Originally Posted by JeffTsai View Post
I'm an authorized dealer for all the major brands Garrett, Borg Warner, Comp, Precision, Turbonetics, etc. I have had experience with pretty much all of them.
The only company that makes oil-less turbos are Comp Turbo. I have one on my own car and I have sold several to other people as well. These are top notch high quality turbos, but the cost is up there due to the oil less feature. They still require water cooling to be run through them, but oil is not needed due to the self contained greased center housing. It is nice not to have to mess around with oil feed and drain lines. Coolant lines can be oriented in any direction, does not have to be straight up and down like oil lines.
Oil less turbos are most suited for custom installations where space is at a premium and the turbo has to be mounted in an unconventional manner. For example a rear mount turbo kit. It gets rid of the oil return sump complexities in those setups. These can also be mounted vertically! I believe they are the only turbo capable of this orientation.
All of the comp turbo BB turbos are triple ball bearing with ceramic ball bearings. Garrett uses dual BB with steel BB. The ceramic bearings are supposed to have longer lifespan due to their hardness, stand up to more heat, and are lighter to reduce inertia. Honestly I don't really see much of a difference when compared to the Garrett or Precision BB setup. Any of these top tier brads are going to be pretty solid and reliable units.
