oil in turbo inlet, normal?

[bigbro6785]

Im still not familiar with my car or with turbos in general, but today i went to check for shaft play and when i took off my intake pipe from the turbo there war a bunch of oil in the inlet of the turbo and also in the rupper connector to the intake. Is this normal? My car doesnt leak oil(I havent seen spots in my driveway) but I have to add a quart every few weeks and im not sure why. thanks for the help.

 

[FORMONTOYA]

No, that's not normal. Remove the lower IC pipe and see if you have some of the missing oil sitting in it. Just don't make the same mistake I did and be directly under it when removed.........oiled up a "good" garage shirt that day.

 

[bigbro6785]

I disconnected the pipe connected to the bottom of the intercooler and there was no oil.

 

[FORMONTOYA]

That's a good sign then, for the turbo.

I would surmise that the oil is coming from the vent line off the valve cover (common). One would have to conclude that there's either a crankcase ventilation issue (PCV valve) or you have some worn valve stem seals and/or worn rings or a combination of the above.

Checking the PCV valve and a compression test followed by a leak down test would narrow the diagnosis and let you know what direction to take.

Although I would start with the PCV valve as when they go bad they allow boost pressure to inter the valve cover area and then you can't help but get oil coming out the vent line into the intake track pre-turbo.

If it is the PCV valve.........get a new one from the dealer as the ones from the local auto supply are known to leak "out of the box".

 

[bigbro6785]

I just checked the lower ic piping again and there isnt alot of oil(not dripping out or anything like that), but there is a thin layer in the bottom of the pipe(I have to whipe my finger in there to notice it). When i bought the car they said they had the turbo re built but they could have been lying. there is no shaft play up and down, and very little in an on. How would I go about checking the PVC valve?

 

[FORMONTOYA]

If it's just a little oil in the lower pipe then it probably came from the valve cover vent tube.

Remove the PCV valve, located on the back of the valve cover to the left ( http://members.shaw.ca/dsm.1000q/Engineprimer/2G/pcv.htm ), then see if you can blow through it from the barbed/hose side toward the threaded side. If you can, it's bad.

Although it probably still wouldn't be a bad idea to do a compression test even if the PCV valve is bad.

 

[Dorifto]

Definitely do a compression test. It's common for the #2 cylinders in our engines to not play nicely to age and abuse. Case in point, I bought my '92 GSX as-is not running, with the assumption that the culprit was a blown headgasket. I did find a fair amount of oil in my intake system, and upon tearing into my engine, I found a fair size chunk missing from piston #2 as a result of hellacious overboosting and detonation.

Now I know your situation won't be as serious as mine, but just wanted to toss that out there. The reason for the oil in my intake tract was because boost pressure was being forced around my broken piston, through the crankcase, and through the breather tubes, taking oil with it.