Oil Cooled Turbos Revolt

[Andrew Finney <afinney@tamsconsultants.com>]

All this bad mouthing oil cooled turbos is starting to upset my
buddy the K26. Properly cooled down this turbo has an
exceptionally long life and will provide the user with a kick in
the pants. My UrQ turbo was not replaced by the second
owner, he put 100,000 mi on the car in 5 years. If we assume
that the first owner replaced the turbo at 80,000 mi then this
turbo is still doing well at 195,000 mi.  I recently checked the
end play, well within specs, very little to almost no oil in the IC
hoses, spins just smooth as it can. 

Water cooling is nice, maybe someday I'll undertake the
conversion (aarrgghh) but water cooling in the majority of
cases w/ stock turbos simply heads-off problems caused by
people not willing to take the two or three minutes to cool it
down.

FYI, there is an interesting note in the Garrett pages that says
turbos should be cooled down at above idle engine speed to
ensure adequate oil supply to the bearings. 

Sorry for the rant but the oil cooled K26 isn't the beast
everyone says it is. No need to run away from it when
shopping around, but given the choice between the two, who
knows.

Andrew Finney
1983 UrQ.