What causes a turbo to blow....

Not letting the turbo spool down I heard is always bad. Drivers pulling into fuel island and just shut truck off. That cut the engine oil off to the bearing, that puts a little extra wear on it everytime.

 

VGT turbo's are just ticking time bombs waiting to go off. They have lots of moving parts in them in an environment that is not good to have moving parts in. Over time the parts wear out and don't function properly. Most likely what happened to yours was the VGT was getting slow/stuck and thats what caused the codes. When it blew the veins where probably closed some what and when you gave it more fuel to pass the other rig the veins didnt open fast enough which caused high drive pressure and over sped the turbo result in the failure. And with the higher speeds of these new turbo's spin the bearings also wear faster. Have you ever looked at the size difference in the turbo's from the older engines to the ones we have now days? They are like 1/2 the size they used to be. Smaller turbo means faster response so less smoke it also translates into higher shaft speeds to supply the air needed at higher engine RPM, so once again cleaner emissions standards is the main cause here.

 

Dirty air filters contribute, low idling and hot shut down is all I’ve ever heard of. Dirty oil of course. Sounds like your second one lasted the same as first. I had one blow @ around 350k once on a 12.7. Current 12.7 blew around 900 k then again around 1.6 mil now has around 2.1 mil. I’d like to change this one before it blows! Lol You just never know as they turn such high RPM s . Aside from checking if blades are rubbing it’s hard to predict

 

leaks causing over boost, bearing failure (they spin at 100k for how many years), oil feed, name your poison....what motor? got a BW 702 off ebay from authorized dealer for my DDEC 4 for under $600 sent to my door

 

I used to go through them like beers at a barbecue on my marine diesels

My belief is the engine is being lugged and the turbo is being super heated.

If you are winding out the motor the turbo and motor are exchanging a lot more air which is keeping the turbo cool .

Shorts Lugs are fine. Long drawn out stretches are hard on motors and turbos.

 

I agree. Long pulls I keep the rpm up. Keep air moving

 

Only time Ive lost a turbo is when the boot got loose and sucked through it. Scared the #### out of me but I just called the plant they replaced my load of concrete. I idled back to the plant about 3 miles away dumped the load and went home. Truck was down the rest of the week I got a 4 day weekend I wasn't complaining lol.