Turbo or Head

[chrisfullwood]

How can you tell the difference when a turbo blows...or when the valve stem seals are gone in the cylinder head, without spending 300+ dollars on the wrong thing.

thats my question.

my car, was burning oil, it was burning white, and ive seen a turbo go out, and the smoke be white.
coolant seems to be ok. good compression.
but there was also oil in the intercooler pipes. but there isnt much shaft play.
so here's the question which one is it.
i dont want to spend 300 dollars on the turbo, and the head be leaking oil. and have to spend another 300. (strapped for cash right now otherwise wouldn't be an issue)

just replaced the head gasket. had some problems with the car running rough, replaced the isc motor, wastegate came loose causing alot the the engine dying problems. fixed that.
now burnt a lot of oil, but would be either turbo or head.
is there a test i can do which will tell me which one to go with.

thanks
Chris.

 

[DSMLaser90]

my stepdad's talon had the same problem it was the turbo completely trashed, had the"James Bond" smoke screen,he changed the turbo, and ran fine

 

[1gdsmraider]

If you can find someone with a working turbo you can just install and find out that way i suppose

 

[chrisfullwood]

i dont know anyone around here with a dsm, or galant. there has only ever been 1 other galant in this town and its gone.

so my only choice is pretty much pick one and try it i think.

my guess is going to be the turbo.

 

[15poundsoffun]

ok if your going to take off the turbo anyway when you take the turbo off take the manifold off too and see if there is any oil coming from the ports of the head if so most likly the seals are gone but if there is notthing then the turbo is bad

 

[chrisfullwood]

i took the turbo off and took a look, all i saw was alot of carbon. but given the temperature of the cylinder head the chances are that alot of the oil might have burnt off.

there is alot of oil in the turbo compressor outlet though, so im going with the busted turbo.

thanks
p.s. anyone got a 14b, or 16g for sale cheap?
new turbo on the way.....250 plus shipping and insurance.. new big 16g.
hopefully i wont have anymore problems.
probably should get the head rebuilt pretty soon too.

 

[Street Surgeon]

Eh, my old 14b had no shaftplay but I will say the seals in the sucker were TOAST! Blew tons of oil through my intercooler piping and intake mani, also blew tons of white smoke. I'd say get a little maglite and look in your intake manifold, if you see tons of sludge etc then it's probably the turbo, just my opinion though from what you've told me.

 

[Echo5Zulu]

i took the turbo off and took a look, all i saw was alot of carbon. but given the temperature of the cylinder head the chances are that alot of the oil might have burnt off.

there is alot of oil in the turbo compressor outlet though, so im going with the busted turbo.

thanks
p.s. anyone got a 14b, or 16g for sale cheap?

If you have oil in the intercooler pipes and comming out the turbo then the brass bushing/seals have worn down. If you have shaft play they are definetly worn. How many miles do you have on it? You can send it in to be professionally rebuilt so they can rebalance it too. or upgrade to a 16g.

 

[romeen]

Compresson test. If numbers are low then do the wet test. If numbers do not rise then it could be your valve seals. But it sounds like you may have found the problem.
And yes, I have a used 16G with about 5K on it I am looking to sell. PM me if you are interested.

EDit: Compression test will not help to diagnose leaking valve stem seals. I was thinking valve seats when I wrote that. I apologize if that caused any confusion.

 

[stuckwithgsx]

if you have oil in your i/c piping and your compression test came out fine i'm bettin it's the turbo.

 

[chrisfullwood]

compression test numbers 155psi on each cylinder...cold.
there was lots of oil coming from the compressor housing. i looked at the head and i dont see any evidence of oil leaking through the seals. there was a little shaft play but not a whole lot. the blades dont spin as free as they did, but there still not bad at all.

so im putting it down to the turbo. given the amount of smoke that was coming out, there had to be alot of oil, and really the only thing with that much oil going through it is either the oil pump, or the turbo seeing as it gets fresh oil constantly. and the amount of oil i saw in the housing.
whats going to be a b***h is pulling my intercooler off to clean it out.
its huge and was a nightmare to put on.

so anyway i pursuaded my fiance to buy me a brand new big 16g turbo.
hopefully will be here midweek. i will be pissed if that doesnt fix it.
but im confident it will.
now all i need is the aeromotive afpr and a logger...last palm i brought didnt work when i got it and i havent sent it back yet.

thanks all. i will update when i get the turbo.

 

[chrisfullwood]

**update**

got the turbo yesterday, installed it and replaced the injector o-rings and seals.
turbo gave me some problems. the wastegate was contacting the engine mount, but with a little extra effort it went in. coolant pipes gave me some problems. same theory, little more force, no problem.

hooked it up, fired it up. ran ok, seems to be a little sluggish, but that might be cause i havent taken the intercooler off yet to clean it out. will be doing that hopefully this weekend if its a little warmer. now i just need to get another palm to log. and the afpr kit from aeromotive, and that should be everything...i hope. i really dont need anything else to go wrong.

went from 14b - 16g / evo 3.
i hope it wont run as rich, as it will match the 550cc injectors and the 255 fuel pump (still the the AFPR for it though) looking forward to getting paste the break in period, which ive set to 500 miles - no boost to take it easy.

when something else breaks ill let you all know.

always remember, your not paranoid if you own a mitsubishi.

 

[1gdsmraider]

your quote reminds me of "I don't suffer from insanity... I enjoy every minute of it!" << should have been spoken in reference to owning a dsm.

That *should* do.. unless it starts blowing smoke again.. in which case.. head needs work

 

[chrisfullwood]

latest update...
got the brand new turbo hooked up, had alot of problems building any kind of boost, which i attributed to oil in the intercooler causing serious resistance to boost. i havent had a chance to pull it off and get it cleaned.
but it was running good, no smoke at all, really smooth.

well here we are two weeks later and the timing belt tensioner gave up and the belt jumped and wasted all the valves last night. over 50 miles from home, so my fiance who took the car today to tulsa, drove it home under someone elses advice that it was just an exhaust rattle (she had my car so i couldnt get to tulsa to check it out myself)

so i have to get the head rebuilt anyway.
awesome huh.
just put 500 miles on it. and had less than 500 miles on it when the turbo went, after replacing the head gasket. so, now another head gasket going on.

hopefully this will give me the time to get a few niggles on the car worked out.

thanks and wish me luck.