I saw some oil leak near the primary turbo and started pulling off parts to see where the leak is coming front. Then during the pulling apart procedure. There's significant oil in my intercooler pipings. I think I know what that spells. But can someone confirm it for me?

 

it spells "working as normal" Oil will get into the IC piping. Pretty common.


Just empty it and see how much collects in a week. Probably not much.

 

Depends on how much. If there's a lot in the piping then it's possible you have an oil leak with the turbos. One way to check is if you have the BOV venting to the atmosphere it sprays oil all over the front of the engine bay after driving around and boosting a bit. This is what happened to mine and I'm in the process of replacing. But like grimple said, if it's not much then don't worry. There's plenty more people on here that know way more about the turbo systems than I do that might be able to provide a better answer for you.
-Justin

 

What most people don't realize is that there is a vent line directly from the oil filler neck to the primary turbo intake elbow. It is the one the points straight down. Depending on the health of your engine and how aggressively you drive your car, this line can dump quite a bit of oil into the primary turbo intake. This oil gets sucked into the turbo and distributed into the intercooler piping.

The line was meant as part of the emissions system to burn crank case gas and prevent pressure from building up in the oil pan. Functioning similar to the PCV valve, just without the valve.

Another reason why an oil catch can is so highly recommended.

 

I get a little oil in the intake track over time. So I just use some dish soap, hot water and a utility sink to clean myr IC out once a year or or so. My SMIC comes out in about 5 minutes though, if it wasn't so easy I'd have a catch can.

 

I was just going to make a post a bout oil in my throttle body!

I have never noticed it there, and I have had my my throttle body and UIM off recently so I would have certainly noticed it. The oil was very gritty too!

I had BNR turbos installed 8 months or so ago. They have around 3000-4000km on them. I do not track my car so I would consider them to have had an easy life considering part of that time I was breaking in my new engine. The twins have seen as high as 1.1bar, again not very high for BNRs.

I do not know the condition of the turbos prior to BNR getting them but I assume they were good as I got them from goodfella.

This sounds normal, because it doesn't feel very normal

 

this is the same for single turbo set ups, its best to run a line to a catch can, DO NOT plug it if the bottom filler neck nipple is blocked, single or on twin set ups the car will burn oil and smoke a lot. at least it did on my car.

 

When I removed my stock intercooler there was a thin layer of oil as well. Perfectly normal to see a bit of oil in there on a RX7. I wouldn't worry about oil in those pipes.

 

Thin layer ok. Small pool in the tb??

I have never looked at a catch can as I thought that was more for racing applications but does it basically collect the oil coming out of the filler neck?

If so that would not solve the problem if it is the turbos.

 

Gritty oil is not normal. You need to inspect your turbos. BNR's are not bulletproof, the older ones are rebuilt twins and have a failure rate.

Here is a set of stock turbos that were on a car that came into the shop. The compressor wheel broke off after sending fine particles of aluminum through out the IC, piping and engine.

 

Wow thanks everyone!!! I could not sleep at all last nite. My heart just dropped when I saw the oil in the intake. Yes yesterday I was running the car kinda hard. I will remove some more piping to get a better look and try to post some pic. But where else can an engined/turbo discharge oil. The leak is infront of where the y pipe mounts ontop of the turbo. Let me get up and get back at it and get some pix. Thanks for all your help.

But I don't see any oil by the bov. I mostly see the oil around the wastEgate area. It's definitely coated all over the wastegate driping into the boot of the steering rack. So where on the turbo/engine can it leak oil from in front of the y pipe??? I'll keep removing stuff and get some pix posted.

Thanks for all the help!!!

 

Banzai
Please tell me that turbo was the reason the client pulled into your shop, do not say it was for an oil change or something and you found this during an inspection. You have that pic mounted on the wall? LOL

Mike

 

I'm going to ask a dumb question here and I think the answer is no. I'm going to ask anyway so I can set my mind at ease.

The only change that was done to the car recently was adding an afr and oil temp gauge. When they were installed I noticed no oil in my TB. I drove my car home and had no boost because the ground wire was left off my greddy boost controller by mistake.

Needless to say I had no boost on the way home. I put the ground back on took it out for a quick drive to ensure it was working and it was fine.

I changed my oil then I was going to change my plugs. I took the elbow off and the oil was there.

Can anyone see how these above steps would equal gritty oil in my TB/piping?

 

The car was dropped off for an engine rebuild. This was just one of the many issues that we found with the car. It is now a happy streetported GT35R powered car driving around in TX.


No. What you have described would not cause oil to pool in the TB. Inspect your air filter, if it is old or torn, it can allow fine particles of sand through. You really need to start taking a few things apart and inspecting them.

 

Ok since the oil in the intercooler is ok then I continue to searched for the source of where my oil is leaking from. I removed stuff so that I was able to see the top of the turbo. But I look around I could not clearly identify where the leak is coming from.

Maybe someone can help me identify the source. Here are some pixture of the area.

The area I suspect is where the two air hose connected to the turbo since anything above where the top part of the y pipe mount is clean. Below that...oil seems to drip and cover the wastegate. And it drips down further. Would it be possible if that little port where the two hose is connect is leaking at the seem?

 

I too had oil in my ic pipes when my car was twin and it started when I vented out my bov, nothing to worry about... it seems all fd have a little

 

mod please close. Since my question is answer I will create a new post regarding the specific leak.

 

AHHH!!! When I got home my air filter was off. I guess I was sucking in crud all the way home. While that does not explain why I had oil there it does explain why it was dirty.

I will flush my intercooler, and keep an eye on it.

Thanks for the help.

Joe