AARGHH!! Oil everywhere, STILL!

[bottledbird68]

O.K., here's the story. When I got my car it was totally stock with 114,000 miles. I had a frozen wastegate actuator and never realized it so I was making 20 psi of boost with no other mods. I snapped a valve in my original head and punched a hole in the water jacket before I figured this out. The bottom end looked fine so I replaced the head and freed up the wastegate. After that everytime under boost the dipstick would blow out of the tube a good 3 inches and I would blow oil out around the oil fill cap all over the top of the motor. It was so bad my boost gauge seeped oil! O.K., I chalk it up to bad luck and assume the rings are gone from all the boost and the antifreeze bath. After all, I got sick of adding a quart of oil with every tank of gas. So I get a used motor from a junkyard that supposedly has 85k on it. I pulled the valve cover and inside looks spotless so I'm inclined to believe it. Now, I had the motor out so I pulled the balance shafts, removed all the emissions stuff including the pcv, and put a breather on the valve cover so I wouldn't have oil coating the intake anymore. I also did a few other mods but those are the only ones that apply to this issue. Now, problem solved right? Wrong! I put in a mbc with this motor and currently have it set at 12 psi. I'ts not as bad of a mess out the oil fill cap ( it is wet, just not soaked)and I have yet to launch the dipstick but I used a quart of oil in my first 200 miles of driving and no I didn't beat it that hard. What gives!?! I'm new to DSM's so if oil consumption is a common problem tell me to shut up and I'll keep a case in the hatch but this seems exessive! Did I get screwed and wind up with two bad motors or am I missing something? The only other thing I can think of is oil seals in the turbo, how would I know if they were bad? The outside of the turbo is dry and there are no other leaks. My oil pressure is also normal, a little low at idle, but normal. Please give me some input, I'm at my wits end here Sorry about the long post, just wanted to give detailed info about the problem. Thanks...

 

[RipperXX]

My friend has one that does the same thing.. it was the turbo on his.. i suspect it is on yours.. only his drank it faster! cause he couldn't keep off the turbo ... replace the seals.. is my advice..

on his it was funny though when he shifted gears you didn't just see a little smoke you saw a HUGE puff of dark black smoke come out.. it was so bad his white bumper turned black

 

[bottledbird68]

Are the seals replaceable at home without special equipment? I've done practically everything except take apart a turbo. Anything that spins that fast makes me nervous...

 

[RipperXX]

Yea.. he just got a manule from NAPA on his car for like $20 and looked at the area on the turbo gives a diagram of it and lists and shows all the parts and where they go.. it should be easy he tuck it off in a days time and replaced the seals.. there not to badly priced..i forget how much they were though.

 

[wastefuldreamer]

How can u stop the oil on the valve cover? I sometimes get it.. But not all the time. its weird.

 

[RipperXX]

did you replace the head gaskit? and if so did you clean the old one off real well?

also how offten do you get oil on it? and is it only after you drive it hard?

 

[bottledbird68]

No, I didn't replace the headgasket in the new motor. Yeah, I only get oil on the valve cover after I drive it hard. A friend suggested I try a new oil fill cap. I never even thought to look and see if there was a seal there . It doesn't look bad but I have no other ideas. I'm going to try that and either replace the seals in the turbo or I may have a line on a used 20g, gotta make a few more phone calls.... Thanks for the input, I appreciate it. Wish me luck

 

[DrZiplok]

Er, you can't replace the shaft seals inside the turbo without a rebuild and rebalance. The rebuild is doable, but the rebalance requires specialised equipment.

The OEM oil filler seal always leaks, and if it's not brand new it leaks really badly. Be aware that the oil will go hide in the spark plug wells, where it will screw up the boots on the plug leads; this can eventually result in arcing and poor spark.

It's quite common to launch your dipstick; you might want to wire it down.

And a quart every 200 miles is a bit excessive. Get someone to follow you when you're spanking the car hard; if you're blowing oil out the turbine seals there is no way they'll miss it.

You might also consider a compression and leakdown test to rule out bad valve stem seals; all the usual stuff.

 

[bottledbird68]

So I can't replace the shaft seals myself? That used 20g is looking better by the minute... But thank you, it's nice to know that the oil fill leak is a common problem. That eases my mind a little bit. And believe me, I know oil can migrate down by the sparkplugs. I poured it out of the valve cover when I had the motor apart

 

[DSMJim]

After a little heat the stock oil filler cap goes ca-ca... To fix the dip stick launching to the moon problem, I pinched the end of the dip stick tube ever so slightly which made the stick clip into place almost, this helped a great deal.

Also make sure that your PCV is clear or put a new PCV valve in that will also help release some of the pressure.