is a Saab 900 Aireasearch turbo worth rebuilding?

[POS carb]

I pulled a cool looking 87 turbo from a Saab and it looked like the bearings were fudged, the turbine had a lot of side to side play but there was a verrry slight polishing on the housing by the blades and one of the blades (there are actually double-finned blades, kind of like those dual blade wipers) has a tiny chip in it about the size of this * asterics but it still spun... there was also some black oil in the hose right before the turbo inlet
would I be wasting my time??

[AccordEpicenter]

hmm, you can get rebuild kits for them on eGay for like $50-$75, but id have to see how badly the compressor wheel is chewed up, I have spares if you wanna buy one (cheap)

[HondaBoy]

the saab ones are ok. the ones off volvos, chrysler 2.0 2.2 and 2.5, of course mitusubishi/chrysler. doing upgrades to the turbine and bearings are easy and cheap. i thought about doing some rebuilds on some of the turbos on the engines i'm thinking of. i know a lot of people around here that would pay some good money for a rebuild with or without being upgraded.

[AccordEpicenter]

All the saab 900 and chrysler Garrett/AiResearch turbos use the same centersection,bearings, seals, turbine, shaft, compressor wheel, thrust bearing, backing plate etc... its basically the same turbo but the housings are a little different. Taking the bolts in the exhaust housing off is a beeotch, you should heat it with a torch to loosen them up a bit, otherwise they break pretty easily.

[Justin86]

yea and they all have a .48 A/R turbine and .42 compressor. It's the same turbo Sean was selling in his kits and got pretty good results from, and will be a very good low/mild boost street turbo.

[AccordEpicenter]

yeah, that turbo is just fine for a low boost setup, cheap, reliable, easy to find, and pretty responsive, id say conservatively its good to about 220whp around maybe 10psi, after that, id upgrade to a .60/.48 or a .60/.63. I run the 60/63 and im fully boosted by 4000 but dont forget that is a decent size exhaust housing for good top end, so its not too bad. A .48 should be fully boosted by about 3200-3400 rpm at the most.

[truetune]

under full boost at 3200-3400 rpm is perfect thats right where our TQ tops out unless you got a cam so a .60/.63 would be good for a car with a mid profile cam