i am working on a swap right now using a complete motor i bought from a member here..

to make it short.

the turbo is seized. my concern is not so much the turbo because that member said he would replace it for me but im curious to know as why the turbo would be seized?
the engine is supposed to have very low milage, so why would this happen? the fins dont move at all. should i be concerned about the engine itself? i took the exhaust manifold heat shield off...the manifold looks "wet" on the top part, but it's completely dry and clean. thought maybe i was really screwed and there was oil inside but inside is fine and dry just dirty from fumes. looked inside the valve cover everything seems fine?

should just replacing the turbo do the trick? the engine wont be going in for about another month so there is no way for me to try it out. should i be worried?

 

check the feed lines on the turbo and make sure they have OIL...it obviously seized becuase there was no oil flowing to the turbo...just trace ur steps back and see where it leads, starting that the feed line from the turbo

 

It happens when an engine sits for a while.just grab onto nut with a 12 point socket,the nut that holds the compressor wheel on and spin it and it will break free no problem.Hell,my car sat for almost a month and I checked to see how much play was in turbo,seeing that the intake boot was off and it wouldn't spin with just finger tips.put socket on nut and spun it no problem.Put 3000 miles on since with no problems so far.

 

Ideally you should find out what killed the turbo before installing another one. Don't just throw on another turbo just to have that one die too. Check the oil seals, coked shaft, hopefully it's the turbo itself, maybe just overboosted. From there check the oil feed and return lines, no kinks, no coking or debris.
Hope that helps.