Guy,

I got this engine rebuilt by a builder here locally and we simply took the shortblock to him for the build.

He told us to put a freeze plug in the housing as we did not need it. Now looking at all of this I am wondering how coolant was supposed to get thru and around the turbo as no coolant would flow thru the intake manifold either.

We (kussimak7 and I, my cousin and roomate) now think we have a blown coolant seal as it puffs through the exhaust and gets hot as hell. Could this at all be from the turbo or could having this hole plugged up caused premature failure of the coolant seal?

We seemed to be loosing coolant as well and never saw a leak or smoke...

 

So the turbo was receiving no coolant flow because someone blocked off the passage in the rotor housing? As I recall, only one passage (the rear one?) actually feeds the turbo. The other one can be blocked without consequence. If someone blocked the rear passage, then it stands to reason that the turbo would overheat and possibly chunk a shaft seal after a while. Only the turbo would be damaged, not the engine.

 

exactly, and felt like little by little we were loosing power from it. And yes there was only one passage we blocked off and that was the one in the rear housing.

Would any of this cause a coolant leak and possibly overheating?

 

?