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Major White smoke after boost!

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scottsee

15+ Year Contributor
1,068
17
Mar 25, 2004
casa grande, Arizona
I put my 3in cat-elim turbo-back yesterday. I had been noticing my car has been smoking after boost for about 2 months, but never realised how bad untell I took it for a spin after this install!!

WOW! It's alot of smoke. I have been keeping an eye on my coolant and oil. I've actually drained my coolant twice in the last 4 months working on my car. Its always perfectly green, and full. I've been burning 2 quarts of oil in a 3000 mile span sense i noticed it. That was an increase from the half to full quart it had been doing before I started moding the my 96 gsx.

I ran a compresson check and tested the shaft play on the compressor wheel. my stock 7bolt has 150psi on all 4 cylinders, and their is a very small amount of shaft play. Their is also a small wistle coming from my turbo while under boost. I have a feeling Its about time for a turbo I really can't afford at the moment. But wanted to know where this smoke could be coming from.
 
Your turbo can still be burning oil with minimal shaft play, mine barely has any shaft play and oil gets out...BAD haha. Do you have a logger of any sort? You need to see if you are registering any knock. Sounds to me like your running way lean, if it smokes after you boost, in other words, after you force alot of air into the engine. Maybe you aren't getting enough fuel to compensate? Just an idea, but I would check that next if you haven't already.
 
I have thought about the AFR problem. I don't have a way to read my o2 banks or timeing, or ajust fuel at that matter. If that were that case I should be running ungodly hight EGT's. Wich i dont have a way to monitor either. ####
 
Haha that's what I like to call Up a creek without a paddle my friend. You should think about investing in some of that equipment :thumb: Or you might end up spending that money on repairs.
 
T-25's give up pretty quick once you turn up the boost and especially with some good amount of miles on them. Mines doing the same thing.
 
I'm assuming by white you mean blue as oil burns blue. White is usually an indication of burning coolant, which obviosly you aren't doing if it's always full. If the smoke is in fact really blue and you notice it only after boosting there's a 90% chance you have a blown turbo. Replace it, do an oil change in case there's contaminants in the oil from it and enjoy the new turbo. :thumb:
 
Turbos do not have seals made of rubber. The device used in most turbos to make a seal is called a piston ring. There is one compressor side ring and one turbine side ring. Oil can actually bypass these seals if the bearing housing is allowed to fill with oil or there is excessive crankcase pressure. A great deal of oil can pass these rings without actually damaging them. When the condition that causes the bearing housing to fill with oil is corrected the rings are usually OK. Usually a seal is only damaged if the bore they sit in is damaged or there is excessive thrust play in the turbo that allows the seal to pop out of it's bore.

Where are you getting your oil supply from? If you feed the CHRA with too much oil pressure and/or volume it can cause oil to push past the piston ring. It then travels through your IC and IC pipes and into the the combustion chamber. That's where the smoke comes from.

Pull your LICP off and see it there's oil in it.
 
Jumping to conclusions is going to get this guy a new turbo that will end up with the same problem. Maybe in a week, a month or a year, but you should definitely check a few things out before throwing a new turbo on.

For starters, I'd figure out exactly what you are burning, it sounds like you are losing a LOT of oil, but white smoke? Does it smell like burning oil? White coolant smoke smells funky, you can tell it's from bad chemicals, smoke from oil just smells like, well oil, but burning!

Good luck and I second getting some monitoring equipment, ASAP!
 
I'm working on the mods, trust me, but I'm not going to lie about anything. It wont be soon.

The problem I have with understanding this is the burn time. Its not a smoker at idle, cruise, or boost. The exhaust puffs smoke when I shift, and flows steadily out when I let off the accelerator after boost. The amount depends on if i go WOT and for the duration. I can actually shift with no smoke puffing out of my tailpipe if i don't accelerate like a teenager.

Two things I find odd about this issue. One, if I were leaking oil from a valve seal, or burning oil in the combustion chamber by either blow by or oil being pushed in the combustion chamber by the turbo I should be seeing the exact opposite. Smoking more during acceleration and less when not. If not all the time if it were a valve seal or blow by right?

Two. Smoke coming from the exhaust only after boost, and during shifts make me believe that something is being burned either the o2, manny or exducer. Could oil be pushing through the center section from compressor surge when the throttle plate stops? Could the Inducer wheel be wobbling in the center section when the throttle plate closes causing oil to pass through onto the exducer causing it to burn in the exhaust stream? That would explain why after longer higher boosts causes more smoke comes out then shorter boosts..

I might just take my turbo off, which will suck balls because i just got this POS Megan Racing downpipe to fit right by drilling out the stock o2 studs. Took me 8 hours installing & un-installing the o2 housing and downpipe before it fit properly. It would be like a ### French man slapping me in the face with his quere ass Micky Mouse gloves. Oh well, dsm for life right?

Please If anyone can explain to me why oil is being burned in the exhaust stream only after acceleration but never during. please post. :dsm:
 
scottsee said:
The amount depends on if i go WOT and for the duration. I can actually shift with no smoke puffing out of my tailpipe if i don't accelerate like a teenager.
Yup. That does sound like it's the turbo seals. I had the same problem last year with a 14b. If I drive with little to no boost, I didn't get smoke. But If I go WOT for a few seconds and build 17 psi, I would get smoke during WOT and it would smoke for about 10-15 seconds after. And it was alot of smoke.

scottsee said:
Two things I find odd about this issue. One, if I were leaking oil from a valve seal, or burning oil in the combustion chamber by either blow by or oil being pushed in the combustion chamber by the turbo I should be seeing the exact opposite. Smoking more during acceleration and less when not. If not all the time if it were a valve seal or blow by right?
If it were a valve seal, they typically only puff out smoke upon start-up. If it were a blown headgasket or bad rings, it would smoke more often than it is. The bad turbo seals cause smoke when going WOT and building boost.

scottsee said:
Could oil be pushing through the center section from compressor surge when the throttle plate stops? Could the Inducer wheel be wobbling in the center section when the throttle plate closes causing oil to pass through onto the exducer causing it to burn in the exhaust stream? That would explain why after longer higher boosts causes more smoke comes out then shorter boosts..
You don't have your current turbo listed in your profile, but I'm assuming it's a T25.... In that case, the T25 shouldn't be surging at all.

But to answer your question, Yes. Excessive compressor surge can easily lead to excessive shaft play which can cause premature bearing wear/failure and that will cause you to burn oil.

scottsee said:
Please If anyone can explain to me why oil is being burned in the exhaust stream only after acceleration but never during. please post. :dsm:
If you are not smoking during boost, it may be because you aren't pushing that much oil. Think about it. As soon as you go WOT and build boost, oil starts pushing past the seals and into the IC piping. Within seconds you have the pipes filled with compressed air heavily mixed with oil. The mixture enters the cylinders (along with fuel) and begins to combust. You now let off the throttle. You still have oil in your IC pipes and combustion chambers, so even though you let off of the throttle, you will see smoke for a few seconds which is basically afteraffects of going WOT.

Do a compression test to verify that you have a good seal with your valves, headgasket, and piston rings. Did you pull your LICP off yet? That alone would tell you if it is the turbo seals or not.
 
I did a compression check. It's 150 on all 4. I pulled the stock LICP on my t-25, its hard to see, so i took off my UICP and saw reminits of brown oil. ###! oh well. Im still going to see if i can get a 13 second slip on my blown turbo before winter before I put it away. Im not to excited about this, It's embarising!

Thanks for the help. I think I might just get a 14b as a crutch for the next year or so untell I can aquire Aermotive afpr and dsmlink.

ps. My turbo is in my Timeslip profile.
 
Yup. That does sound like it's the turbo seals. I had the same problem last year with a 14b. If I drive with little to no boost, I didn't get smoke. But If I go WOT for a few seconds and build 17 psi, I would get smoke during WOT and it would smoke for about 10-15 seconds after. And it was alot of smoke.


If it were a valve seal, they typically only puff out smoke upon start-up. If it were a blown headgasket or bad rings, it would smoke more often than it is. The bad turbo seals cause smoke when going WOT and building boost.


You don't have your current turbo listed in your profile, but I'm assuming it's a T25.... In that case, the T25 shouldn't be surging at all.

But to answer your question, Yes. Excessive compressor surge can easily lead to excessive shaft play which can cause premature bearing wear/failure and that will cause you to burn oil.


If you are not smoking during boost, it may be because you aren't pushing that much oil. Think about it. As soon as you go WOT and build boost, oil starts pushing past the seals and into the IC piping. Within seconds you have the pipes filled with compressed air heavily mixed with oil. The mixture enters the cylinders (along with fuel) and begins to combust. You now let off the throttle. You still have oil in your IC pipes and combustion chambers, so even though you let off of the throttle, you will see smoke for a few seconds which is basically afteraffects of going WOT.

Do a compression test to verify that you have a good seal with your valves, headgasket, and piston rings. Did you pull your LICP off yet? That alone would tell you if it is the turbo seals or not.
I’m having this same exact problem. No smoke at wot, idle, or cruising. I hit 30 PSI, let off and then go to the next gear and just lightly touch the gas for coast down and it blows smoke.


I'm working on the mods, trust me, but I'm not going to lie about anything. It wont be soon.

The problem I have with understanding this is the burn time. Its not a smoker at idle, cruise, or boost. The exhaust puffs smoke when I shift, and flows steadily out when I let off the accelerator after boost. The amount depends on if i go WOT and for the duration. I can actually shift with no smoke puffing out of my tailpipe if i don't accelerate like a teenager.

Two things I find odd about this issue. One, if I were leaking oil from a valve seal, or burning oil in the combustion chamber by either blow by or oil being pushed in the combustion chamber by the turbo I should be seeing the exact opposite. Smoking more during acceleration and less when not. If not all the time if it were a valve seal or blow by right?

Two. Smoke coming from the exhaust only after boost, and during shifts make me believe that something is being burned either the o2, manny or exducer. Could oil be pushing through the center section from compressor surge when the throttle plate stops? Could the Inducer wheel be wobbling in the center section when the throttle plate closes causing oil to pass through onto the exducer causing it to burn in the exhaust stream? That would explain why after longer higher boosts causes more smoke comes out then shorter boosts..

I might just take my turbo off, which will suck balls because i just got this POS Megan Racing downpipe to fit right by drilling out the stock o2 studs. Took me 8 hours installing & un-installing the o2 housing and downpipe before it fit properly. It would be like a ### French man slapping me in the face with his quere ass Micky Mouse gloves. Oh well, dsm for life right?

Please If anyone can explain to me why oil is being burned in the exhaust stream only after acceleration but never during. please post. :dsm:

Right when I let off and start cruising it smokes for about 5-10 seconds. I can see it in my rear view. Compression and leakdowns are good. I don’t suspect valve stem seals because it doesn’t smoke on start up or idle. So I’m suspecting the turbo going out, the turbo drain (10AN) is inefficient, or excess oil pressure to the turbo.
 
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