Glowing turbo stories

2broke2smoke · 02-26-2006, 09:57 PM

had a couple of freinds over and the discussion led to glowing turbos ...
one of my good freinds runs a "pump truck" for halliburton ... he has "two K-Eleven hundred" cummins engines on his truck to run the pumps and told us that on a dark morning frac job you can watch the turbos glow in the dark ... don't notice it in the daylight, but he acted like it was perfectly normal, promised to take a good digital pic for me to post next chance he gets

my brother in law purchased an '89 dodge cummins with 200k cheap because the previous owner had "cranked the pump all the way" and melted a hole in the number six piston ... the previous owner told him that was why he was selling so cheap ... the local truckstop mechanic had replaced the bad piston only and he was afraid of what permanent damage had been done ... sold the truck for 1/2 of what it was worth

the next day my brother in law used the truck to tow his race truck on a equipment hauler fifth wheel trailer to north carolina ... on the return trip he was climbing the big mountain out of nc into virgina and noticed the long trail of black smoke rolling behind him ... pulled over at the next truck stop and popped the hood to see how everything looked and had melted a hole in the underhood insulation ... he showed it to me when he got home

he installed a pyro that weekend and still has the truck with 300k+ on it now ... same turbo, same pistons ... just changes the oil and swapped in an NV4500

the whole point of this rant is that i am amazed to think that a turbo could generate that much heat and live ....

anyone have any "Glowing turbo" stories they'd like to share ...

these guys are good friends and i believe them but i'd be ready to buy a new turbo if i popped the hood and saw anything like they described