First start up after turbo rebuild
Turbo Mini Forums

Hopefully next week i can start the engine again. The turbo, a garrett t3 has been off and been rebuilt. The people who did the rebuild advise that before i start the engine i crank the engine to raise oil pressure and with the oil drain removed, make sure i have oil flowing through the turbo. They also recommend that with the engine at idle, i hold the compressor wheel just to ensure that oil is flowing through the turbo without any load on the bearings and shaft etc.

I have two problems with the above recommendations. 1: I cannot get to my oil drain to remove it when the engine is in the car (unless there is so trick way of twisting my car upside down to do it?!) and 2: with the rad (side mounted) plus inlet manifold plus other pipework in the way, im pretty sure i cannot get my fingers into the compressor housing to hold the wheel.

What are my options???

Thanks in advance guys!

Apologies for any spelling errors!

When I build an engine, I hook a battery up and an oil temp gauge and get pressure before I put the engine in the car. That would cover no 1. No 2 seems overkill....

You mean an oil pressure gauge andy?

maybe lol.

It's also worth taking the big banjo bolt out of the pipe to the oil filter, putting oil in and turning the engine backwards (repeating a few times) to prime the oil pump.

The last time I built an engine i filled the oil pump with engine assembly lube, it really helped, a small amount of priming and pretty much instant oil pressure was had

Yes i do that with the oil pipe when i am starting a 'dry' engine. It does help alot. As for the oil around the turbo, would i be ok just cranking the engine several times to ensure i have good oil pressure and just leave the car idling for a few minutes before driving/reving/loading the engine?