GRUWEZ

Guys,
I removed my intercooler to have a peek inside the intercooler tubes. I noticed some oil in the tubes, as you can see in the attached photos.




The car drives flawlessly, there is no oil or smoke coming from the exhaust. Still, am I looking at turbos that need replacement?

Any advice on replacing the turbos? Should I recondition mine? Buy new ones from Porsche? Buy aftermarket turbos?

Thanks for the feedback!

No HTwo O

One thing to consider, as you sort this issue out, is to upgrade your oil lines for the turbos with the check valves.

Did you read through the "sticky" on the 993 Turbo home page? Where do you normally keep your oil level? All OEM oil filters?

GRUWEZ

Thanks for the input! Where can I buy these oil lines with check valves?
I read the sticky.
Oil level is usually determined by means of the dash gauge. When it drops below the three o'clock position (horizontal needle), I fill it up.
Yes, all OEM oil filters.

I am going to remove the turbos anyway, since I am going to replace the lower valve cover gaskets. Still unsure if I need to replace/rebuild the turbos, though.

Regards,
Rik

Texas993

There is a series of things that you can check to diagnose. Mostly trial and error. But since you are going to take the turbos off, that will tell you if they need to be rebuilt.

Without knowing the calibration of your oil guage, it is possible that you are overfilling. Generally, these like to be on the low side of full. With that much oil in the system, you are fine if a quart low. (IMO)

Lots of turbo experts here. Enjoy the process of removing the turbos. I really enjoyed doing it to mine last year when I had them rebuilt.

serg2204

What is oil you use?

GRUWEZ

Mobil 1 0W40 Synthetic

DM993tt

This is common. It also means you have oil in your intercooler, and other areas. This is not necessarily a symptom of overfilling. It is also a long road to diagnosing the problem and longer one to fixing it.

Felix

That oil is a bit thin, especially for the summer. You might wish to try Mobil 1 MS 15/50 - not sure if it's still available in Europe.

serg2204

I think You must change to 5w50 or 15w50.
All have oil in intercooler who is use "liquid" oil.0w40 is oil for atmo 996 and 997.Please you read your manual for 993 turbo

GRUWEZ

Why should I change what Porsche AG recommends?

wagongotya

a nominal amount is normal. that looks like just a dusting. you can easily pull your turbos inlets and check for excessive shaft play if you want to be safe. no worries mate.

serg2204

In far 1997 Mobil not manufactured 0w40 .Porsche now recommend 0w40 because they don't have other oil from unification

GRUWEZ

OK, I have come to the point where I am ready to unbolt the turbos. My car is 15 years old and has seen a fair amount of winter use in its early life. The result is not very surprising: road salt has done a great job in ruining the better part of the fasteners I need to undo. The oil feed line -- the one that comes right from above and goes vertically down into the turbine housing is just too rusted to remove in a conventional way. The two horizontal lines that go into the turbo sump are very hard to undo. I fear I may have to resort to "brute force", i.e. cut/break the oil feed lines, in order to remove the turbos.

How easy/hard is it to replace these oil lines with new ones while keeping the engine in place? I have peeked down into the engine bay. My first impressions are that you need contortionist's hand and arms to get to the oil lines in the engine bay.

Anyone out there who has gone down this route? How much work is involved in replacing all the turbo oil lines?

Thanks!
Rik

Felix

Installing the new lines is the easy part. Removing the old ones is difficult, particularly the feed lines, as you have discovered. The fittings that go into the turbos may end up getting destroyed during the removal process. Heat and penetrating oil will help but a certain amount of brute force is inevitable.

WingChun

Rik, I recently installed new oil return lines & vent lines on both sides and as Felix says, removal is the pain. If the screw fittings are badly rusted in, the spanner will round the flats and then you will have little choice but to cut the lines & use something like an Irwin bolt extractor tool.
The return line just screws into the scavenge pump and the vent line fits onto a 'T' connector above the diverter valve.
Also try not to cut too much off the actuator air line (like I did) because that joins a 'T' piece under the throttle body and is extremely difficult to reach.