(gun shots)
- So, you want to turbo your car, huh?
But you're a little short on funds?
Relatable.
Is a cheap turbo worth your money?
(upbeat music)
(engine revs)
It's WheelHouse time baby.
Ooh wee.
Sure, we've all heard horror stories of
cheap turbos blowing up or lasting a hundred miles.
But as of late, there have been
more and more success stories.
Stories of people having no issues at all.
Aside from figuring out what to buy
with all that extra cash they've saved.
(triumphant horn)
A big thick boy thank you to NOS Energy Drink,
for partnering with Donut, and this show.
Not only do they help out WheelHouse, but they specifically
asked to sponsor this week's Hot Take segment as well.
I mean have you seen the guys like BoostedBoiz.
They're making piles of power and
putting miles per hour on some pretty cheap stuff.
(car engine revving)
Their running 9s.
- [Spectator] That's it, that's it.
(crowd cheering)
- Yes!
(loud engine)
Nine eight in 147, woo hoo!
(piano music)
- So let's review what a turbo actually does.
They have a pretty tough job.
Their environment is really, really, really hot.
Being bolted on to your exhaust and all.
When bearing tolerances are out of spec,
it can cause premature wear, which can lead to oil pushing
past the seals and turning into
blue smoke coming out the back of your car.
Anything from poor casting processes,
to the temperatures molten metal is poured at,
to the specific blend of metal being poured can cause
imperfections in important parts of the compressor wheel.
Don't they check all that stuff?
Well, with the advent of the internet
came a wave of manufacturing facilities all over the world.
Email and computer-aided design, CAD,
allowed companies to communicate
and share designs with ease.
That meant great things for companies in places with
expensive labor, like America.
Boom!
Get things made in places with cheap labor, right?
Wrong, kind of.
There are all sorts of growing pains,
with all the countless fledgling factories.
Even factories that make good turbos can have mistakes.
If there's no one inspecting your turbo before it ships
to your door, then you're at the mercy of Lady Luck.
And let me tell ya, she can be kinda mean sometimes.
But luckily for these factories,
many of the companies asking them to make parts,
provided them with knowledge and cash.
In a relatively short time, the ability
of these overseas manufacturing plants skyrocketed.
But that doesn't mean that all
the factories themselves, stepped their game up.
Is it a complete gamble?
In short, yes.
But we can try to swing the results in our favor.
(bouncy music)
First, buying the cheapest of the
cheap is never a good idea.
The cheapest new turbo on eBay
hovers around a hundred bucks.
That's ridiculous.
Too cheap, don't buy it.
Second, read the reviews.
This goes for pretty much everything you buy online,
but especially with car parts.
Look on the forums.
Even forums that aren't for your car.
There are gonna be a lot of opinions and people
throwing their two cents around like grenades.
There's one thing I know about the internet,
it's that people like other people knowing their opinions.
But if you can find people with actual hands-on experience,
you'll find the useful information.
Third, look for information about the company
you're going to be buying from.
Have they been around for very long?
Do they make any overall quality or quality control claims?
And most importantly is there a guarantee
or a return policy if your turbo does blow up?
Beyond checking reviews and snooping on the company,
there isn't much you can do to insure that the cheap turbo
you might buy will be a good one.
It's still gonna be a bit of a gamble
When you're talking a quarter of a
price of a brand name turbo.
So now it's time to look inwards, to find out
if you really are about that cheap turbo life.
You need to think about the what if.
What if it does fail?
Do you gamble on another or do you shell out the money
for a name brand turbo after all?
Some folks' philosophy is that since you can buy
four or five cheap turbos for the price of one good one,
they'll just keep replacing them, if and when they fail.
They probably will.
That brings up another question.
Who's doing the work?
If you're paying someone to install your turbo,
the money you spend on labor will quickly add up
and make your cheap turbo a little less cheap.
Another big question is, how hard is it gonna be?
Are we talking a top mount super easy accessible turbo?
If so great.
But on some cars, replacing a turbo or turbos can be a
total nightmare or at least a really long dream
where you have a perpetually bloody knuckles.
Check out HiLow and you'll see what I mean.
- [Eddie] Good now?
- No, Eddie, not good.
What the (beep) you think dude?
(high energy music)
Did NOS Energy Drink partner with Up to Speed first?
Yes.
Did they then move on to Bumper to Bumper?
Yes.
But did they save the best Donut show for last?
Hmm, as someone who is completely impartial,
someone who has no skin in the game,
someone who is 100% unbiased.
Yes.
Yes they did.
WheelHouse number one, baby.
(can popping)
(loud drinking)
(satisfied sigh)
NOS Energy Drink, baby, drink it.
(laughing)
(high energy music)
If you are a bit of a mad scientist,
there are a couple of other things
you can do to potentially improve
the odds of cheap turbo success.
There have been many accounts of people dismantling
their brand new turbos before installing them,
cleaning them out a little bit
and putting them back together.
Another thing some people have done is rebuilding the turbo
with new higher quality bearing, seals, and rings,
right out of the box.
This only works if you can find
rebuild parts for your cheap turbo.
But if you can definitely do that.
All of that stuff, replacing, cleaning,
and rebuilding the turbo takes time.
How much time do you have to spend on this stuff?
And again, what will you drive in the mean time?
If your project car isn't your daily,
then your probably in okay shape.
But if you're playing doctor on your daily,
uh, you're kinda rolling the dice.
Another thing you can do is
to make sure you install it properly.
Give it the best possible chance.
I'm talking about making sure your oil and coolant lines
are properly routed for the best lubrication and cooling.
Even if it means a little extra work.
If your oil return line is all kinked up,
even the most expensive turbo in the world is gonna fail.
(loud engine noises)
(piano music)
So here's the deal.
Whether or not a cheap ass turbo is a viable option
for your car isn't really a simple answer.
A lot of it comes down to you.
Are you the kind of person that loves to tinker?
Are you a bit of a risk taker?
(tires screech)
If you do your research, read reviews, and accept all the
potential outcomes you might even be able to make
your gamble a little less risky.
Otherwise, you should definitely save up
and get the good stuff.
Through my job, I've been super fortunate to meet people
from the automotive aftermarket.
I'm talking people from Vortex, Feal Suspension,
Magnussen, a ton of people, and they're the ones that put
the blood, sweat, and tears into making
the aftermarket so great.
So what I think the right thing to do is,
instead of being impulsive and buying the cheap part
from some nameless factory, is to reward the people that
put the work in and support small businesses really.
Because you might unintentionally be taking,
literal labor away from someone
that you might know, you know.
It's just the right thing to do.
Planters NUTmobile is at the office.
- So we like to say that we always drive the smoothest
peanut butter when we're on the salty streets of America.
(laughs)
- Huh, you're serious?
- [Woman] Yes.
- Jeez.
- [Woman] So they got to roll up
and everybody was looking at them like,
"Oh my gosh, wow they're really--"
- This thing's nuts!
- Be nice, see you next time.