Having a BIG problem

Just had engine rebuilt, new rotor housings, upgraded seals, etc.

Put the car through a 2000 mile wear in, no boosting, stay under 3k rpm. I changed the oil after 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 miles. Replaced the oil filter at the 500 and 1500 mile points. My concerns are that

1) I have no reference as to what the idle is supposed to sound and feel like. I know it's supposed to idle rough, but how? Right now it starts up, peaks at about 1500-2000 rpms, and settles at around 800rpm. Is that normal?

2) I have yet to run the car hard, closest I've come Is about 95 on the highway, boosting, but this was at about 2150 miles. However after this drive I noticed a little smoking in the engine compartment. Upon investigation I discovered 1/2 to 1 quart of oil sprayed across the inside of the hood and intake, and drippage down nearly all components under the intake. I noticed two things.

1)The oil dipstick had "popped" up and was no longer sitting normally inside its hole. Due to the location of the oil spray it seemed to make sense that for some reason there was too much pressure and it pushed the dipstick out. I pulled it out and cleaned it off before proceding to wrap the top of the stick with heavy duty electrical tape to create a snug fit. However two days later when I returned home, the car was again smoking, and opening the hood revealed the same results as before, however the dipstick would slide freely in and out of its hole, even with the electrical tape on it to make it more snug.

2)I also noticed that the hose connecting to the vertical neck coming from the (PCV) on the oil filler neck was not connected. I don't think this is the source of the leak due to the location of the neck and the location of the spill. I did try to place the hose back onto the neck to discover that the hose could not be pulled up enough to clamp it, like it is too short to go more than a couple millimeters onto the neck? Is this normal? The forums all say that the 95 and up don't even have these neck's on the oil filler neck. What is it for? Why doesn't the hose go on the neck and do I even need it or could I just plug it.

I am concerned about the oil loss I have done two oil changes in 3 weeks, the latter to replace the losses form the first leak. I cannot drive the vehicle with it leaking in this condition. Can you provide me with some information and ideas. What would cause the dipstick to move like that. All I could think of is some kind of extreme thermal expansion, but...

If I didn't explain something thoroughly enough, tell me and I'll try to go deeper, but I honestly don't know anymore about the problem. Pleas eanybody who has anything that'll help, let me know. I couldn't find anybody else on the boards having a problem like this with the dipstick popping out. Thanks in advance all.

 

What you describe regarding the idle is normal.

As far as the oil problems, it could perhaps be blow-by past the side seals. Who built the motor?

 

It look very much like pressure built-up in your oil pan area. With turbo charged engines this is not unusual, given to blow by of turbo pressures.

I've been suspecting such for being the cause of the oil pan gasket leaks that I had on my new reman engine, after only about 1000 miles. I found 4 different leaks along the pan gasket that were not there when I first ran the engine. I also installed a rebuilt set of turbos and their quality is suspect. They drip oil from both front and rear units...

I am not real familiar with the venting of the oil pan area but, thinking about installing a vent hose out of the oil filler cap, into a small vented bottle, as I used to do with my GT-class race rotaries. That would definitely elinimate the pressure problems.

On the other hand you seem to have a MAJOR pressure built up which needs to be diagnosed and fixed.

Good luck and let us know what you eventually find.

 

Sounds like the vacuum line from your oil filler neck to the primary turbo elbow has either come off, wasn't installed correctly, or has a kink in it. The same thing happened with my dipstick (no oil spray) and it was because the vacuum line was kinked.

 

Look at the simple things first - did you put way too much oil in the car during the oil changes? Is your PCV system working properly (check the PCV valve under the front of the UIM)? etc...

Your idle is perfectly normal.

Just curious, why are you babying the motor so much? A 2000 mile break-in is pretty conservative. Are you waiting to get it tuned?

 

I don't know how to check the valve. I'm trying to upload picts, but where I am now it's not really likely they'll work. Can you tell me how and then I'll try.

As far as babying goes, I just paid $6000 for the rebuild and street porting, I don't have another $6k lying around if anything else happens to the car right now.

I sent an email, almost identical to this thread to the place that did the rebuild. I just don't understand the cause of it. I'm not getting any leaking from the turbo, only oil is on the drivers side. Like I said the hose attatched to the little L shaped neck on the oil filler neck, it's the lowest one on the neck, is not actually on the neck, it is very loose and I cannot pull it more than 1 or so millimeters on the neck. Though everytime I check it, it's sitting just below the neck.

Is it true that the 95 and up doesnt have this? If it is true then why? Can't I just get rid of mine, plug it or something?

 

No.. do NOT plug that nipple on the filler neck. If anything, unplug it. I had pretty severe oil pressure issues on my old motor, and the solution was to simply leave both nipples on the filler neck open to the atmoshpere (and plug the PCV nipple on the UIM). Never had a problem again (although if you race the car, you would want a catch can since you might spill on hard corners).

Do you have stock twins, or a single? How much PSI are you running? If you make a hard redline pull and when you release the gas do you get a stream of black smoke out of your exhaust?

As far as babying the engine, I hear you about not wanting to kill it too soon, but after 2k, if the ECU is tuned, you might want to give her a few redline runs (assuming everything is fine). Babying these engines for too long is not a good idea.

 

Stock R1 turbo's yes. Like I said I got it up to about 95, and I did almost redline, though through second, third, and fourth gear at full throttle, It sounded really weird to me like it was a rattle kind of sound, but not like metal rattling just like air vibration/distrubance. It didn't sound like something had happened or broke, but because I have never heard it do that before nor have I been in another FD with the same porting and setup so I don't have any experiences with which to reference or compare and therefore was concerned about it. If someone can post a picture or email one to me at dreym@cvn65.navy.mil and identify what it is I need to look at and plug/not plug, it'd be great help

 

No black smoke after a hard push

 

Sounds to me like you should meet up with some local FD owners who know their **** and see what they can diagnose in person.

 

You probably have a simple hose routing issue. The last car I worked on had a rebuild done by previous owner and I found that the crankcase vent nipple on the oil filler neck was actually hosed up to the charcoal can vent line ... LMAO. The purge gas solenoid was connected to the first turbo inlet and it's check valve was frozen closed. Whoever did the rebuild used all new factory hoses on the rat's nest (shocking) and got them all on right(more shocking), but did not know how to hook up the simple common sense stuff.

You could have a significant issue with the rebuild with that rough idle and pressurizing the crank, check the simple stuff first then worry about the inside of the motor.