I have a 13bt in my BJ73 cruiser, the turbo is on its way out and has a decent amount of play. I get a big white/blue puff of smoke on start up which is a bastard because I just forked out to get the head rebuilt (warped) and was hoping the smoke was the valve stem seals.
But now it looks like it must be the Turbo seals, I checked shaft play and it has about a 1mm of sideways movement (not touching the sides though!).
It looks like at least $400 to rebuild the standard CT26.
But I don't think the CT26 is very well matched to the 3.4L anyway. There is a guy in Australia making highflowed CT26's for 1H's and they work well on 13bt's too (18psi at 1900rpm vs standard at 2900rpm-ish). Problem is they are $1270 AUD (+ shipping and probably customs GST) which is out of my budget after having some very big bills on 3 vehicles

Anyway, I know people upgrade CT26's from 3SGTE's (2L petrol turbo) with the CT20B from the >1994 ST205 GT4. Its apparently a better turbo and I'm wondering if it might be an option for the 13BT?
There are about 12 variations of the CT26 but I'm mainly wondering if anyone has tried another turbo in the same family which suits the 13BT a bit better?
CT12?
CT20?
I've made a 3" exhaust with 3" downpipe so would prefer to stick in the same family/flange types.
Any one have any experience?