blown turbo, WTF

[DSMatMSU]

Ive got an evo3 16g that Ive only had for about a year now. Well
apparently, somehow, the shaft seals let loose today. I was never
experiencing any smoking before, except at idle when cold, and i
attributed that to valve seals. Well i start it up this afternoon,
and shes POURING smoke under load. It was fine 2 hours earlier when i
made a run to the store. I was driving normally too.

Sure enough i take off the intake, and there was a nice pool of oil in the
compressor housing and a good bit of shaft play. Oil pressure was fine
at the time, and Ive never lost oil pressure.

How the hell did this happen... theres no way the line was clogged, the turbo HAD to be getting oil. the turbo wasnt even underload when it let loose. i pulled out of my spot, and drove about a block before smoke started POURING!

obviously something went wrong, BUT WHAT!

 

[huafist]

There's really no way to know this without A) seeing pictures of the turbo's innards and B) knowing how you've driven the turbo for the past year.

The most common cause is oil starvation (or oil getting coked up in the turbo) - is the car turbo timed? What leads you to believe there's no way the line was clogged?

 

[DSMatMSU]

the lines not clogged, because i just had it off about 2 weeks ago when i was putting a new manifold on... it was clean then...

i did a boost leak test yesterday, and i had just a small leak at the throttle body shaft seal... the turbo has been under 18 psi since ive had it... and i genrally run ~15 psi daily... ive never really had the car running exactly how i wanted it, so ive been reasonably easy on it... the car was even down from may till september due to a motor rebuild... so its only been on the car for ~7 months total.... and like i said, its NEVER smoked at all... except at idle when it was VERY cold outside... and even then it wasnt very much... it would go away once the car warmed up... thats the reason i attributed it to valve seals...