turbo died this easily?

i recently replacd my old 14b turbo with a different one i bought from ebay, both 14b. checked for shaft play on the new one, looked good. i installed it, it spooled nicely, life was good.

then yesterday i replaced the valve cover gasket and disconnected the vacuum line that runs from the BOV to the intake manifold. then i started it up to check for oil leaks. the car ran a few minutes then stalled. i started it up again and revved it a couple times then saw that the line was not connected. i turned the car off and when i did i heard "clink, clank, clink...." the sound came directly from the turbo. so today i took the intake tube off and found the nut that holds the compressor wheel just hanging out in there, that was making the noise obviously. So now my shaft or wheel moved because there is no place for the nut to thread on, but that shaft did not break. and there is shaft play up, down, left and right. so my question: would that vac line cause the bov not to open? if so would all that back pressure cause all this dump to happen? seems like it would take alot more to do something like that and maybe this just accelerated an already occuring problem. let me know what you guys think.

yeah that vac line makes the bov open...and if the bov doesn't open, there is no place for that air to escape so it goes right back into the turbo. aka compressor surge...i tried it on my older t25 (disconnected the vac line) and my bov didn't open and i heared a flutter from the turbo...no damage was done though....compressor surge isn't good for the turbo, obviously, but revving the car a few times without that vac line shouldnt cause that much damage...you weren't driving the car with the vac line off, were you? that's a different story because then there was a load on the engine, which will make more boost and cause more damage if it compressor surged....someone correct me if i'm wrong on this info, but i'm almost 100% i'm right

no i didnt drive it. its not even registered so i have never even driven it. i only revved it like 2 or 3 times. apparently it must've been on the way out already...

Exactly, that alone shouldnt kill a turbo so quickly. It usually takes some time. On the bright side, if the wheels didnt hit the housings and get douched, this is an easy fix. But you will have to get it balanced. Its only 20 bucks or so, but you'll have to ship it both ways, which probably brings it up to around 60 depending on where you live and where you send it. What a pain in the ass...

well, that nut shaved the wheel a bit. but does it matter that the whole shaft moves around? i took apart the old turbo i had and it doesnt move like that even. also is there any reason not to use the old compressor wheel from that one i have? it never crashed into the old housing, and i assume that would have to be balanced as well?