Drove roughly 1000 miles from Austin Texas to Boulder Colorado

Somewhere along the line I now have a pretty severe oil issue that has been suggested by multiple people to be a blown oil seal on the one of the turbos (running stock twins)

While the oil that is pooling up all over the place in my inter cooler piping is a nuisance and I would like to get that figured out, blown turbo seals or not. My real question and concern is that my oil pressure at idle is now reading 30psi instead of 20psi.

On top of my idle oil pressure now being 30psi versus the historical 20psi, my vacuum has gone to **** drastically. The vacuum now sits around 12-14 psi versus the past consistent 18 psi.

So, where I need some expert input on this situation is figuring out if there is a possible link between the higher oil pressure readings I am getting and the lower vacuum readings.

Is there a clog / a specific vacuum hose that could be causing these two variables to be inversely related?

Also --- I reattached one of my stock blow off valves that I had removed onto the 1" nipple on the Y - Pipe. When I did this, it would constantly vent to atmosphere and spew spit out oil everywhere. For some reason, the pressure release valve is not pressurizing. I had this nipple as well as the charge release valve nipple capped off when the problem began last week.

I understand that my turbo seals may be going, but I do not understand why the going seals would have impacted my; oil pressure, vacuum and why the stock blow off valve will no longer close and pressurize.

 

Any thoughts guys?

 

!!!

 

I live in Boulder and I had the same vacuum question. The answer is the higher the altitude the lower the vacuum. I have a new engine and my vac is 12-14 at idle. So dont worry about that.

 

If you live in Boulder we should meet up some time.

As for the vac being at 12-14... this doesn't make sense to me since the vacuum system is under vacuum and not supposed to be open to atmospheric pressure. Altitude should have no impact on the cars vacuum right?

 

No, it's all related to sea level.

 

So if the vacuum is changing then essentially I need to have the car re-tuned correct? If the vacuum is different then I will be using new polynomials that the car was not previously tuned for correct?

 

Theoretically, yes. Unless you were tuned to the ragged edge, you are probably just fine.

 

Still trying to figure out what is causing the oil issue... if one of my turbos oil seals is going would this impact the boost pattern of the car at all?

The reason I ask is because I tried doing a few pulls in 3rd gear and I get almost no boost from the primary turbo but once the secondary kicks in the car goes up to 11 psi --- I wish I knew if it was the turbos or engine --- what are the general symptoms of an oil control seal going on the engine???

 

If you lost an oil control o-ring, you'd have massive amounts of oil smoke out the tailpipe.

 

At all times?

The car smokes a bit at idle, if I shut it off and let it sit for a few minutes and fire it back up it will smoke a bit more.

The only time I have been able to get huge plumes of smoke to come out the tail pipe is if I do a 3rd gear pull and then let off the gas and then once I put my foot on the gas again POOF, a huge cloud of smoke will come out the tail pipe.

If I stay off the boost and just drive the car without pressurizing the system, no smoke comes out, I can even go to 6k rpm's and have no signs of smoke as long as I do not boost.

My plugs are wet with oil, obviously from all the oil that is somehow being put into the IC piping

 

Sounds to me like your turbos are hosed and your motor is fine. I'd stop driving the car until you get those turbos off it.

 

I really hope it is just the turbos. I am just worried I am going to invest all this cash in a new setup only to find that it is really my engine.

I am planning on pulling them and having a lookielook sometime before the end of this month.

Also --- under regular driving, not even boosting I am seeing my oil pressure hit 90+ psi, not even boosting the car - just taking the tach up to 4500 rpms --- is this normal or could this have been the problem that has caused (hopefully) my turbo seal to go?

 

have it compression tested first

 

I did a compression test on the car yesterday and its holding 117 front 114 rear... since I did it my self I could not look for the bounces but I will do another one this weekend.

I dont think compression has anything to do with the oil control seals anyways, thats what I have been reading atleast.

 

Picture 1: How is this for oil in your intercooler?

Picture 2: This is my first glimpse at the secondary turbo

Picture 3: I began loosening the bolts on the secondary turbo so I could pull the Y-Pipe. Notice how oil is beginning to drip from the bottom where the Y pip meets the Housing. I would have taken a 3rd picture but about 3 to 5 ounces of oil began to POUR out of the housing all over my chest.

Picture 4: Pulled the turbos off and took a picture of the exhaust manifold. Looks nice and dry. I hope this is a good indicator that it is not my oil control o-rings and that the oil build up is in fact my turbo oil seals? Can anyone verify this for me?

Picture 5: Can anyone explain why I have oil coming out of my actuator? This tripped me out when I saw this and I captured an excellent action shot.

 

Picture 1: Slight cracking but very minimal --- manifold looks to be in pretty good reusable shape... too bad I'm going single =D

Picture 2: More oil leaking from every orifice of my twins... I rotated them one more time after this picture and managed to drain roughly 2 to 3 more ounces out.

Picture 3: Secondary Bent Fin

Picture 4: Secondary second bent fin!

I checked both turbos for shaft play and neither had enough to actually touch the housing. I wonder how this fin got bent?

 

So guys... with these pictures --- does this give any more insight as to what the problem may be potentially? I am crossing my fingers that it is my turbo seals but I am absolutely blown away by how much oil came out of the turbos and my intercooler --- is this normal of a blown turbo seal?

My only guess is that somehow, the 1 day 1100 mile trip I did from Sea Level to (at one point in the trip (5200+ feet) the change in elevation caused the crankcase pressure to increase dramatically and some how caused catastrophic failure of the turbo seals?

 

I was just thinking about something guys... regarding the picture of my actuator that has oil pouring out of it. Is it possible that there is a line running to some where on the engine (like the OMP) that should not be, creating a vacuum when I boost and sucking oil into the lines?

I am thinking that there is a possibility that there is one line that has been incorrectly hooked up that runs into the group of hard pipes which run to the turbos. I just have no idea how in the hell this oil got into the actuator!

 

Morning ^

 

As oil passes through your bad turbo seal it flows through your IC into your UIM and LIM where vacuum is applies to your solenoids and actuators which suck the oil into each one cause them to gum up and stop working and this is why your actuator is full of oil and why Rich suggested you stop driving the car

 

Thats what I figured and thank you for your input! But, based on the picture of my exhaust manifold, is it safe for me to conclude that it is indeed my turbo seals that have failed me and not my oil control o-ring?

I just want to verify the source of the oil problem

 

I had some issues with oil, on my 35/40 Setup, in that I was using oil that was too light and getting into the turbo and getting burned... have you tried a heavier weight oil.... Fixed the smoking oil in IC issue for me...
Only reason I ask is because I've never done the altitude 1Mi high transition, so I don't know what these cars require differently when talking about thinner air....

 

I'd say so. Think about it....how would such massive quantities of oil manage to get from the oil control rings around the rotors into the intercooler and turbos against the flow of incoming air? A thin film of oil...maybe...but not the massive quantities you have.

 

The problem I am having is way past changing oil weight and the average turbo blow by. I dumped out close to a quart of oil from my IC. I think that if anything, the oil I was running at the time 20w50 in conjunction with the increased altitude (which I hypothesize may have put my crank case pressure over critical limits) is what caused the catastrophic failure of the turbo seals.... I can not figure out what else would have done it.

But, now they are off and I intend to go single so hopefully my issue will be a thing of the past =)