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are my turbos oil seals gone?

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Old 02-04-08, 01:56 AM
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are my turbos oil seals gone?

well, took the 7 for a nice hard abusive drive... nothing it cant handle, get back home and pop the hood to check if everythings ok and holy ****.. my turbo is "bleeding" oil as it looks like , dripping down from the coupling i circled (pic was taken the same morning before this happend actually!)



i tighted it up and it didnt leak again today, but i took my airfilter off and there was oil in lip of the turbo inlet .... help!
Old 02-04-08, 10:03 AM
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yes
Old 02-04-08, 04:45 PM
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Originally Posted by francogt1
yes
thx 4 the quick reply! gues my turbos toast...


....time for a bigger one
Old 02-04-08, 06:24 PM
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It is pretty common to have oil leaking out of the compressor, but not excessively.

Are you visually burning oil when driving?
Is your hose clamp loose?
How much oil is in the intercooler/compressor piping?
Old 02-05-08, 12:16 AM
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Originally Posted by CarbonR1
It is pretty common to have oil leaking out of the compressor, but not excessively.

Are you visually burning oil when driving?
Is your hose clamp loose?
How much oil is in the intercooler/compressor piping?

really? thats strange. it never leaked before, and yes my coupling was loose when it was leaking the first time, actually poped off when i was boosting, but ive never seen oil in my intercooler piping before, there is minimal, you think the seals are just getting worn out?

ps, no smoke while driving, i have a external wastegate so i dont know if its coming out of the exhaust or not when boosting up, its only boosting around 7 or 8 pounds
Old 02-05-08, 06:54 PM
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Originally Posted by TurboMazdaSpeed
really? thats strange. it never leaked before, and yes my coupling was loose when it was leaking the first time, actually poped off when i was boosting, but ive never seen oil in my intercooler piping before, there is minimal, you think the seals are just getting worn out?

ps, no smoke while driving, i have a external wastegate so i dont know if its coming out of the exhaust or not when boosting up, its only boosting around 7 or 8 pounds
and thats theproblem, when the IC hose popped off, you probably overspun the turbine.

Run it for a couple of days and monitor it, it could be fine, or you could have damaged the oil seals.

regardless an oil seal is only 40 some odd bucks from turbonetics, and it takes like 1~2 hours to pull, seperate replace and re-install, so I would not get myself to worried about it, if its gone, order the parts, pull rebuild drive.

cheers

kenn
Old 02-05-08, 07:19 PM
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logical progression

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is it really that easy? i was under the impression that an oil seal is a major deal. but this doesnt require a balancing and what not when you crack it open. dont know if mine has a similar chra, but i started leaking oil in my compressor housing too. and there is half a cup of oil or so in the bottom of the housing. i havent had it in boost yet and just figured i burnt it up with super rich afrs. and i dont know if the owner of this thread has a similar seal setup. my turbo is a t04s and thats all i know, other than it has a 360 thrust bearing.
Old 02-06-08, 03:03 AM
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Originally Posted by kenn_chan
and thats theproblem, when the IC hose popped off, you probably overspun the turbine.

Run it for a couple of days and monitor it, it could be fine, or you could have damaged the oil seals.

regardless an oil seal is only 40 some odd bucks from turbonetics, and it takes like 1~2 hours to pull, seperate replace and re-install, so I would not get myself to worried about it, if its gone, order the parts, pull rebuild drive.

cheers

kenn
thanks for the advice. whats turbonetics site? www.turbonetics.com ? i just got this turbo not long ago off a friend.. so im not sure of the exact model, its a garrett somthing lol, boosts nicely though, im only boosting at 8 pounds right now on a untuned microtech (needs to get tuned for this turbo ) im pretty sure that the coupling popped off because it was loose , hence how oil was able to leak out of it, i tightend it , it seems to still be leaking oil a little bit but i just find it in the inlet now. i just did a oil change also so ill keep monitering it.
Old 02-06-08, 03:04 AM
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Originally Posted by smackhead999
is it really that easy? i was under the impression that an oil seal is a major deal. but this doesnt require a balancing and what not when you crack it open. dont know if mine has a similar chra, but i started leaking oil in my compressor housing too. and there is half a cup of oil or so in the bottom of the housing. i havent had it in boost yet and just figured i burnt it up with super rich afrs. and i dont know if the owner of this thread has a similar seal setup. my turbo is a t04s and thats all i know, other than it has a 360 thrust bearing.

i would like to know if it requires balancing also.. my car is also running a bit rich. my turbo dosent seem to be leaking as much as yours though, have you fixed it yet? this sucks because i was going to throw on my boost controller and front mount, get it tuned and crank the boost but now i have to fix it i guess, and i dont want to put the stock turbo back on because the wastegate isnt ported
Old 02-07-08, 07:52 PM
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i havent fixed mine yet. i will be able to work on it tomorrow. im going to start with checking my oil pressure and crank vent. if those are ok, i will clean out the housing good and see how and when this happens by observing the outlet. i know before when i would rev it a little it would splash up in the housing. when i was idle i could not tell. i wanna know if it leaks all the time or just when i rev. im also going to try a different drain setup. i have been using a 5/8 rubber hose clamped on from turbo to t2 oil drain on the front cover. i kept bending the hose into a kink when i tried to fit it straight up. so i looped it with no kink. im wondering if this is restricting the "gravity" drain. and some where in there im going to check the diameter of my restrictor.

and if all else fails i will rebuild i guess. i will let you know what i figure out.

note: i found that the ATP t3/t4 turbo flanges worked well with my turbo drain and it fit well with a little modification to the bolt holes, on the stock 4" oil drain pipe from the front cover.
Old 02-07-08, 07:56 PM
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Originally Posted by smackhead999
i havent fixed mine yet. i will be able to work on it tomorrow. im going to start with checking my oil pressure and crank vent. if those are ok, i will clean out the housing good and see how and when this happens by observing the outlet. i know before when i would rev it a little it would splash up in the housing. when i was idle i could not tell. i wanna know if it leaks all the time or just when i rev. im also going to try a different drain setup. i have been using a 5/8 rubber hose clamped on from turbo to t2 oil drain on the front cover. i kept bending the hose into a kink when i tried to fit it straight up. so i looped it with no kink. im wondering if this is restricting the "gravity" drain. and some where in there im going to check the diameter of my restrictor.

and if all else fails i will rebuild i guess. i will let you know what i figure out.

note: i found that the ATP t3/t4 turbo flanges worked well with my turbo drain and it fit well with a little modification to the bolt holes, on the stock 4" oil drain pipe from the front cover.
sounds like a good plan! let me know would be really helpful ! im sure mine is only leaking when im boosting with a load on the car, ill try taking the airfilter off and reving it to see if any oil sprays up though tomorrow when its light outside
Old 02-08-08, 05:49 PM
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ok so i dont know about my oil pressure yet. it seems as if i dont have it hooked up properly. but i checked my restrictor and it is about a .06.. like a 1/16th. i fixed the oil drain hose too. no more kink or loop. i used a brass elbow so its straight down and straight across to the front cover. i sucked out the oil from the housing with a nylon hose so i didnt have to disassemble the housing. it still has some oil coming up when i when i rev high like 4000. but not nearly as much oil as before. i think my seals might have seen some damage tho, because i am still seeing some blue smoke in the exhaust but not as much as before. before it was so bad you couldnt see from front of car to the back of the car. now its just a little puff coming out the pipes. i think i can live with this for now.
Old 02-08-08, 06:01 PM
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hmm, mine dosent seem to be leaking anymore.. its kinda strange.. just keep finding a bit in the outlet still , we'll see how it does when i double the boost soon.
Old 02-09-08, 05:00 PM
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well with more boost it should seal up better. good luck man
Old 02-09-08, 11:33 PM
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Originally Posted by smackhead999
is it really that easy? i was under the impression that an oil seal is a major deal. but this doesnt require a balancing and what not when you crack it open. dont know if mine has a similar chra, but i started leaking oil in my compressor housing too. and there is half a cup of oil or so in the bottom of the housing. i havent had it in boost yet and just figured i burnt it up with super rich afrs. and i dont know if the owner of this thread has a similar seal setup. my turbo is a t04s and thats all i know, other than it has a 360 thrust bearing.
you have to match mark the compressor wheel, and the turbine wheel to each other so that you can realign them on reassembly. as long as you match mark them properly smaller turbines like the to4e/b/s/r are usually ok, I have rebuilt several turbines this way with no ill effects, and they are still boosting strong.
Old 02-10-08, 06:31 PM
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good info kenn chan. thanks.
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