Ok, short of setting the 12 on fire and pushing it into Lake Ontario, I’m hoping someone here can help me out.
Short background:
Car ran poopy. I fixed EVERYTHING, tossed all emissions crap etc etc.
As it stood before it broke, stock motor (160k) 626 SMIC, 1G BOV, 320lph pump, boost set at 1Bar+.
Car ran amazing … for like 30 minutes. I took it out, leaned on it hard for a bit, was on my way back home, floored it, it started to take off, then power just dropped, and it started sounding like shit.
Pulled into my parking space, big cloud of Spy Hunter smoke screen behind me.
With the motor running, revving it up under the hood, there was oil smoke EVRYWHERE, it was even puffing out of the BOV.
Checked the compression, almost dead even across all 4, less than 2 psi variance between all.
I pulled the turbo (a weeny T2 … I know) and found that the wheel on the compressor was smashed to bits. There was also a piece of my exhaust manifold missing. So pretty easy to figure out what happened.
I traded a bunch of turbos and turbo parts for a rebuilt and modded T2. I was there to see the turbo bench tested, and it was great, no leaks … fancy.
Flash forward to Sunday.
I finally got everything pretty much re-installed. New mandrel bent DP, the whole nine.
Fired it up, ran great … then once it started to warm up, the exhaust manifold started smoking. Not much at first, but then it just started billowing. But unlike before, this smoke is not coming into the intake at all. There looks to be oil seeping out between the turbo and exhaust manifold … where there shouldn’t be any oil at all. And it is using a TON of oil, even spitting raw oil out of the pipe when you rev it.
WTF?
The only thing I’m thinking it could be is the oil return line either being plugged or maybe I F’ed up the angle on it. I’m lost and I really would like to drive this car again.
Any ideas?
If the oil drain line is blocked then the oil’s gotta go somewhere… and it usually does.
That’d be the first thing I’d check, ESPECIALLY since you feel suspicious about it…
THe joy of thrust bearings…
I can only guess that for some reason the oil is only leaking on the exhaust side rathre than the intake…
Hopefully no permanent damage to the seals have been made,
What engine are you talking about? Is it stock turbo?
If it is not and you added the turbo then you might want to try to restrict the oil feed line. Most engine produce more oil preassure then a turbo needs or can handle. Too much preassure = leakage.
Just a thought.
well, went out and had a better look at it, and I realized what might be the culprit.
The return is set up like stock. The only problem I had was that when the turbo came back from the rebuilder, he had he-manned the return line out (metal pipe threaded into the turbo) in at the wrong angle.
I tried backing it off, but I was just rounding it.
But, I was able to plumb it without any obvious kinks or bends in the line.
BUT
where the spout comes out of the oil pan, I think the return line might dip down below the oil pan and go back up. It’s so bloody hard to see.
I guess if the hose does drop below the hole in the pan, it won’t work right?
then the only other thing I can think of is that maybe when the rebuilder put the oil return spigot (or whatever) on, maybe he overtightened it, and somehow it’s not flowing?
grrr
it’s too frigging cold to be standing around scratching my head!
If the drain line is below the pan it is possible that air has gotten trapped in it. Now one might think that it won’t matter but it is possible that the “air lock” is backing up the oil drain, making it leak. Double and tripple check that drain, there are not many ways that a rebuilt turbo can blow oil unless the rebuilder did a piss poor job. Either too much oil is going in or not enough is comming out.
You say there is oil comming out between the turbo and manifold… as in right after the collector, where the gasket is between the turbo and manifold? Was there oil in the manifold when you took it off? (ie are you sure it is the turbo spitting back oil and not the engine itself losing it?).
After reading afew turbo books, the general rule for oil return lines is thet the the return should not be at a greater angle then 30deg. If the line drops below the pan that is creating a restriction but it might not be enough to cause this problem. Have you had the engine running for a while? i am with Nave in thinking that you might have residual oil from when your last turbo went pop. Or perhaps you have a bigger issue. Just as precaution i would pull out your pluggs and see if they have any oil on them. Just an idea. Oh ya what kind of oil do you use?
If it is Mobil 1 synthetic then try changing your oil. M1 tends to make it past certain gaskets.
the exhasut manifold was hot tanked and media blasted while off. Not for any reason other than I had the services available to me. But yeah, no oil there. I even cleaned up the ports a bit before putting it back together.
I’d like to trust the turbo rebuilder … he was really knowledgeable and when bench tested the turbo looked great.
Yeah, the oil is coming out between the exhaust manifold and the turbo, where the gasket is. It’s not pissing or spraying out, just as the motor warms up it starts to weep around the seal, then it starts smoking and burning off, then the smoke starts pouring out of the cat (that’s where my exhaust ends ATM)
I have to retorque the turbo to manifold nuts, I’m sure that’s why the oil is coming out where it is, it’s more what it’s doing in there lol
I don’t know how easy it is for any of you DET guys out there to see your return line, but man on the ca18et you can’t see a f*cking thing.
I’m going to unhook the return line and point it straight down into a jar to make sure oil’s coming through in the first place. The line might be kinked. It makes a pretty sharp bend behind where I can see, and it feels like it might be pinched.
It’s just so frigging cold I can’t stand being under the car for more than 30 minutes at a time
