Clown

Was wondering if you guys had any thoughts. I had my Garret Hybrid turbo rebuilt a few months ago. Put it back in and it seemed to stop a lot of my smoke at idle problems. The car would only smoke at first startup when cold but went away once I started driving and never came back. Was like this for a couple months. Well the other day out of no where smoke started pouring out the tailpipe as I was pulling into my driveway!! Never done this before.

It was so much smoke I thought the back end of may car was on fire. The color was more gray than anything.

Turned the car off and popped the hood. Smoke was coming off the turbo and I could clearly see oil flowing down the bottom side of the hot end of the turbo.

Pulled the turbo yesterday and there was oil all over the inside of the turbo and some residue on the cold side near the maff. A good amount was leaking out of the turbo on the hotside bottom on the side facing the cold side. The oil inside the hotside looked like a brown milkshake color and some water condensation was seen when I dabbed my finger into it.

I am running a dry setup and my turbo is currently oil cooled only. I checked the oil drain tube that runs to the AOS by taking it off and blowing threw it. It does not appear clogged at all.

Take a look at the photos below and tell me your thoughts. I am wondering if my head gasket might have blown could the coolant make its way back into the turbo? The coolant in the resevoir is green and the oil on the dipstick is clean.

Thanks

zerMATT951

Does the turbo have any shaft play? Seems like the first thing to suspect would be a shaft seal or bearing.

Clown

There is very little shaft movement and the blade spins freely. You can just feel the shaft move in and out a small amout.

Anyone ever seen that much oil leaking out of a turbo or inside the turbo?

The turbo was bone dry last time I pulled it a few months ago.

kevincnc

It looks like it was balanced with an angle grinder. Hopefully it's still under warranty.

Paulyy

you've probably done the seal. take it back to where you got it built and get them to look at it

Clown

Thanks guys. I sent it off to the rebuilder. Hopefully they can figure out what went wrong. Not sure what happened this time. This is the second time this turbo has been rebuilt. Maybe its a lemon.

gruhsy

Looks like it might be worth spending money on a new turbo. If you consider your time spent working on it is it worth a rebuild?

If it was mine I probably would have smashed it to pieces but thats just me

Will the shop warranty their work? Hope things work out for you.

zerMATT951

When my rebuilt turbo suffered a major failure (shaft split in half), LR credited 75% of what I paid for the rebuild on a new turbo... even though the rebuild is done by a local 3rd party company for them. Now I can hold 20+ psi to redline :-)

Clown

UPDATE: The turbo was rebuilt free of charge thanks to LR. Got the turbo back a few weeks ago and put it back in. No visible leaks are coming out of the turbo at this point and have been using it for a few weeks.

Smoke issue has not gone away and not sure what the cause is. I am now getting heavy smoke after a warm start up. For example If I drive the car around for a few minutes let it warm up and then park the vehicle for 15 minutes to run into the store, I get lots of smoke out of the exhaust upon startup and for the next few minutes of driving around. Once the oil is burned off and the engine is idleing it will no longer smoke!?

This car is driving me crazy!

I think that either oil or coolant must be pooling up somewhere after the engine heats up and then sits for a few minutes. Then when I start the car back up it starts burning it up immediately.

After a week or two of driving occasionaly my cam tower gasket sprung an oil leak on the exhaust side of the engine causing me to loose most of the oil in my car and getting a two back home.

Last week I took the cam tower off and then "while I was in there" decided to pull the head off as well.
The head gasket looked brand new with no signs of breakdown. The cylinders had some carbon or oil baked onto the center of each piston but other then that everything looked great inside.

I sent the head off for a rebuild just incase the valve seals or guides were bad and were leaking oil down into the cylinders.

I would like some opinions on the smoke issues if you guys have any.

My thought is that the maybe the turbo is just a lemon and cannot be rebuilt properly and oil is leaking past the seals. Or I have bad valve guides or valve seals that are causing oil to leak into the cylinders.

Should I check anything else out while the head is off?

Thanks for your help.

Clown

Here are some pics.

Zeff

Do you have a restrictor in your oil feed?

Clown

on the turbo? No I dont I am running it wide open. Do you think no restrictor could cause oil only at startup and then cause no smoke the rest of the time? What size would you reccomend?

Zeff

I don't know the specifics but the 951 oil pressure is too much for the garrett turbos, I know LR sells restrictors. Do a search for oil feed restrictor and garrett and I'm sure you'll find several posts. I've read them before, just can't remember the actual numbers.

zerMATT951

LR didn't sell or recommend a restriction to me with my Super 53... is it possible that they built the restrictor into the housing or inlet?

Clown

Ya I may give Lindsey a call. I searched the website but did not find any restrictors for sale. Thanks for your input guys. Hopefully have everything back together this weekend.