My stock twin turbo FD is losing oil. Its only got 50k miles on it and is completely standard.

My exhaust heat shielding around the cat has oil splattered on it.
My turbo wastegates have oil gunk on them.

When I race my car it stinks of oil, but when I cruise around driving gently it doesn't stink of oil.

It uses a fair amount of oil when I race it a lot, but if I cruise around it uses some (still uses too much oil but not really really bad).

I think there might be a few issues at play here.

Turbo oil feed system
Turbo oil drain gaskets
Rear main seal
Sump Seal
Stuffed engine mounts causing oil leaks?

What are the common failure points as these cars get older? This is my first 3rd gen.

Is there a chance the crankcase system is blocked causing the oily smell when I boost it hard? Why else would I get oil smell outside the engine?

Also obviously the turbos could be throwing oil out their oil seal, what is the best way to diagnose that? Should I remove some pipework between the turbos and intercooler and see how much oil is in there?

Anyone have any pointers or a check list that I can start working through?

 

I just had a really good look. There is oily mist around the boost sensor and that area on the fire wall. There is oily gunk on a metal line running under the compression tube.

My friend said that the standard compression tubes leak, maybe that is just oil being thrown out the turbo and then slowly leaking out the stock compression tube onto something hot and burning off?

I just checked the oil level. It is certainly leaking or burning more than normal but its not enough to be a real problem unless I go to the race track. If I do a track day I need to pour a fair amount of oil back in at the end to drive home.

 

Just about every area that you mentioned is a common area for oil to leak. Also, oil tends to end up on the cat heat shield, transmission and other parts of the drive train as it makes its way back and out from under the car.

If your MAP (boost) sensor has oil you should check out your oil filter pedestal. Hmm ... the motor mounts don't leak oil themselves but one (or is it both?) hold a part of the oil pan on. The oil pan is notorious for leaking.

I would consider a careful steam cleaning and then a drive to see where the leak(s) start.

My car required that that the oil pan be re-sealed, the turbo banjo bolts tightened and the rear main seal still leaks. I'll replace this when I do the clutch.

 

It doesn't take much of a (pan) leak and oil will readily spread over the undercarriage at speed. It is normal for the smell to be more pronounced after hard running as you're putting more heat into the exhaust--further baking or burning the oil residue on the hot exhaust components.

Poor crankcase venting or positive pressure can certainly exasperate oil leaks.

 

What boost are you running the stock twins??

 

Stock boost with stock turbos.

I am planning on doing (and am slowly buying the following mods).

Full 80mm turbo back in stainless steel (with 200 cell cat)
GReddy SMIC + Compression tube + Hard piping kit
New OEM fuel filter
R7420 plugs + new NGK leads
3.9 auto diff
5kg flywheel

Air intake I'm thinking autoexe / GruppeM Ram air
Undecided on which alloy AST yet. Maybe Knightsport or Re-Amemiya
Maybe put 9.7 rotors

 

Not related to your issue but either way here is my advice. Dont waste money on the Greddy SMIC, with the cheesy duct it comes with it is worse than the factory IC. Spend the money on a water/meth injection setup and keep the Stock IC setup and you will be way better off than the Greddy SMIC.

 

I already bought one but I can sell it if I decide its no good. I already have a WI kit from my other car but I was planning on making a new high pressure one if I used WI.

Either way I need to get the setup sorted before I start changing things. I guess I will have to clean and re-inspect it with good lighting.