ct26 turbine wheels, JDM ceramic versus USDM steel, differences? Are they noticeable or negligible? Options

[Darkchylde]

Soooooooo, I have had to send my 26 out to be rebuilt and in the process have found that the turbine wheels need to be changed. The shop that has the turbo says that they can't get the JDM ceramic wheels so they will have to use steel ones.

1) how will this affect my spool time/ Lag? (new to forced induction, understand the basics but am still a little fuzzy on the intricacies)

2) anyone know where to get the ceramic wheels?

3) any one have a JDM importers # or a 26 or 20b they can spare?

Thanks for your input and assistance all.

[Darkchylde]

On a much better note I have new news on my old CT 26. The shop in Texas that I sent it to Turbochargers.com, formerly Texas rebuild as you know informed me that my turbine wheels were shot so to speak, that was the kick off to this whole thing, right. Well after informing them that I was just going to buy another turbo, I told them to do the seal kit and put it back together. I figured that I could just list it for $100 or something as "needs turbine wheels" or something to try and recoup a very little dough. Well that was not the case, their resident turbo tech Mark was like "I can't let this thing leave here in that condition", took it upon himself to try to shape and balance the wheels to get them back to a reliably operable state. He somehow accomplished this magnificent feat, But as I was talking to Ralph (owner or partner I am guessing, by the way he represented himself), we got to talking about his twin turbo 2jz Lexus, which is running twin Big 16's. Well Mark then took it upon himself to cut my compressor housing and replace my turbine wheels with that of the Big 16 variety (45.5mm). As if that was not enough Mark then balanced the whole thing out again and refinished the housing completely. I got a message from Ralph that my UEGO and EGT were on their way as well as my turbo, that is when I was told all of the other work occured. To my complete astonishment and delight all that extra work cost me... c'mon guess, you'll never guess. $300...nay, $200...nay, $100...nay, $50...P'shaw...............$0, That's right true believers $0 MotherF$%^in dollars. These guys went above and beyond, to accommodate me while I figured out what I wanted to do with my old turbo and then completely rebuilt and upgraded it for FREE, minus the price of the seal kit that I asked them to do. I was referred to them by a friend of mine, who has an all-wheel 94 Eclipse. He also does not have a bad thing in the world to say about these guys, The do all the machining in house, They even cut Some of their own turbine wheels out of solid blocks of aluminum, for custom applications, have a deal with AEM (Said they would match or beat anyone's price). Check them out @

http://www.turbochargers.com/

These guys are the sh!t.