School me on oilless ceramic ball bearing turbos

[Kershaw]

The possibility of not running oil lines sounds like a huge benefit, as well as not dealing with viscosity issues in the cold. What are downsides?

I have a used cx racing kit, that comes with a (iirc) Garrett gt28. It's been sitting for awhile and I think I'm gearing up to install it. It also comes with an oil pan already tapped, but for a rwd e30. I'd rather not fuck with my ix oil pan.

Advice, solutions, all appreciated.

[jalopi]

the only oilless turbos i've heard of before this were air foil bearing turbos, so i did a bit of reading. do not like

looks like all they did was jam some high temp grease in the bearing housing, then plug the oil inlet/outlets

i'm sure it'll work fine for at least a while, but i think it will have nowhere near the life of an oiled turbo. the guys at comp say 50k miles between "servicing" (which is probably replacing the bearings/bearing housing) which really means it's less than that

with an oiled turbo, you have oil cooling, lubricating and "washing" away any particles from moving parts wearing down. in this sealed oilless system you'd have particles from the ball bearings wearing down stay inside the bearing housing, which will recirculate and probably wreak havoc on the bearings - which is probably why comp says their turbos only last 50k miles.

if you're dead set on not modifying your current oil pan you could always add a small oil tank/pump and drain the turbo there. it'd probably be cheaper than doing the oilless turbo too, as from what i've seen it's a $600 option

[CrazyPrime]

The possibility of not running oil lines sounds like a huge benefit, as well as not dealing with viscosity issues in the cold. What are downsides?

I have a used cx racing kit, that comes with a (iirc) Garrett gt28. It's been sitting for awhile and I think I'm gearing up to install it. It also comes with an oil pan already tapped, but for a rwd e30. I'd rather not fuck with my ix oil pan.

Advice, solutions, all appreciated.

I would put your oil drain in the block if you don't want to mess with your if pan. I am in the process of turboing my ix and I will be tapping the pan myself.

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[Kershaw]

Tapping the pan ends up seeming the easiest. Where would even tap the block though?

[IronFreak]

behind the AC bracket.