Hi Guys,

so I've got this issue
https://youtu.be/S64g-IIAmWE?si=wYTm1QPI5JvsX1tY
Quite a lot of whitish smoke from what looks like around the front turbo , particularly coming up from what looks like behind airpump and under front of y pipe. Happening at cold and warm.

​​​​its definitely more noticeable at idle, and seems to dissapate under revs. smells like oil (it's not really a sweet smell) . car is running perfectly other than this, perfect boost pattern etc. intercooler pipes all clean. no smoke from the exhaust on startup or driving. no oil leaks under the car or on the bottom of the turbos .

is it more likely to be an exhaust or manifold issue?

really appreciate any tips before I go ripping everything out 😁

thanks

​​​​

 

How are your coolant levels? Could be the turbo coolant lines leaking. They are in that area and get brittle from the heat. Replace with OEM hoses and new OEM hose clamps.

Coolant system pressure test will tell you where any leaks are.

 

coolants levels have always been perfect but I'll check them out. are they easy to access from underneath or do I need to rip out everything on top to get to them?

​​​​

 

Could be coolant hose, or a failed coolant or oil line on the turbo pack. or oil feed line to the turbos leaking down onto it. theres a few things in that specific area. Or could be something to do with the lower intake gasket.

 

I think a lot of people want to say coolant, because you say white smoke, but if its not sweet smelling its possibly not coolant. Actually sounds more like an oil or exhaust leak, especially if it smells like oil. The oil might not be making it to under the car, but rather burning off on a hot manifold or turbine.

You may need to take some ancillaries off to see if you can find some evidence, or pull the turbos.

 

If you still have the stock set-up, with the venting tube from the oil filler neck running down to the front turbo intake, you can get oil into the front turbo if you overfill the oil (above half way on the dipstick hash marks).

The resulting smoke from the front turbo somehow finds its way out causing panic for unsuspecting owners.

Likewise, there is a coolant hose that supplies heated coolant to the throttle body for some reason. That hose leads from the upper coolant filler neck and can leak coolant that may make its way down the front area of the turbo.

It may just be a small drip, sometimes caused by a too tight worm clamp (dont' use worm c;lamps).

Your waterpump gasket may be leaking. Likewase the front plate, that houses the oil pump, gasket may be leaking.

Your OMP is in that area as well and the clear plastic tubes feeding the oil injectors could be damaged.

 

How long has it had this smoke?
Did you do any work on the car recently?

If you did, there's chance it might be excess WD40 or some other spilled fluid burning off the manifold.

Does it seem to be coming out of somewhere, or just emanating from a general area?

To quickly rule out an exhaust leak, put some rags in your tail pipe to increase exhaust back pressure. This will make an exhaust leak more apparent.

 

The gaskets for the front and back oil feed tubes for the turbo could also be damaged/worn out..

Be careful the nuts/studs may be seized and can shear off.

So carefully asses their condition before moving to replace the gaskets.

 

Had this issue and you know what it was? One of my oil injectors that runs from the OMP to the rear rotor was broken off and dumping oil into this pocket on the motor nearby. When the car heated that burned and smoked. Check if your OMP lines are old and brittle. I changed mine out for stainless steel ones

 

the whitish smoke around the front turbo suggests a possible oil leakage issue, especially noticeable at idle. Check oil supply and return lines for leaks and inspect the exhaust manifold. If unsure, seek professional advice to avoid potential damage.

 

thanks everyone for the useful nformation.

the smoke has not been happening for a long time. the car was ok, sat for about 4 weeks and when I started it up there was a lot of smoke coming out.

I changed the omp last year and was ultra careful with the lines, I know how brittle they get as I broke one once when changing out the fpd on a previous car. was a nightmare job!

 

update

starting pulling bits out and when removed the air pump noticed that there is a tonne of thick oil residue all over compressor housing on front turbo as pic. I think this is what is causing the smoking . it's certainly not obvious where it might have been coming from , but there was a bit of wet oil on the gasket that connects to the compressor housing. could it be blowing out of here?

strange thing why would it get worse after the car has sat for a while though, thats the bit that gets me , maybe I just never noticed it before. .


didn't notice any leaks as such.

also took a video below of play in the turbo itself. I haven't noticed any excess oil in the pipework or intercooler. is this excessive play?

 

The elbow you removed to get to the primary turbo you're showing has a line coming from the oil filler neck. On both my old turbos and my new turbos, I have oil staining on the front of the primary turbo housing- both actually looking quite a bit dirtier than yours. I think it's normal, PCV venting or what have you. Looking inside the exhaust side there does not seem to be any oil on the turbine wheel, I think that's a more telling sign of turbo wear.

It is hard to tell while the turbos are in the car if side to side shaft play is bad or not since you have to contort your body to get your finger on it and wiggle it. Turbos that felt bad while they were in the car turned out to feel fine while out of the car on my workbench.

What I was told from rx7.com was that the stock turbos have a good amount of side to side play without oil pressure, and that the better indicator of acceptable wear is in/out play. If you don't see damage on the compressor wheel and you didn't have low boost or something while running the car, and don't have any in/out play, I wouldn't worry about it imo.

 

been doing a bit of reading and I believe there is no pcv on my car as it was ditched in 95 and mine is a jdm 96. the hoses that attach from the elbow to the steel lines are pretty brittle so I'll change them out anyway to see if that helps. I might just clean them up with degreaser and check again in a few more miles.

the shaft play does not touch the sides by pulling in any direction. there is some damage to the fins

 

Your turbos are dirty AF, but the turbine blades look fine.
Almost wonder if the smoke isn't just grunge getting burned off...

 

The turbo shaft play did not seem too excessive but I do see the turbine damage on the fins that you mentioned. I hope nothing too serious went in there. Cleaning up the turbos with a degreaser and checking later where the oil is coming from is a good idea.
I also agree with the PVC comment. Check for some sort of exhaust recirculation for your current set up and make sure there is not an excess amount of oil going to the turbos. I know a lot of guys go with an oil catch can here on the forum.
I have not done the catch can set up yet but have considered it. I am not sure if you have a downpipe or a stock exhaust set up but I once had a lot of white smoke coming from around the turbos and it turned out to be a leaking gasket
from my downpipe. I replaced it and torqued my downpipe nuts with new ones and my smoke problem went away.

 

If not too difficult replace the oil feed pipe gaskets.

regarding the oil filler neck venting, my tuner simply left the oil filler neck vent pipe open to the engine bay with a 20 inch length of rubber hose directed downwards.

I put in a catch can regardless.

Where is your oil filler neck vent to now?

In the stock set up, a hose runs to a "T" joint. One line from the T would go to the PCV valve and then to the UIM.

The other line from the T would run down to the elbow in front of the front turbo.

 

The '96 and later turbos, if that is what you have, introduced and "abradable" collar around where the blades spin. The idea is that the blades would wear into the collar slightly and provide a better seal. Hence the increase in horse power to 265 hp. I think I see that collar in your turbo, but it is usually a darker color (from what I have seen).

Your wobble is a little more than what I have seen on a number of turbo, but likely ok for the time being.

 

you could be right, I'll have another look today at the oil feed pipes to double check the gaskets . need to get the heatshield off for that . I've heard it's way easier on LHD drive as no steering rack in the way to remove the downpipe etc if turbo's need to come out . will update

 

Problem often is for the downpipe and the shields is the nuts/studs/bolts are fused and will break.

You might want to look from under the car to see if you have access to some of the oil gaskets lines from there..

You might be able to disconnect the steering column halfway and pull it up into the cabin.

(if need be.)

 

What to do (LHD) version

We were reconstituting my sequential set up and decided to dig into the turbo area.for a looky-loo.. Intake nipple with blue cap is where breather hose for the oil filler neck normally attaches. (Hint: don't use caps like that.). Below, the yellowed plastic OMP lines run awful close to the front of the front turbo. A leaking OMP gasket could also be a source of oil spray.



We got the turbo out without moving the motor. Top end of steering shaft pull up. Hardest part was removing the rear metal intake pipe. Lower part of the steering shaft moved to the side. Found the bolt that holds the two halves of the shaft together on the carport floor after two days driving after buttoning up. Very difficult to put back in.

This is what we found. Version 5 (265hp) front turbo. You can see the abrasion ring. Looks like my blades were wobbling a bit too much. Note: Oil residue from unknown source was not causing any smoke.

This was the replacement from my 70,000 km '92 tTpe X automatic parts car.

Jokers had welded the rear turbo gate open. Dremelled the weld off and it went back in.

 

exposed more of the top of turbo's today and found what I can only assume was a leaking front turbo oil feed line on the banjo bolt. the bolt really wasn't very tight and probably the copper crush washers were fatigued and not sealing anymore. bending back the heatshield and hotside looked prett clean. checked all around downpipe and gasket and housing looked sound, no cracks obvious.

took off the feed lines and replaced the copper crush washers on the banjos and cleaned everything up.i could not find any torque figures for these banjos . I'm hoping this does the job. lots of hoses brittle as down there so replaced with some OEM hose and will start it up tomorrow . fingers crossed.

 

and yeah rear turbo metal intake pipe is a bitch to get out! I had to remove the master cylinder shield and then rotate the pipe 180 degrees as I was lifting it up and out to get the clearance .

 

Cover that open snail.

 

That's excessive play in the shaft and probably causing oil to blow by the seals. My old A-Spec turbo went out like this but took about a year to finally give up.