Can you pressure test the "crankcase" to check oil seal condition?

Just wondering, is there any procedure outlined for pressure testing the oil pan and such to check oil seal condition???
I'm thinking, just make sure the oil filler neck is on tight, and use the nipple on the filler neck for a mityvac or somthing.

You could block off oil lines to the turbo (if applicable) to isolate that.
Front and rear mani seals would be a factor as well though...

What would be an acceptable loss of pressure over time?
Maybe you would have to crank the engine over (no ignition of course) to get a more accurate reading, since the oil seals would be passing over the whole face.

Reason for asking... I have a bad smoking problem. ONLY when decellerating, and the rpms pass about 3000 rpms while winding down, A billow of smoke will be released!
The turbo is loose as anything, so it'll be rebuilt soon.
Can the turbo oil seals be pressure tested as well?

 

I'm not sure of any proceedure for testing oil control rings, but your problem sounds like a classic turbo oil seal problem.

 

I hope more than you know!! I JUST rebuilt this engine, and I thought the oil seals were perfect. I'd be so upset if it didn't turn out to be the turbo. 50% of the people say turbo, the other 50% say oil control seals.

 

Buy some oil dye (have a blacklight too ). Pour'er in, run for a while, fire up the light, see where it's coming from..

 

The engine oil seals only leak when the oil pressure gets up.
The classic test never fails... run the engine up to 4000 rpm in neutral for 30-45 seconds. If you see blue smoke, its the oil seals.

Your description really sound like the turbocharger though.

 

Brilliant. Last time I checked, ultraviolet could not penetrate aluminum or steel, so a lot of good that will do in finding an internal oil leak.

I understand that you had the right motives (only trying to help), but if you haven't got a clue, keep it to yourself.

 

That's an interesting method, and probably a fairly effective one if you wree trying to find an EXTERNAL oil leak tucked up by a valve cover on the back of the engine or something0 or on an engine that already really dirty... but just not applicable here.

 

Your smoking sounds like a classic oil seal.
I had the same problem as you described and when I took off the turbo, there was oil all over the turbine housing.

 

Oil seal.. turbo or engine?????

 

yeah sean is right you rev it to 4-5k and hold it there, on a cold motor

 

Won't smoke if I do that... but it'll smoke as soon as I let off the gas and the engine winds down. Only for a second though as it passes 3000 rpms.

 

If it passes the 4K PRM test, more than likely you've got yourself a bad turbo. When I had bad oil seals in my ported 12A, it would billow smoke as soon as I lifted the throttle. The higher I was in RPM's the worse the smoke was. And, it failed the 4K RPM test....horribly. It was a freshly ported engine from Hayes, needless to say, we don't get along anymore.