Hi,
thought I'd document my purchase of a Chinese CT26 turbo and how the saga goes.
 
I was looking at CT26 rebuild kits on Ebay and found a new turbo for $399 including postage.  There are a number of CT26 turbos on Ebay but most are not for MR2, different flange shape etc but this one looked good.  Seeing as local turbo rebuilds were around the $800-1000 and upwards I've given the Chinese CT26 a go and will report on outcomes.
 
I ordered the turbo on 3/March, got a shipping notification email on 5/Mar and it arrived by TNT on 12/Mar!  Was well packed and amazing delivery for the price that included shipping.
 
The unit has the correct flanges and looks really good compared to my rusty cast iron unit that is almost 30yrs old.  It also came with a nice certificate showing passing a vibration threshold for up to 100,000rpm.  Hopefully it was a test done on this turbo:-)
 
The gaskets that were supplied looked pretty nasty, thin metal with a pressed ridge in places for sealing, maybe that's OK, not sure.  However one was wrong, for a different turbo outlet flange but I do have a new correct gasket.
 
I'm also going to replace a couple of hoses, "hose from hell", HFH, and HFHOE, so I'm now hunting for these, I wasn't expecting the turbo to get here that fast.
 
I'll update next step.

For anyone in the market for a new CT26, these are worth a look: https://falconautocreations.com/collections/turbos/products/ct-26-16g
 
I got mine landed for roughly 700-750

Tuban.  Will be very interesting to see how this Chinese thing lasts and also whether it can actually deliver the same amount of air and at what temperature ? I've heard that they tend to heat their air quite badly in order to flow the equivalent volume. Might only be fanciful stories. Do you have any way to compare the air temp. after the compressor on both the original and the new Chinese ?  Comparison of spool up would be good too ?  Thanks.

Meant to say. Check the steel hoses around HFH. HFHE. as I've seen them badly corroded and three parts blocked on Gen 2. They are 25 + years old. I suspect this is possibly cause of other funny difficulties as this is at the heart of the oil coolers abilities. Toyota made very significant changes in this area on the Gen 3. engine. Cheers.

Also interested in the outcome, quality of fitments, alignment issues etc. 
Given my luck it's only a matter of time before I need a replacement, and I'd prefer a direct swap.
 
Is the 'Chinese turbo' advertised as a highflow / upgrade unit or oem spec?

The turbo was advertised as a CT26 replacement only, no claim for high output.  It is now in and running.  Feels pretty good on a first short drive yesterday.  I don't have inlet temperature logging so can't say if this has changed. 
 
It looks like it has radically reduced the smoke that I used to get on acceleration so my hope that it was the turbo and not rings (compression was OK) looks OK - so far.  The shaft on the old turbo did seem to have a lot of play - and that was a simple finger test.
 
The compressor side on the new turbo didn't have the inlet correctly orientated so needed to release the band that connects the compressor and turbine to allow it to be rotated.  Otherwise fitted Ok with the Toyota gasket set.  Also replaced the two hoses from hell.  A new turbo does look very nice!
 
The turbo now has a different sound on lift-off.  I'm not sure if this tells me that something needs adjustment.  I have a blitz BOV that vents to atmosphere and it used to give a simple relatively quiet whoosh on lift-off but now I get a flutter sound on lift-off.  I'm not sure if that is bad for the turbo or not.  Forums aren't clear on this.  And why did it start when the turbo was replaced?
 
Once I find out if the new noise indicates a problem or not I'll take it for a longer drive when I can push it and see what boost pressure it gets to.  And then into the unknown to explore reliability:-)

I replaced the Blitz BOV with original Toyota BOV (had to buy a VTV bit of plastic for $100(!!) to replace the broken one on my BOV).  Much quieter but had an occasional "bumfhh" noise and not at predictable times in boost or liftoff etc.  Sort of like a blowback sound with a burner.  So went back to Blitz and plumbed the blow-off back to the air intake as with Toyota BOV.  This sounds much better behaved.  Not sure if it's simply that the blow-off is now muffled.
 
The turbo does feel better than the one it replaced.  I'm now going to try a good run and see if the boost has changed from the old turbo.

OK, I'm leaning towards this chinese turbo as a fail.  Boost was 8-9psi, slightly better then previous.  Still slight haze in exhaust when boosting.  So might be rings after all.   More irritating is that I will occasionally see a significant oil burn for 5sec or so and then it goes away.  Only seems to happen in the first 5mins of driving.  And there is a smell of very burnt oil when I put it in the garage.  But no leaks under.  I should have been wary when my garage said it took his guys a while and that he gave me a discount:-(  And that the oil smell would burn off.

Haze in exhaust can be simply running rich as it should be! 
Burnt oil - what oil are you running, what oil filter, etc.  10 W - 40, Z4xx filter.
Are you running a catch can for blow through.
Many simple things to be done in the mr2 book at this age of the vehicles life.

Thanks Tony.  The haze is less than with the old turbo (good) but the old one didn't suffer from the sometimes big puff of smoke after being left in the garage for a week or so (not so good).  So the puff seems to be new turbo rather than other cause.  But good suggestions about oil etc.  I'm running Mobil 1 5W-50 full synthetic, HKS 52009-AK002 filter and no catch can.   I'll try changing to 10-40 oil and I do have a catch can so I'll try that as well.  Any good sites showing how to plumb a catch can?  And ideally what hoses I could remove:-)