Well I just took my hi-flowed, polished/ceramic coated T3 off the manifold so I can get the manifold flange machined, and I found a rather nasty looking crack inside the housing. It is about 20mm long and disappears under the wastegate flap. It is slightly shorter where it has come through on the outside (into the dump pipe area).
Is this a major problem? I did a bit of googling and it seems cracks are pretty common but ones near the wastegate and ones that go right through are bad news...

Would i be right in assuming it will still work but will leak a bit of air making it boost slower and lower?
I dont really want to put a new housing on as this one is ceramic coated but I'm not sure theres another option...

if u find a good tig welder u should be ok my dad did a lot of work on #### like this for shifter karts and friends cars just find a good welder he should be able to help uQuote:

Gday Tyrie, hard to find 1 with out a crack.. Most have been boosted so unless u find a low K grandma type of deal I would,nt worry about it! Are u losing boost?? Doubt it, cracks gotta be huge to affect anything just carry on if boost hasn,t dissappeared it,s all good

You could use it till it breaks. Ceramic coating is no big deal though, just cause it costs a bit doesn't mean it's doing anything for performance. Depending on the wheel in the turbine it should be easy to find a replacement.

I am half way through upgrading the turbo on my car and I Ucking hate pulling turbos off so I would just get it right the first time.

this is a common problem

but looks like the high flow and ceamic coat parts are is in the bin

i would keep using untill the loss of boost is noticeable
or the crack reaches the outside of housing as when hot opens up alot more

hmm yeah its a z18 T3, so I guess I'd have a hard time finding another one in better condition.
I read somewhere that ceramic coating stops it from happening, plus it looks cool
Apparantly it was holding 18psi on the old motor, i intend to limit it to around 10psi so hopefully it will last a while.
cheers for the input, I'll let you's know how it goes (if it ever goes haha so much to do).

cracked turbo?

sounds like an excuse as good as any to buy a bigger and better one

haha nah I'm not made of money