Carbon seal turbo rebuild question and issue
 

Posting for a friend, and also because I want to learn more about turbos in general.

A buddy decided to rebuild his turbo (an 88 TII), just to make sure everything was excellent (restored the rest of the car). Car wasn't smoking under boost, turbo seemed ok overall.

He got a rebuild kit (not sure from where). When he opened up the turbo, the part we later found out was the carbon seal, was basically non-existent, all broken up and pieces missing.

So he ordered a carbon seal.

When he installed the new carbon seal, it cracked slightly. I mean all the parts were there, but it had a slight crack running vertically down.

He figured it was still much better than the state of the original, so he assembled the turbo.

Now the car accumulates a few tablespoons of oil into the intercooler over a few minutes of driving. When under boost, the oil makes its way into the engine (we presume) and he gets blue smoke out the tailpipes.

Couple questions:

1. Are there any tips on how to install the carbon seal. I wasn't there when he did it, but it sounded like it put up a fight.

2. If the original carbon seal was so messed up, why would putting a new one (albeit cracked) produce so much smoke now?

Thanks.

It seems he screwed something up when reassembling..

Here's some information on rebuilding turbos..

I got my rebuild kit from: http://gpopshop.com/products-page/hi...e-rebuild-kit/

There are some directions for installing the Carbon seal in the t3 instruction pdf..

Excellent info. Thank you.

1. Use the socket to install but it has to push on the outer metal race. If you try to install it by pushing on the carbon portion, you'll crack it.

2. The second way to leak oil is the piston ring on the turbine end. If you're seeing smoke, I'd assume it's from that end of the turbo since that oil is being fed straight into the exhaust.

Thanks again!