So my e-fan failed a while ago and I had to go a week avoiding traffic with desperation and watching my temp gauge more than my tach. I don't recall if it was after this that I noticed it or not, but I got a faint smell of coolant and would have to fill up the reservoir every 2 or 3 days.

At first I thought I might have overheated my new engine when I wasn't paying attention, but while I was rearranging my vacuum hose setup today I noticed that everything had a fair bit of coolant coating it, even in the intake before the throttle body. So my deduction was that the turbo was leaking coolant into the intake, either that or a coolant hose has a pinhole leak that is pointed right at my air filter

I can't seem to find anyone who has had coolant leak from their turbo into their intake stream before. So I don't know if that is even possible... any ideas?

 

I have never seen that happen. Rent a coolant pressure tester if you want to find out for sure.

 

The water passageway is completely isolated from the rotating assembly. The shaft/bearings/seals are in a different chamber of the CHRA.

 

Right o, thanks guys. Basically my intake is a cone filter clamped to the compressor. There are 3 different coolant hoses around there. I checked them today, all were loose and one was leaking. Fixed this, so we'll see how it holds up. Thanks again.

 

Not that this is a common event, but I have actually experienced (actually, a friend did) a stock turbo cracked internally such that coolant bypassed into the turbine housing. The CHRA was severely cracked.