Sorry for the noob question, but I am new to turbos. I noticed a pool of oil at the inlet of the compressor and some oil in the compressor blades, is this a cause for concern? Im worried that it could be leaking out of the centre section, and Id like to catch it before I start up the car and realize there is no oil pressure. :?
Its the stock T25 on an uninstalled SR20DET. I cleaned away the oil that was there, and Im hoping some just spilled in when the engine was being pulled.
It’s common for some to come out but not a lot. Some might of got spilled. Or maybe there is a seal gone in the center section. Then that means time for a rebuild.
You haven’t even started the car yet?
Don’t worry, what that is is oil from the center section leaking into the
compressor housing because maybe the turbo was on its front for a bit
and the oil was never drained. Thats normal. You should start to worry
when your compressor is spuing oil out when the car is running and warmed up.
lol no, its not in yet. Everytime I make a post, someone says “Its not done yet??”
I finally SAW the car for the first time in months, and mark my words, it will be on the road this spring.
Anyways, thanks for the help!
I don’t know if Nissan still did this on the SR20DET (or whatever motor your turbo came off), but on my ca18et, they had this brilliant idea of routing the valve cover breather line directly into the intake tubing.
This usually ends up puddling oil in the intake, intercooler (if you installed one) and the compressor side of the turbo.
oil in the intake piping is NOT a good thing it could mean alot of things…
1=oil seal on turbo is going
2=oil pressure is too high thus blowing by the turbo oil seal…
3=check your intercooler it could be full of oil as well…
a turbo should not be leaking oil either to the exhaust side or compressor side.
adam
Adam, that is what I was worried about, was the seals were leaking but since I have not installed the motor yet, I dont know if the oil pressure was too high when the motor was running before.
Should I disasseble the turbo now to check? Or should I install the engine as is, then keep an eye on the oil pressure?
As I said, I have no idea where the oil came from, it may have just spilled in sometime between the time it was pulled from the car in Japan, to the time it got to my garage.
I dont think you can disasseble a T25 can you?
mr200, SR’s have the same deal going on. The factory catch can isn’t well baffled, and will spew a bit of oil back into the inlet pipe.
You could just install a catch can and not worry about it anymore.
If the turbo you have doesn’t seem like it has an excessive amount of play, just try running it for a while and monitor your oil consumption levels. If it continues to smoke excessively and consumes lots of oil, then you know you have a problem somewhere.
If oil pressure is too high, install a restrictor on the oil return.
Thanks again guys, I have a baffled oil pan and catch can going in anyways, so Ill just keep an eye on the oil level and pressure.
The reason many SR’s turbos have the compressor side full of oil is because lots of them fall over during shipping or storage, the oil flows through the breather system, into the intake side of the compressor, and that’s where it sits. Take off the inlet and outlet elbows, drain out the oil, spray some brake clean in the outlet while spinning the turbo blades by hand. Mop up the mess and you should be good to go.
There was a guy on NICO forums that had teh same problem, but it didn’t make sense because he had a clip. Then I asked if the left side bodywork was all scraped up… sure enough it was. My thoery was the clips were all loaded into the container on their sides.
Anyway, I’ve seen this on 3 or 4 SR turbos and had no problems with them after cleaning out and running them.
-Martin.