Worth buying a drifted/second hand t28r?

[mike_je94]

Yo,

Just want a few opinions.

Basically a mate of mine is running a 28r ball bearing turbo on his sr20 swapped s13 which he uses for skidding and occasional hard driving. He's trying to get me to buy it off him because he wants to up the power on his and get a disco potato/gt28rs.

I also want a 28r to run on my car anyway as an upgrade from the normal t28

In all fairness I've seen him driving it and skidding it and it seems like there isn't any dodgey coloured smoke coming from it when he's driving normal or on boost from as far as I can see. If it is of any help this t28r on my pals car is running just under 300bhp on a h dev stage 1a chip. He also does all the usual warming up and cooling down for a few minutes before driving off etc.

I understand there is no way to tell properly until it would be taken off the car and properly inspect it.

So all I'm really after in the mean time is it worth going for it? or should I just suck up and bite the bullet to buying a brand new one and not waste time with this one.

Cheers

[Mike41288]

Second hand turbos are really pot luck mate. You could get it an it lasts for another 50k miles, or you could get it and it fails after 500 miles. For that reason, I bit the bullet and bought a new GT28R and I'm glad I did.

[mike_je94]

And its also been on his car for a good 3 years or so anyway and he claims he has not really had any trouble with it.

The only one issue he had was his boost controller (manual one) failed and and it allowed it to boost over 23 psi which in the end blew the head gasket on it. Which he did later fix and carried on running the same turbo and it still seems fine if that is of any more help to anyone.

[james_200sx]

If its cheap. Could be a good gamble.

[frisbee]

If you need a turbo, go for it. If you don't, don't bother, it's not a worthwhile upgrade from an S14.

[munkul]

^^^ what he said.

the t28r makes sod all difference in performance to the regular t28 in my experience. Massively overrated. Plus if/when it goes bang it's practically worthless, unlike a journal bearing turbo that can be rebuilt.

It would be a good upgrade from a T2 or T25, but that's all...

[mike_je94]

Thanks people.

I've had some thought on it. Might as well just stick out buying something like a 28rs or 2871, probably should it do it big style lol.

[ChunkyTits]

You've seen it in action and know it's been looked after.

Buy it!