Hey,

For your turbo gurus out there...specifically the stock twins...I know they're water cooled. Is there any way, either through improper assembly during a rebuild, improper installation, or some defect somewhere, for coolant to leak into the air stream from the primary compressor? I'm smelling coolant after a fairly hard run. Its definitely coming from the engine compartment, and there's no odor at idle that I can detect. I don't see any leaks, although the coolant level seems to drop a bit. I recently had the turbos rebuilt...before that I noticed none of these things. It may be my imagination...I had a severe primary boost leak for a while, which is probably why I could smell it so strong, but I wouldn't think it would smell of coolant.

jds

 

If the coolant were going into the intake and being sent thru the combustion chamber, you shouldn't smell it in the engine compartment unless you have a boost leak.
I'd suspect a hidden hose, etc., leak.

 

Well, that's just the thing, I did have a boost leak. Actually, when I first got the turbos on, I had a CCV that was sticking open venting primary boost out the CRV and secondary intake pipe. After I fixed these, I had a major leak at the primary compressor outlet/y-pipe junction. At that point, I could smell it even more. I've fixed both of those things...mostly. I'm making full boost, but I get a whistling sound and I think I still have a small leak at the compressor outlet.

Its probably a good idea to go over everything again and make sure I don't have a leaky hose somewhere...although I haven't found so much as a drop on the ground.

Still...is it a physical possibility that it could be leaking into the turbo and out with the compressor outlet?

jds

 

It is really, really unlikely that the turbo water jacket is allowing coolant into the intake.

 

It its going into the intake you sould be able to find traces of it in your IC pipes or in the IC itself. If its going into the turbine side of the turbo it should be blowing smoke similar to how the engine would.

Really though I've never heard of the turbos leaking coolant internally.

More than likely its coming from somewhere else. I had a small leak one time and couldnt find it dripping anywhere, pulled off the belly pan and the coolant was just hitting that and pooling. One I pulled that off it was easy to spot the drip.....it was a radiator hose that had a very small drip at the radiator.

STEPHEN

 

OK guys, thanks for the info. I'll double check everything else, and take a peak in the IC and piping while I'm at it. Since it did just start it seemed the turbos would be a logical place to look, but lots of stuff can get disturbed so one of those things could be doing the trick.

jds

 

Or simply you forgot to slide a hose clamp back over the joint. That's happened to me.

 

Could be leaking form the coolant line connections at the turbo. There are some copper cruch rings that go between the lines and turbo...If you can rev up the engine and see any coming out you might want to replace those cruch rings. Also check where the coolant line screws together infont of the lim, you might need to make sure its tight. Could just be that when the rpms get up there and the pump is pushing the coolant a lot more thats when the leak starts up.

STEPHEN

 

If the turbos were recently rebuilt (so they were removed from the car) I would very closely check the coolant banjos on the turbos and also the rubber turbo coolant hoses. If your leak is small you'll smell coolant but never see any because it drips onto the hot turbos and evaporates.

FWIW years ago I swore I smelled coolant for a few days but could find no leak or notice a drop in coolant level. Next day a turbo coolant hose ruptured and dumped all my coolant out...

 

Well, good call by everyone who said to look at the coolant lines where they attach to the turbos. The banjo bolt thing on the engine side of the secondary turbo appears to be seeping a bit of coolant. Not a lot, but enough. I can see where its dripped down onto a couple of things, although I never saw any on the ground. Some of it is vaporizing as it comes out as well. I'm not sure I'll be able to reach this thing too well with no lift and limited tools, but I'm going to try tomorrow when the engine is nice and cool.

Thanks for the as usual excellent advice everyone!

jds

 

It may have a hair-line crack in the water chamber allowing water into the bearing housing. But for water to escape into the Compressor Housing and out to the y-pipe>>> and intake >>>>,.. then you would have to have a bad O-Ring and/or worn Plate Seal on the Turbo. You would also have water mixing with the oil.

Check your dip stick.

 

I agree that it most likely isn't leaking coolant into the intake charge. And I also agree that it is probably just a regular coolant leak somewhere. The rubber line that feeds coolant to the turbo assembly is a prime suspect. The copper sealing washers for the coolant lines on the turbos could be bad, too, but I think the rubber line that feeds the pipe (behind the air pump) is more likely the cause. Or it could be a cracked or leaking radiator (look into the mouth of the car in the front) or even just a loose radiator hose.

-Max

 

Also, check the TB coolant lines. You have an inlet coolant hose on the back of the TB between the fire wall and the oulet coolant line on the bottom of the TB. The bottom hose may be leaking onto the block, which might be causing the scent as it hits the hot block. You'll have to take off the compression tube (elbow) in order to see it.

 

So get this. Talk about your weird coincidences. I was slowly losing coolant, and I could smell it, but I only saw it when I got under the car...the banjo bolt on the engine side of the secondary turbo was wet, I could see steam come off every so often when it was hot, and I could see where it had dripped down around it. OK, the banjo bolts are high on the list of things to be suspicious of, especially given that the turbos were just replaced. I couldn't get a wrench up there, so I was getting ready to take it back to the place that did the turbos and see if we could get to it on their lift, when bam! I go out and the coolant is pretty much all gone. Heh? I fill it back up and look around...pinhole leak in one of the heater hoses coming out of the firewall. In its infancy, it must have been dripping slowly down through all that crap in there and landing around the banjo bolt connection to the turbo. Nice bit of misdirection there! Fixed the heater hose, pressure tested it..no problem.

jds

 

Good news! Much easier to fix

 

Yeah, you're not kidding! I'm just thankful the leak got big enough to notice before I started pulling stuff off trying to get to the turbo line!

jds