TennesseeCRD wrote:
IDparts is showing to have them for $1120.00 for new oem garrets. So the rebuilt garretts that I've seen online are in fact rebuilt but you are saying they are probably not balanced correctly and won't hold up?
That is exactly what I am saying. The problem is that the balancing is done by milling on the compressor wheel (the one that will unscrew from the center shaft) after it is installed and built. Since the exhaust side is friction-welded into place on the shaft, once the compressor wheel is tightened into place, the whole center is treated as one piece. They oil it and spin it up to some RPM, and a computer measures the wobbles and then marks / mills away metal from the compressor until the shaft and wheel are completely balanced.
Obviously the tolerances are minutely tiny. Papaindigo and I thought that by just tightening the wheel back to snug, we would be close enough to the point the wheel started from, that it would still be balanced. Since that wheel was back with the shaft it was always with... It sounded like a good plan at the time.
In practice, not so much. It felt solid and without any excess shaft movement after we built it... But quickly it must have worn open the brass main bearing from the imbalance. Don't forget, at full boost, the turbo center is spinning at somewhere north of 120,000 RPM. These turbos are ALREADY programmed by Mopar to operate too close to their factory safety limits. Overspeeding is a real problem, and adding a marginally-successful rebuild into the mix is just asking for problems.
I would have been the happiest person on the planet to tell everyone that rebuilding these was a possibility, that we had done it safely and successfully. Unfortunately, the reality is a lot different. Maybe a rebuilt wouldn't be a risk if Chrysler had selected a turbo with a bit more safety factor before the overspeed threshold was crossed... But they didn't.
Meanwhile... The Chinese are great at knocking off ANYTHING. Cheaping out by reducing metal alloy strength, thickness... Who knows what else. I bought a dishwasher that had an asphalt BRICK zip-tied into the bottom of it. Obviously the specification from the buyer had a weight requirement... They chose to meet that by using a BRICK. The port of Savannah bought 4 giant ship cranes from China... Shortly after a building-climbing-crane COLLAPSED while unloaded, because of the weak and substandard Chinese steel they had used.
A fabricator I know told me that he heard an interesting tale from the scrap dealers he sells his waste to: If X number of tons of scrap are being sent to China, 1/2 X are coming back (by weight) as finished products. I don't remember the exact numbers he gave me, but it wasn't a small amount. We are sending many SHIPS full of scrap over there, and getting back air-filled and weak cast metal products in return.
Think about that before you buy a $700 "new" turbo, instead of a MADE IN THE USA Genuine Garrett turbo. Idpart's price of $1120 is a fantastic price, and well within the safe range. I had been quoted (several years ago now) $1150 to buy from a Bosch shop, and they would have been bringing it in from a shop in Brazil. Nobody closer had it at the time. The only reason I bought it from the dealer, was an employee discount card from a friend - I got the dealer one for $800. With the engine blowing 10 miles later, I didn't discover the defect until 4 months later, too late to do anything about it with the dealer.
Buy from IDparts with confidence. I would, in a heartbeat.
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That was a TON of oil coming out there! It shouldn't EVER be like that. 
