I have been having all the symptoms of a bad turbo seal. I've got a greddy T-78, and it smokes blue smoke only at idle or when i let off the gas, and will only do so if the car is warm. I've been thinking it was the turbo b/c it wouldnt burn the oil until the exhaust was warm enough, and also its fine under acceleration or just holding steady throttle.

I removed the turbo tonight, and none of the ports feel oily. I thought the exhaust side would have some sort of oily residue. There is really no play in the turbo, so now i'm really worried that its the engine.

Has anyone else had a bad turbo seal and not been able to see a residue in the exhaust or intake side? If only the exhaust side is bad I guess it could just always be hot enough when i shut it off to burn off all of the oil. I really hope that is the case.

Is the only way to tell if the turbo seal is bad really just to take the turbo apart? And if it is ok, is it alright to put it back together after taking apart without using any new pieces?

Any feedback is much appreciated.

 

the turbo on my fb did the same think light smoke only when it warmed up and when i would boost and let off the gas .

best bet is try and find a rebuild kit for it from a shop and just rebuild it .

and u can take it apart but just be careful not to brake and seals.......i had mine apart a few times .


ohh did u check the turbo manifold to see is there is any signs of oil in there?

 

I'll tear apart the turbo tonight, has anyone had a bad seal that did not end up leaving oily residue in the downpipe, yet still smoked at idle. Its not just light smoke, its gotten pretty bad.

If it was the motor wouldnt it smoke under acceleration as well?

Also, how do i tell if the seal is bad, I've never had a turbo apart before. Its the greddy T 78.

 

yes mine didnt put any oil residue in the down pipe at first .......but after it got worse there was lots of oil in it ........ry look down the down pipe and see if there is oil further down ..(where the pipe should be a bit cooler )

well i pretty sure the oil seal is just a piston clip that runs in a ceramic race.......i dont think u can visually see the damage .

 

Well I've been in contact with a shop that I was going to have do the rebuild. I did not pull the turbo apart yet, but they said to check the sparkplugs for oil. Here are the pics. Pretty oily as you can see. There is barely any play in the turbo and absolutely no oil residue in the manifold, downpipe, or intercooler.

I'm going to put the turbo back on, as i can't get it apart anyways, and run the car with the oil filler cap off and the manifold nipple blocked off. Hopefully this is causing it, i've seen a thread before where this was the issue. If its not that you would think its an O-ring in the engine. But it doesnt smoke on a cold start, so hopefully it is just the pressure system.

Sorry about the quality, my camera wont focus on it for some reason, anyway, the shiny stuff is oil. If its not an O ring in the engine, can the pressure system force extra oil into the engine and get oil all over the plugs too? or is having bad o rings the only way to get oil all over the plugs.

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click the little flower symbol on your camera to do close ups correctly.

 

Sounds like a PCV issue to me. I would follow my thread you pmed me about and try to eliminate the PCV before spending $500.00+ on a turbo rebuild. I cant remember if it is on his site or not but I know RotaryResurrection has posted how to run the car while the turbo is removed by rerouting your oil feed line back into the oil filler neck. This will take the turbo out of the equation, so if it doesnt smoke at idle this way you know it is the turbo, if it still smokes at idle you will know you have another issue.

 

Ok, i actually just put the turbo back on, and i'm going to try running the car with the oil filler open, and one of the nipples on the oil filler cap open

The nipple on the oil filler that connects to the check valve that goes into the bottom of the upper plenum, I will leave connect, but pinch off the line with vicegrips. Or should i remove the hose and let the check valve and both nipples on the oil filler vent to air? did i leave anything else out?

As for running the car without the turbo, is this safe to do? its pretty much just open headers so i guess it cant really hurt it right? it'll just be real loud i guess. I will try that if what i listed above does not work. if neither of those work, i guess its time for a new engine and i've only driven the car twice.

 

Either way will work for venting the crankcase. Best bet is to just open the filler neck cap and block off the line going to the uim.

 

Ok, i just started it back up, with the oil filler cap off, one of the nipples on the neck connected to the upper intake manifold with the check valve, but clamped off with vicegrips, and the other nipple on the neck open to air.

The car smokes blue very lightly for the first 4 minutes or so. Then once its warm it pretty much just roles out, i didn't boost at all prior to this, it was just idleing.

I noticed vapor or what looked like steam puffing out of the oil filler neck, pretty much right from the get-go before the exhaust really started smoking. Is this normal? quite a bit was coming out.

 

Does anyone know of a way to verify that its the oil control rings? oil on the plugs, smokes only when warm at idle or decelerating. no oil in turbo piping or manifold. also still smokes when the oil filler cap is off. i'm running premix, i did not install the engine, and do not know how the OMP has been changed, i have the TEC-3 EMS and it cant work with the OMP. i assumed that the OMP was just disconnected, but could it possibly be letting oil into the engine?

 

Well i removed the turbo tonight, and tomorrow i'm just going to let the car warm up without it and see if it still smokes.

and if its the engine and oil control rings, the turbo and downpipe need to come down anyways.

While doing this i noticed that the inside of the outlet on the compressor side is all black. not oily feeling but still all black. is this normal, or could this be a sign of bad news in the turbo? still no residue in the intercooler though. I'm letting the turbo housings soak over night and hopefully i can pop it apart tomorrow to see what the inside looks like.

 

Have same problem car blows massive oil smoke out the tail pipe. It wasn't the turbos which was my first thought have two sets switched them out no change. My plugs were all oily like yours. I have the engine ready to be pulled tomorrow. Im guessing its gonna be the o rings. I also had some oil pooling at the bottom of the e shaft pulley do you have oil there? Also when I ran my car it smoked a bit from the drivers side of the engine bay. With everything off the engine can see some oil on the first housing. Also searched for what it could be found nothing that helped. I can let you know what I find when I get the engine cracked open.

 

I have been having the same issue with my twins. I still have not yet pulled my turbos apart to verify if the seals went bad on them or if it is the oil control o-ring in the engine.

I went through the entire database on this forum and no one can answer that question of. "Is there a way to tell if it is the turbo or the engine oil control o-ring", I wish I knew as well since I am about to drop $5,000 into my car to do a single transplant and the last thing I need to do is discover that it was in fact my engine that was failing.

I am hoping that since my exhaust manifold, (pre turbo), is dry as a bone, that it is not my engine but again, I have had noone verify this as a legitimate way of determining the problem.

One issue with looking for "oily residue" is the fact that the engine temps reach such high temperatures, any oil that may be an indicator gets cooked up.

Check my thread out, and see if this seems similar to your dilemma..

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/help-diagnose-780151/

 

spoolage read your thread looks to me like it is your turbos. If you are going single turbo and you do not care about possibly ruining your turbos you could disconnect the oil feed lines going to the turbos and block them off if smoke goes away you know its the turbos.

 

spoolabe, judging from your thread it looks like the turbos, I think its easier to tell than mine because you have oil all over your intake side piping. Which I don't seem to have. I've been through the whole database as well, and cannot find a tell tale sign of bad oil control rings.

I have a leaky oil pan, so it is hard to tell exactly what is causing the oil at the bottom of the engine. At least if i need a new engine this issue will be an easy fix haha. Tonight i'll actually start the car with no turbo, and route the oil feed line into the oil filler cap. if after 5 minutes its not smoking like crazy its def the turbo, if it smokes like crazy its the engine.

 

good luck hope its your turbos but I bet its in the engine, sucks

 

I have two links below that helped me find and solve the problem I had with my car. However, my car was only smoking after decel and an not at idle as well.

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ht=smoke+decel

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...ht=white+smoke

 

THanks for the links, but I've run it with the oil filler cap off so i dont think pressure could build up enough to cause it to smoke like it does.

I took the turbo off, stuck the oil feed line in the oil filler tube and let it warm up. Filled the garage with smoke then it lingered in the driveway for a while, so i guess it cant be the turbo.

Can anyone cut me a deal on an engine with 3mm seals?

 

Possible reason? I have started the process of removing the engine. After I removed the greddy elbo to get the intercooler off I found this black piece with a nipple on each end. It looks like it was once bolted to something secure. Only one end is connected to something (not sure what), it was just resting under the greddy elbow. Please look at the pics and let me know if this needs to be connected on both ends and to what. Keep in mind that i have run the car without the oil filler cap on to relieve crank case pressure, but could this be the problem still?

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does anyone know what this is and how it can affect oil/crank case pressure, even with the oil filler cap removed?

 

Thats the charcoal cannister. i cant tell u what it does exactly but it has something to do with the fuel system i think, judging by where it hooks up to the vac rack. it is suppose to mount on the 2 lower studs that come off the throttle body where the intake elbow bolts up. i dont think it has any affect on your problem

 

This is why my engine was smoking haha, check out the rear rotor, when i turn the engine over oil pours out of the exhaust port. There was no sign of this oil in the exhaust manifold though.

 

any idea what caused this? there is def alot of oil there.

 

could it be the oil control ring, thats what a lot of people have guessed