Apexi RX6B turbo problems (burning oil)
 

ok guys, ive got quite the headache on my hands right now. i purchased one of the last available brand new apexi rx6b kits... the kit was installed and after approx 800 kilometres of break-in it was time to get it tuned at 15lbs. tuning was done by the hitman... he noticed that while letting off the gas at high rpm there would be a puff of blue smoke out the exhaust... he let me know that the turbo is probably pushing some oil past its seals and burning off. i passed this off as being impossible seeing as how this was a brand new turbo. well the car went into storage for winter and periodically the car would be started and warmed up. just a few days ago i received a new apexi active silencer so i decided to try it out on the car... after warmup i revved the car to 4K a few times... and i noticed alot of smoke (it appeared white seeing as how it was about -10 degrees celcius outside so i didnt worry about it. well today i went out and noticed oil droplets all over the tip of the exhaust... so i fired the car up again, let it warm up and revved it to 5K this time... it started bellowing tonnes of white smoke and the smell of burning synthetic oil was overwhelming... so well now it appears that the turbo is leaking oil on the turbine side and probably the compressor side as well. so guys what are my options???

im not too sure but the oil feed line thats supplied with the apexi kit appears to be a -4AN... is it possible that it needs a restrictor to -3AN?

is it common for these turbos to fail like this with only 4-500 kilometres on them?

if anyone has any advice or know of someone who has had the same sort of problem please let me know. thanks

i will be pulling the turbo off this week and inspecting it for any unusual shaft play... i will also contact apexi directly and also the store where i purchased the kit. what sort of warranty do these kits have? once again any help is appreciated

I have the RX-6A in the car I purchased a month or so ago. On cold startups (cold start for me is still > 0C and < 10C since I live in Texas) I get white smoke as well. After the car is warm I have no more issues. I don't rev the car hard at all until well after I'm up to full temp (the car has dual CWR oil coolers and porting of the oil flow so it takes a while for the oil to get up to temp even after water is at temp) so I can't tell you what it would be like if I started it and pushed it up to 5k right away.

I wasn't really sure if it was the turbo, some oil blowby in the motor, just too much fuel not getting burned on cold starts (I have 10.5 heat plugs), or what yet but it seems odd that both of us with RX-6 are seeing the same type of thing.

This turbo has around 8k miles on it now and has no issues performance wise building or maintaining consistant boost. I'm only running at 10/14PSI since I have 4x850 Injectors.

make sure you have the restrictor fitting on the line before it feeds into the turbo. a plain 3an hose will have to much oil flow.

harrison

were can i get the wheel , shaft and internals for this turbo also this apex turbo has a little stamp on it that says IHI if so please let me know because when i crashed my car i salvaged what i could and the turbo was one of them i need to know if this is the same turbo you guys talking about

You can search here but there are no "rebuild kits" or internal replacements for the RX-6, if you manage to blow a seal through it then you not only lose your engine but the whole turbo too :D

Good news is from what I've found on reliability studies so far is the RX-6s last a long time if you don't do something silly to them.

thanks for the help but this is not a simple puff of smoke... it bellows. the entire garage is filled with a thick cloud of burned oil after 2 revs. there are also quite apparent large droplets of oil coming out the tip of the silencer. this is not normal by any means

i also do not rev the car cold... i allow the temp to reach 180 degrees F before i touch the throttle. i also do not make a habit of doing this... the only reason i did was since i was curious as to how the silencer sounded. its good that i actually did since otherwise i wouldnt have noticed this problem until spring

the kit came with a steel braided oil feed line (appears to be -4AN), a blue fitting on the engine side oil line and another blue fitting on the turbo. so it goes: ENGINE > BLUE FITTING/ADAPTOR > BRAIDED LINE > BLUE FITTING/ADAPTOR > TURBO. i dont know if either of these fittings is already a restrictor or not, i hope that someone with specific RX6B kit knowledge will chime in

It isn't just a puff of smoke, its a good amount of smoke though not enough to fill a garage. I've yet to see any drops of oil out of the silencer but I do get some water droplets for sure. Are you certain its not just some ash/carbon on the exhaust mixing with water to look like oil?

Another member sold a used RX-6 kit that cracked on the inside of the exhaust side housing, potentially yours has an internal crack like that which oil is coming in through (have you pulled it to look yet? Maybe get a dentist tooth mirror to look all the way up through the housings?). I believe it was Damian and it came off of his track car. You may want to PM him if he doesn't see this thread.

FYI, the blue oil line fitting on the turbo side of my RX6a kit has a built-in restrictor. I would guess RX6b kit uses the same fitting.

Are you sure it's a turbo related failure or is it something else?

I have had my RX6b kit for 3 years now and put over 30,000 miles on it and have never had any problems with the turbo. It has been strong as hell.

When I start it cold, I only get a little puff of white smoke that can be seen on cold days, on warmer days I don't even notice it.

Rhc-7b
 

I have your turbos big brother, and its got a restrictor built into the adapter block that came with it. I put it on one time without the restrictor, and it smoked like a diesal whenever I came into boost. Put the restrictor back on, no problems. I think if you haven't damaged the seals simply getting a restrictor will fix your problems, if not send it to Turbonetics, they can rebuild it.

and the IHI turbines RHC-6, -7 and the big mofo the -9 are all very reliable turbos, properly setup they litterally last forever.

Kenn

I heard apexi went bust?

My rx6b took a crap on me almost instantly. Dont know why the bearings failed on me. i know Im not the only one. I talked with kevin at majestic and he thought they were overspooling but who knows. i know it doesnt help you but thats my 2 cents 3500.00 pissed down the drain and APEXI WAS NO HELP AT ALL!

Care to elaborate the story for the rest of us RX6 owners?

I don't think so considering they just refreshed a lot of their product line (GT Spec II Exhaust due out soon) and added some new parts as well (new N1 coil-overs with still a bloody drifting only spring rate 12kg/mm front and rear).