bowtieman81

iTrader: (35)

Went to fire up the car, started it up and let it idle for about 45 seconds just so I could make sure all was good. Smoked the whole time I had it idling, which I expected since there was likely oil on the stuff.
A little hazy:


Shut it back down, went about putting the plastic panels back on the front end. Then noticed this:





Is this bad oil seals? This damn turbo was supposedly just rebuilt and only had 200 miles on it.

Bird-Of-Prey

iTrader: (23)

Hard to tell by the pics but it looks like your turbo sits too low to use a gravity type drain line. Might be having drainage problems and need to go with a scavenge pump.

bowtieman81

iTrader: (35)

That is basically what TTi says to do. The oil line from turbo to oil pan is pretty much level, maybe a slight downhill from turbo to pan. I already pulled my drain apart to check and make sure there was nothing wrong with it, all looked OK.

bowtieman81

iTrader: (35)

Well, took it for spin around the block, gave it a couple throttle blips. Smoke seems to get worse after you give it gas.

Makes a great mosquito fogger though

Bird-Of-Prey

iTrader: (23)

I believe that the general rule of thumb is to have the drain line at no less than a 45* angle for proper drainage. The straighter the better. Also what size is your line? Is your turbo a BB turbo or a regular cartrige style? If it's a BB turbo you need to have a restictor in the feedline. They don't require as much oil pressure as the old cartrige style does.

TS6

iTrader: (41)

The turbo drain needs more drop on it. Also excessive crank case pressure can slow drain back. Does it smoke at idle to? Do you have a restrictor in the oil feed line to the turbo?

Ryan K

iTrader: (11)

I say bad turbo... Drain looks OK. Most prefer the side of the oil pan.

Ryan K.

bowtieman81

iTrader: (35)

I have no restrictor in the oil feed line, and dont really want to run one based on what happened to smokinhawk. Was told by TTi that I did not need one.

I gave it another drive just to make sure the smoking did not go away. It did not. I have a PCV setup just like the first pic in this post (thanks to Carl for the great drawing)
https://ls1tech.com/forums/showpost....1&postcount=44

I have a hard time believing anything is wrong with my oil drain. I had somebody start the car with the the drain taken out of the pan and it flowed just fine.

Looks like RyanK is right, unfortunately. Anybody know what Jose charges for a rebuild on these units?

And 00TurboT/A, if you read this a big . Thanks for once again screwing me over. How is it possible a turbo that was just rebuilt is burning this much oil? I am going to try like hell to get you banned.

onfire

iTrader: (17)

Yep, seals are going south....I've seen it before.

Does it smoke worse (idle) at start up?

bowtieman81

iTrader: (35)

It varies on smoke intensity. The worst it smoked was sitting at a stop light after light cruising. Sat at the light for about 30 seconds and it billowed the whole time. The van next to me rolled up their windows.

Bird-Of-Prey

iTrader: (23)

It might be a bad turbo. That sucks. Hard to tell without seeing it in person or actually removing the turbo and having it checked out. I still say you turbo is too low for proper drain without seeing better pics. If it's a couple inches or so higher then the oil pan as you implied that's not enough or barely enough. Even if the turbo seals are bad you might want to consider moving it up a little or running a scavenge pump. Please post better pics to help evaluate.

bowtieman81

iTrader: (35)

Cant really get a decent pic due to lack of camera room. I do know several guys have run this kit with the oil return very similar (MM, smokinhawk, StoleIt). Like I said, I even took the line off and had the car running for a few seconds. Still smoked like a chimney.

Eddiep

iTrader: (26)

I ran a TTi kit with the turbo in that exact same spot, and was blowing clouds of smoke out of my turbo like you are. At idle it would smoke quite a bit, but when you accelerated from a stop, it was just plain embarrassing.

Anyway, my drain was just like yours - slightly down hill toward the pan, but just *barely*. To be honest, I don't think you'll get that setup working properly as a gravity feed. There's a good chance your seals are fine though - with my turbo mounted higher, the smoking completely disappeared.

sytyjedi

iTrader: (6)

Seals are ok. Drain is not draining well enough and oil is backing up in the cartridge and running in to the exhaust side. Seen this happen several times. Move higher or get a scavenge pump.

StoleIt

iTrader: (3)

When you got your turbo...did the seller say he had it rebuilt? If so there should have been a stamp on one of the hot side blades saying balanced & checked (or something along those lines). If you decide to go with a scavenge setup, I'll definitly be following your progress because mine still smokes ever so slightly.

Silverback

There aren’t really seals in a turbo, they just have a slinger and a ring, neither of which is a positive seal, and just about impossible to wear out. You can wipe out the bearings in them, but then you get other symptoms like the wheels contacting the housings…

Oil control problems are usually an oil drain problem. Either not enough slope, the inlet to the pan is blocked off (oil being flung into it by a crank weight/throw), oil level in the pan above the return, or excessive crankcase pressure (blowby or PCV issue), it doesn’t take much to force oil out of the bearing housing in the turbo since there is no positive seal.

bowtieman81

iTrader: (35)

Here is the rebuild tag. I am not sure what the characters mean. The seller indicated it was rebuilt by turbonetics.


The thing that makes me suspicous is that it was just rebuilt. I was thinking maybe it was a poor rebuild. Maybe not.

I have basically the same drain as you StoleIt; I would think my drain might even be a bit more efficient. At this point I would settle for minor smoking compared to what it is doing now.


If I do need a scavenge pump, you guys have any recommendations? Moving the turbo is not an option with this kit.

bowtieman81

iTrader: (35)

Neal or Ryan, do you guys run a restrictor on oil feed? I have a -4 size line, and thought I read somewhere that a -3 size was recommended.

Blown SS

iTrader: (13)

Mine had the exact problems you are having when I first got things going. I had a -4an feed with no restictor. Switched to a -3an with a .80 n2o jet and all has been fine since.

Stupid Boost

iTrader: (1)

I had smoking problems on my setup a while back. Jose told me to use a .060 restrictor and that solved the problem. He said if that didn't I could work my way down to a .035 which is the minimum they run with journal bearing units. If that doesn't work, then have them rebuild it.