MichelleJD

I've been out tuning my car under no load conditions. At about 3000rpm the car starts burning considerable amounts of oil. I pulled the hard pipes off and found oil pooled in the turbo, There was not much of a film in the hard pipe itself. I also wiggled the shaft and it moves, not much, but enough to feel. Any ideas?

Willard Bridgham 3

Take it out and take it to a turbo dude who will measure it.....then you'll know if it needs seals, bearings and etc.

chrenan

Same thing happened to my 26/6 a few years back, to the point where
oil was dripping out of the bottom of the cold side and hitting the
garage floor. If there is oil pooling in the turbo outlet, I'd say
the turbo seals are gone. Its tough for oil to make its way down
there any other way. Its early here, so excuse my brain, does the
AOS hose connect to the intercooler hard pipe going from the turbo?
Maybe some oil migrated down from there (seems unlikely as it would
have to flow against the boost air stream)?

Chris White

Keep in mind that the AOS dumps oil in before the turbo – so you may just be seeing the oil that has been coming in the intake side of the turbo. Check further up the intake pipe to see if there is oil in there too.

Turbo shafts have a very small but noticeable amount of play even when new. I suspect the oil is from the AOS….

chrenan

Makes sense Chris, glad there are pros here like you!

MichelleJD

My AOS is vented through a catch can. It's the play in the shaft I was curious about. The play I've noticed is both up and down, and in and out.

Fluidplay

Some very minor (.002) in and out play is acceptible, but any side to side movement is a sign the seals are on their way out.

I agree with Chris, most likely getting the oil from AOS. The catch can is probably doing a good job of keeping it in check or you'd probably see more oil in your pipes.

I used Dura-built to rebulid mine about 6 months ago. Good people.
http://www.durabilt-turbo.com/10212.html

MichelleJD

If the AOS is dumping that much oil into the intake, what am I supposed to do to stop it?

David Floyd

Is there any oil in the catchcan ?

JohnKoaWood

Play in all directions is NOT a good thing, when the journal bearing turbos are torqued up, everything compresses against the thrust bearing face.

When everything is wearing, you will see increasing ammounts of side to side (lateral) and in and out (axial) play on the turbine shaft.

Axial play is caused by normal wear of the thrust bearing face, lateral play is caused by normal wear of the journal bearings...

The oil seals are nothing more than compression rings, and once they begin leaking oil they will only leak more over time...

check the line from your catchcan to your j pipe BEFORE the turbo, if there is oil in this line your AOS is blowing excess oil... if no oil in the line from the catchcan, your turbo seals are toast... and will only get worse...

JohnKoaWood

leakdown check will tell you that, if you have blow by the piston rings, you will need a full rebuild (as the entire motor has to come apart to replace the rings...)

running good oil, with shorter intervals and keeping it at the proper level will help keep the aspirated oil down to a minimum, but if the AOS is blowing a lot of oil... it will only really get worse over time....

I rebuilt my turbo, and shortened my oil change interval, and this was an OK bandaid... but the eventual downfall came in the way of smoke from under the dash... Chris White has my motor right now, and I am in full rebuild swing on the entire car (dash is out, exhaust is coming off, rear suspension is coming off, hatch is getting resealed for the last friggin time, etc..etc..etc..)

good luck, and I hope the source of your problems is limited to a tired turbo....

DDP

Before you get crazy and start pulling your turbo, explain to us how your AOS is routed. Does it recirculate back into the intake with a catch can in series? Or does the catch can vent to the ATM?

If the catch can is indeed recirculating back to the intake, then you need to check and see if the catch can is full of oil. That will tell you if it's the catch can dumping oil into the intake (means you have excessive blow by- engine issue) or the turbo is the cause of the oil (need turbo rebuild).

If you find the catch can is full of oil, the next step to verify what the problem is would be a simple compression test. Good luck, Michelle. I hope it is just your turbo.

333pg333

When was the last time you emptied the catch can?

MichelleJD

Sorry guys; I wasn't clear. My AOS is vented to the atmosphere and the engine has less than 1000 on a rebuild. I think my turbo is gone

JohnKoaWood

OH... there ya go, turbo is toast, no other way for oil to be in the comressor housing than blown seals....