Top)

I could be wrong about this so don't take it as gospel.....but I can see someone doing that as an alignment aid or visual reference point when working on it......just a guess....

Lil Dog

Typically paint marks are used when using a strobe light for measuring turbine speed. I've done that in the past with industrial engines for troubleshooting.

However, its probably like Lary said, alignment for assembly or mark for referencing the shaft to balance. Not actually balance weight.

brianpgriset

Thanks guys. I'll be sure to clean it off before I place the turbo on my truck. Also reading around it sounds like its common on turbos of this size to be component balanced anyways.

gorms

When I sent out my turbine/compressor to HTT to get balanced they did some fine grinding on the back of the new compressor wheel, didn't do anything to the turbine that already had a notch in it from the factory. They also used a thick streak of white paint down one comp fin to the shaft to mark it....I left it on there, it's all gone now. Make your own mark with a sharpie if you can't see anything on the shaft to make sure it goes back on the same way, if you remove the compressor wheel.