What power before it goes bang?

My turbo is on its way to bhp heaven soon by the looks of it so wondering what sort of damage it would do if i left it until the funds in place for a bigger turbo, Ecu change etc and what sort of power can i put through a V3 Sti before it raises the white flag and says enough?

I ran my v4 sti at just over 400hp on the standard engine for over a year, the guy that bought it from me still has it and it is sill going strong, it was low mileage at the time of conversion (36k miles) he has had 3 gearboxes in it though!
tuned right on a healthy engine 400 is possible, its the gearbox that is the weak point.

Why do you think your turbo is on its last legs?

worst case scenario- if the thrust bearing goes it will push the compressor wheel into the compressor cover breaking off the fins on the compressor wheel, if the broken bits manage to get through the intercooler into the engine they can damage valves, get jammed down the side of the piston and damage the bore and piston.

Not good.

Smoking on startup every so often - but after a drive off boost no smoke and once it gave a lil puff of blue smoke on full throttle but only in 1st

No noise from the turbo or loss of boost?

If it is just the rear oil seal that has gone then it could last indefinitely.

Bit of info for you, to test if it is the rear shaft oil seal that has gone, try going down a hill on the over run for over 10 seconds then accelerate, if you get a puff of white smoke it indicates there is a turbo seal fault.

Done that and nothing No noise or anything - car feels fine and as i say it only gives blue smoke once every few blasts out so thats why i wanted to know . spent 800 quid on it getting head gaskets done etc in the last month so not a good time to replace turbo etc and with it running standard Ecu and dont want to replace a standard turbo because i would rather save for an upgrade or wait for the Esl one to be ready

Have you had your intercooler off to clean it out since you had your engine work done?

Oil can collect in the intercooler and be pushed through the engine, this is known to cause oil smoke (blue not white)

What colour oil burn are you getting?

it could be you are getting piston blow through, if so then a solution is an oil catch tank.

Intercooler never been off since and must admit blue smoke only started since engine work done so i will try that

I find petrol is the best for cleaning out the intercooler is it is heavily soiled with oil.

Also any spirit will work well to.

Dont tell me V-power only? - Bugger gets 17 mpg now im gonna clean it with the stuff lol

PMSL...no mate 95 will do

best to use compressed air to get all the cleaning fluid out intercooler, or could poss hydrolic engine

you would haft to leave alot of fluid in there 2 hydrolic it andy

yes but its better being safe than sorry having already seen it done before