Is it safe to idle with the engine running out of the exhaust ports only?
 

So i'm not trying to do anything crazy, diagnosing actually.

To make a long story short i had coolant mixing up with my oil and not burning or anything, just making the oil have a heavy green hue to it. So i took my engine down to Jim at JPR Imports in south jersey (shoutout!) and we took it apart together, saw nothing wrong with the seals we just put in (2000 miles or so) and there were no apparent cracks, we even ended up getting the plates magnaflux'd at a reputable shop in Philly and they found nothing.

So here I am putting the motor back in and i'm just about done. Our guess now is that the turbo is mixing the water into the oil. I'm making a block off plate for the coolant feed to the turbo, and blocking the oil feed with a bolt, and then run the car with no turbo/exhaust to see if the water/oil mix. I very briefly tried to separate the turbo/manifold but gave up and went on with putting the engine in.

So, is it safe to idle with open exhaust ports, or should I separate the turbo/manifold and put the manifold on? or should I do something else entirely lol. I won't be running it for long, just idle it up to temp and shut it off maybe 2-3 times and drain the oil to see if it mixed.

I wouldn't run it without the manifold for that long.

Just separate the turbo from the manifold, make yourself a blockoff plate (doesn't have to seal the greatest) and do it that way, i wouldn't chance burning the apex seals out with that amount of heat having nowhere to go

If you wanted to run it for a couple seconds without the manifold sure, but thats all i would trust

It's no problem. Just going to be VERY loud and expect some flames.

I've seen a turbo fail internally and mix coolant/oil. Hell of a thing.

hey Aaron, i've seen you're name a lot and i'm gonna bring this up to you now maybe pick your brain. With the issue i'm having, would you point toward turbo as well? JPR measured the housing (to check for warping) by placing them on a flat piece of stock to look for any gaps and what not, that sounded okay to me, and he said they looked fine. We put all new water seals in it (again, we did 2000 miles ago to). So basically we're left with it being the turbo. So i'm making block off plates, and i'm actually gonna separate the turbo/manifold and i'm gonna run it through the manifold, not the ports.

Assuming it doesn't mix any fluids, then new turbo is the answer. If it does still mix fluids, do you have any second ideas of what it would be? It's a little preemptive since i haven't started it yet, but while i got you here, ya know might as well ask hahaha

You'll warp the valves. :nod: