Where's it coming from? The wife's ('93, stock) radiator took a dump the other day. I've got a Koyo on the way.

However, while taking things apart, I noticed a lot of oil in the IC exit pipe. Enough oil that it would drip out when I held it up-right. Needless to say, there was oil in all the other pipes I removed.

So, are we talking turbo problems, or is it coming from the engine and just going through the turbos?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

turbos. There is always supposed to be oil in the pipes...however, enough to drip out is probably too much. Turbos are on there last leg. If you have the means...check the shaft play on the primary just to get an idea on how they are standing. Lots of oil doesnt def mean that they are bad or about to be bad....but in the next couple thousand miles they might be toast.

 

It's fairly normal to find oil in the IC pipes. The amount varies with driving habits and time. When is the last time you had them off ?? Does the engine smoke on a regular basis ? ? ? The oil could be an idication of the seals getting old and starting to fail but if the motors not smoking and they build boost ok there's no since in ripping them off just yet. One thing that typically causes more oil to be in the pipes is hard cornering, a bad PVC valve, or over filling the engine with oil.

 

Thanks so far. Here's more info...

We got the car in January with 86k miles on it. The wife drives it 98% of the time, and takes it real easy, like if she hears the BOVs, she is driving to hard. She wants to try and keep this engine alive. When I drive it, I do a little bit of WOT pulls to "blow it out". It runs great by the way!

It grey smokes for about two minutes in the morning, and black smokes at full boost, over 5,000 rpm.

 

I'm no expert, but from what I've read and talked to others about sounds like your turbos are leaking some oil. If you have a boost gauge are you noticing any drop in psi? Also from what I've read there isn't any real way to tell how much longer they have, it all depends on how you drive them.

 

yeah sounds like turbos for sure, enough oil to drain out of the pipes is far to much. couldnt tell u how much life they have left cause u dont know how long its been spitting oil for.
just have a look into the air intake and see if there is any oil in there that has come through the lines from the oil injectors, if there is maybe the turbo is spitting that through the cooler pipes. but i do think its the turbos.