I took my turbo off because it has been smoking externally. It has almost no shaft play and boost fine. I could see no physical signs of a leak except this:



It's ashy, any way to fix it? What could cause it?

 

YOu sure it's not from the engine? Bad oil control ring?

My friend danny's stock turbo smokes externally beause the oil seals in the turbo, are just that bad.

I'm no turbo diagnosis expert, but thats my 2 cents.

 

I get no smoke from the muffler when the engine is running, and get most of the smoke after driving then turning the car off.

 

Check your oil feed. Dripping oil on hot turbos makes a lot of smoke and potential fire hazard.

looks like water stains? is intake manifold dripping water?

 

Don't know if its dripping or not, but it wont be soon. I bought the gaskets and o-rings to change on the LIM while I have the turbo off. (best time) So does anyone think it could have been the oil return gasket, thats my only suspect for the smoke, it just felt as if the bolts were looser than I would like when I was taking it off?

 

That doesn't look like oil.
It's looks like *coolant*.


-Ted