glennzamp

1985 944 turbo build date of 9/85.

ok what i thought was a blown head gasket is not, tons of antifreeze smoke coming out tail pipe. pulled head, and gasket looks great, pressure tested head and thats good, looked a round a bit more under hood and what i found was the whole air intake system is soaked in antifreeze, from air cleaner, thru turbo, thru intercooler, and into intake manifold.

Im at a loss.. any ideas?

931guru

Leaking radiator? Leaking hose?

slivel

If you have a K26 turbo with the water-cooled center section, a leaking seal could allow coolant into the intake tract.

kev951

failed oring inside oil filter console (there is a tsb on this with adding a spacer for the oring to seal better

slivel

I don't see the pathway for coolant in the intake tract with this failure, but the OP's claim of coolant in the air filter is a puzzle.

GPA951s

thats what im having a hard time with also… there is nothing before it and it is basically vacuum there.. unless when the engine warms up there is a small crack or leak that when the pressure increases it emits a very small spray of coolant that gets sucked into the intake..

zmf

Haven't heard of this before.

Are there any seals associated with the turbo cooling or is it just a water jacket? Maybe a crack in the water jacket could force coolant into the compressor under pressure, and flood the entire air intake?

slivel

I think it would require a crack in the water jacket coupled with a failed seal to allow coolant into the compressor. Under boost it probably would not push coolant into the intake but off-boost and partial vacuum it might. I rebuilt my K26 years ago and the seals had failed on both sides. Smoky exhaust and oil in the intercooler and intake were the symptoms.

Toolbelt0

Maybe the waterpump is leaking and the breather tube on the belt covers is drawing it into the intake?

zmf

If the filter box and snorkel are in place, that rules out a number of routes for coolant to get into the intake in large amounts.

ElRicardo

How about a vengeful ex?

Hmm- the part about the the air filter being soaked-that’s weird. To get there it would have to come up the snorkel. So let’s assume, for sanity, the snorkel is not in place, or you have one of those janky cold air intakes. Ok- assuming this, if you had a coolant leak, maybe from the coolant crossover, I could see the drips/spray being ingested. That really would be the only way to have coolant upstream of the throttle body (remind me- on an ‘86 turbo there is coolant flowing through throttle body, right?!!). Everything downstream can be suspect if that is leaky, but upstream… hmmm- it would have to sucked in, not leaked in.

GPA951s

This reminds me of the radio show on NPR “ Car Talk” with click and clack… where playing “ Stump the Chumps” lol

glennzamp

ok back at it, turbo is now removed, when i sat turbo on floor antifreeze came out of the input side of turbo, the turbo has 2 water lines for cooling along with 2 oil lines, there is antifreeze thru the inter cooler and in the intake manifold

the throttle body does not have any water lines. talking with local turbo rebuilder and he claims there are no seals in that style turbo but possible crack in the center section, i was able to block off one of the ports on turbo for water and applied 60 LBS of air to the other port and we do not see any bubbles coming from either side of the turbo, exhaust or intake, but yet the exhaust pipes are saturated with wet antifreeze.

so to back track. we thought we had a bad head gasket beacuse it was blowing so much antifreeze out of the exhaust it filled my shop with antifreeze cloud. we pulled head and head gasket looked fine, pressure tested head and that was good, still milled head and it was flat only needing few thousands to clean up. looking further is when i noticed all the antifreeze in the intake track, i see traces in the MAF sensor ( not soaked ) and all thru the inter cooler, turbo, intake manifold and exhaust. we put air to the center section of turbo and do not see any air bubbles coming out of either side of turbo. the only water i see going into intake track is the center section of turbo. unless there is a small crack in center section of turbo and being its not getting hot im not seeing the leak

it is a K26 turbo in a 85/86 944, but car has only 22K actual miles im going to tear turbo down to see if i see anything

glennzamp

there is no after market cold air intake, all 100% stock from the factory. also talking to a local turbo builder, he claims these turbos do not have a seal to keep water in center section, that only a crack in center section would have theis affect but yet under 60 LBS of compressed air we see no leaks in turbo, unless it needs to be hot to open crack

zmf

[QUOTE=glennzamp;18894230]ok back at it, turbo is now removed, when i sat turbo on floor antifreeze came out of the input side of turbo, the turbo has 2 water lines for cooling along with 2 oil lines, there is antifreeze thru the inter cooler and in the intake manifold

i see traces in the MAF sensor ( not soaked ) and all thru the inter cooler, turbo, intake manifold and exhaust. /QUOTE]

Input side = cold/compressor side? Guess you'd expect downstream components (intercooler on down) to have coolant. Don't recall if early 951 has the electric coolant pump to turbo that comes on after shut off, but if so, then perhaps the upstream components (MAF, filter) could get a little wet when a hot engine is shut off and coolant is pumped through the presumed crack in the compressor side of turbo, since there would be no influx of air.

Hope turbo tear down gives you the answer.