Okay, I've gotten my turbo rebult 3 times now by my local turbo shop. I've heard nothing but good tihngs from this place, but jeez....each and everytime I end up blowing out the seals and start leaking oil like crazy on the intake side....which obviously results in huge smoking probs.

Anywho...wtf are these guys doing wrong? I mean, it's a stock hitachi turbo....stock OMP, stock everything when it comes to the turbo. I've got 3" exhaust and a 3" CAI. I've got an apex-i avcr controlling the boost....and 14lbs is the most I'm pushing.

I'm half tempted to see if they'll just give me my money back so I can send it off to BNR.

Any input would be appreciated.

 

oh, and they warranty it each time for 90 days....and so far, it's failed before the 90 days each time.....this last time it only lasted for 3 weeks....the time before that it lasted 86 days which was WAY too close for my comfort.

 

is your motor vented where it should be or are the vents blocked off.

i had mine capped like a dumb *** and the turbo was leaking oil.. i cut the vaccume cap off the vent nipple and no more leak.

an idea worth checking.

 

I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. Nothing has been done to the motor itself...stock reman from Mazda, and the turbo was fine before I took it to these guys. I wanted them to upgrade it, but they didn't upgrade it....just threw in different seals...and they've blown each and everytime.

 

who are these guys keep us from going there.. im looking now for a rebuilder this would help me out

 

LOL, no input eh? They're nowhere close to you full-cruise. It's Joplin Turbo Supply, in Joplin MO.

 

2 possibilities.

1: Common problem is crankcase ventilation and blowby. If your crankcase is building pressure from blowby then the turbo cannot drain as well since the oil is being forced back towards the turbo.

The oil then sits in the cartridge and will first go through your rear seal and smoke.
If it's long enough it will go through the front seal.

2: The turbo rebuilder did a mod and never told you.
This happened to me. He explained that there is an internal oil resitrctor pellet which he had to destroy/remove to fully clean the cartridge.
Once this restrictor is removed you will get WAY too much psi going through your turbo.

I ended up making a custom inlet line with a AN adapter to a smaller ID size(I think 3-4an). This fixed the problem instantly.

I went through www.turbosdirect.com and they did the rebuild for CHEAP (216 after tax/local pick up)
They told me about the restrictor and gave me a turbo inlet adapter for free so I could fab a line since it was technically their fault. Excellent guys and great customer service. I highly recommend them. They are also the ONLY Garrett Authorized place in AZ I think.

 

Okay, the shop is going to rebuild......again.

2 things they're going to do...

1. Port the wastegate out to 30mm.
2. Said he was going eliminate the oil restrictor. <--this a bad idea according the last post, yeah?

 

Eliminating the oil restrictor is the stupidest thing I've heard to FIX an oil problem.

It sounds like you have an over abundance of oil passing through your turbo.
Removing a restrictor would increase oil flow.

I bet they removed it last time and never mentioned it and is saying he'll remove it this time to cover himself.

Porting the wastegate has NO affect on oil seeping past the front seal.
Porting will just allow the turbo to control boost better.

Dude I would start looking for other places just for a second opinion.
They can crack open the first part of a turbo in minutes. My rebuilding did it to show me some parts in under 10 minutes

 

I just got a BNR stage 3 turbo and my car smokes A LOT...could be because I'm running rich. And a line on the turbo is leaking oil on it because when I open the hood I see some smoke coming off the turbo (being burnt off)...so I went ahead and bought ALL new gaskets and cleaned everything and used rtv and put the gaskets on. Tightened everything and still have the smoke coming off the turbo...my oil pressure (stock gauge) is around 60-90 lbs. Cruising to spirited driving...could crankcase ventilation be the cause of this? If it is I should get an oil catch can right? Right now I'm just using the charcole canister for the job, but don't know it it really even works.

 

They're rebuilding it for free each time because they've warranteed it each time...and I guess if it blows again, they'll be sending it off to have someone else do the rebuild. I think they're about as tired of it as I am.

This turbo rebuild is costing them a lot of $$$.

 

I would assume BNR guys know the FC turbo pretty well so I would rule out the oil restrictor problem. Although it would be a good idea to contact them about it since they are the ones which did it.

The common way for a turbo to start failing it through hotside first THEN front seal.
The rear doesn't have a super seal on it while the front has a more perfect/different design seal.

My turbo leaked enough oil out the hotside that it seeped through the hotside/cartridge joint. This lead to some burning off in the engine bay.


60-90psi is WAY too much psi for a turbo. It's a natural gravity drain so i doubt it could get rid of that much oil quick enough. I can't remember exactly but like 30psi or less is the range a turbo uses.


Now I bet your probably having drainage problems due to blowby or something close to that.
It's MUCH more common.
Try open venting your crankcase for a day and see if the smoking goes away.
It's as easy as removing the line near your oil fill cap or just taking off the cap for a test.

Also check to make sure your return line isn't clogged/gunked up.

THEN move to the inlet side.
A replacement piece with an inline restrictor can be made for around $30-50
a small 6inch 3an line with turbo adapter piece and a transition piece to decrease the inlets internal diamter.

 

when the carbon seals begin to leak does that mean they are finished? i'm just wondering why keep rebuilding if fixing the backpressure is causing it. normally when a crank seal begins to leak due to excessive oil pressure, once the crank pressure problem is repaired the oil leak subsides so i'm just wondering why keep rebuilding or is it a one time shot to fix the problem?

 

maybe it is because you keep running it at a bar?

 

well yea, 14 psi is too much for his stock turbo anyways, i wonder if the shop knows what kind of boost he's putting through it..

 

Yeah, they know how much boost I'm pushing. At least they're going to port the wastegate out to 30mm...that should help the spiking that I was getting. I'm supposed to get it back tomorrow with beefier seals.....so we'll see what happens.

 

it doesnt spike because of the wastegate
use a NEW vacuum line and run that to your wastegate
verify that your boost controller or whatever you use for 1 bar is set up properly
spiking comes from slow wastegate response - usually air leak somewhere - NOT from a small wastegate

 

I'm pretty sure he meant to say creeping as in boost creep.