Exhaust Manifold full of oil
 

I guess I'll start like I know I should....I have searched and searched but I can't find this anywhere on the forum. Just pulled my 13B out of my 87 turbo II and tore it down (apex seals were toast). Anyways I was curious if I should be really worried or if it's because the apex seals were trashed, but my exhaust manifold was FULL of oil. I mean to the point that when I took off my turbo it spilled out everywhere. Now this is the first time I've done this much work on a rotary but I feel pretty confident in my abilities to rebuild it plus I'll have help. Any help/advice/telling me I'm an idiot because this happened as an after effect of the seals being trashed is greatly appreciated!!

If the exhaust manifold was truly full of oil then you probably have a break somewhere inside the engine that is letting oil out of the oil passages. Expect a costly repair...

Could just be that the turbo needs to be rebuilt. A bad seal letting oil pass thru .

Ah... I missed the turbo part. :lol:

Describe, more specifically, the symptoms of your "toast" engine.

most likely merely a side effect, if it was burning oil before you would have been driving a train.


inspect all your engine components, likely one of your irons is damaged from the seal failure.

This usually contaminates the intake track with oil, not the exhaust manifold.

when the carbon seal fails it's common to get oil on intake side but if the piston ring seal fails it will leave a mess inside of the exhaust manifold, turbine housing, and down pipe.

Downpipe, yes.
Turbine outlet, yes.
Exhaust manifold, no.
Once oil gets past the oil seals, the oil is at zero pressure. Exhaust flow and back pressure will push the oil out the turbine, not draw it back into the engine.

I think you already figured it out. Those broken apex seal pieces have to go somewhere and in this case, it's a fan spinning at 100k rpm. Bad things ensue.
Probably damaged the turbine and the bearings, causing the oil leak. This would require a turbo rebuild. If you want to confirm, you need to take the turbine housing off and inspect the turbine blades.

I bought the car not running and with about 60 pounds of compression...that's how toast it was. Thanks for the help though, I'll check my turbo and everything just to be sure.

If you bought it not running it could be that previous owner poured oil in the engine to try and get the compression up high enough to start it.

well, no offense but i have seen a faulty piston ring coat nearly the whole turbo internals in oil, including the runners from the exhaust ports, to the point of oil pooling up before the turbine.