Turbo - play in the shaft

[Matto20vt]

Hi guys, my T28 turbo started smoking on cold start up recently. When cold it whistles quite loudly when spooling up and smokes on idle for the first few minutes, but there are no clattery noises or sounds of imminent faliure. When the engine is warm it's fine with no problems at all.

It has been rebuilt with a new bearing before, and there is no sideways play in the shaft at all so no danger of scraping against the housing, but there is plenty of end to end play, if you push it backwards and forwards it moves quite a bit.

I need to do 300 miles before I can get it changed (will be doing the work myself), I dont want to run the risk of anything breaking apart and filling the engine oil with debris.

Is end to end play in the shaft a non serious thing like leaking seals that will be okay until it gets much worse, or should I get a hire car and leave it in the garage until I get back?

[Matto20vt]

I see, I've been running base boost since it started smoking, unhooking the wastegate would be even better, I'll do that and stay in the slow lane