MidnightOwl

I have a rebuilt 87 TII motor that I installed last year in about march or so. I'm really slow to work on the car, as I am a full time college student, so the motor sat from about August to March when I put it in, then I cranked it an it ran fine. The car has been sitting since then, and about once a month I start it up. I can't get it registered, so I can never drive it.

Anyway, I'm having a few problems. First of all, there is a hotstart issue, which I believe that it is flooding after running for a bit. Secondly, the turbo is leaking something. I think it is coolant, since there is a puddle of coolant that forms under the passenger side floorpan. It appears to be running down the frame rail and coming out of a hole in it under the floorpan. I do believe it is coming from the turbo, since there is quite a bit of coolant (what appears to be) that is dripped onto the turbo flange where it meets the manifold. I pulled the thermostat cap and cranked it and there wasn't any bubbling whatsoever. Finally, the car started smoking pretty fierce today when I fired it up. The last time it was started was a few days ago actually, to move it back into the garage. It fired up and ran fine, no smoke aside from the ordinary. It was a greyish-bluish smoke.

Someone suggested a while back to me that a seal inside the turbo may have been bad. The car smoked a little then, but it seemed to be a lot worse today. I realize the motor is basically at zero miles, but it has been ran quite a lot so I'd imagine the assembly lube has been burned off. I don't know that maybe the hotstart issue is actually flooding and it's just burning off excess fuel causing the excessive smoke? The car sat for about a week before I cranked it today.

I'm waiting now for the car to "cool down" so I can try to start it again so I can get it up onto our lift in the shop and check it out, I'd just like to see if anyone had any ideas as to what might be the case. I searched for the bluish smoke and came across some posts where the oil o-rings are bad, which in my case would be a horrible ordeal. I'm fairly sure the turbo is to blame for all of my woes, but I'd like to see if someone has an idea.

MidnightOwl

Well after pulling the car into the shop last night and doing some dianostics, I have kinda solved one of the problems. The coolant isn't coming from the turbo, it's actually oil that is leaking from the turbo. I really couldn't reach under turbo to see what it was, so I assumed it was coolant since there is a puddle under the passenger floor board. The coolant is actually coming from the heater hose inside the engine bay. There was a minuscule tear in the hose under the clamp, and it would heat up and expand, and basically spray coolant out INSIDE the cabin. I dunno how it was really doing it, but we traced the hole in the floorpan and found that that was the source of the leak. So, that I am stoked about. I had an extra hose and slapped that back on. Phew.

Now, it's just the turbo. The car smokes and there is oil leaking from the turbo, so I'm going to go ahead and assess that there is a seal inside the turbo that is leaking. The intake tract has no oil in it, so it's a seal somewhere on the hotside. I know I have to remove the turbo at this point, but is it worth it to rebuild the turbo or just get another S4 unit? I know that I can send it off and get it pimped out at BNR, but I'd have to do a little more modding to be comfortable with an upgraded turbo. I'm pretty handy when it comes to motor work, so I feel pretty confident I could tear down the turbo. Any suggestions? Rebuild or new unit?