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Resolved 16g burning oil at idle, no restrictor fed from housing

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Fayt

15+ Year Contributor
515
14
Mar 26, 2005
Cleveland, Ohio
I just recently upgraded the T25 with a used MHI 16g and after about 100 miles its smoking. At first it would only be after I boosted and sat at a stop/red light for a minute, but now it is smoking at idle also. The feed line is the non-banjo bolt style, and its fed from the oil filter housing. I don't believe there is a restrictor either as the hole is much bigger than .075 (from looking at pictures online). Return line is a -10AN stainless steel from extremepsi also and it is very straight, no kinks at all or leaks.

Have I caused permanent damage to the turbo by over oiling it? I was going to buy a banjo feed kit from extremepsi to feed off the head (since that is how 16G's are stock) and plug the OFH and hope it would fix the issue. Or would I be better off just finding a 0.070 restrictor and keep the line on the filter housing? I've heard it's cleaner oil but everyone says just run it from the stock head location.

The head gasket was replaced about 2000 miles ago with a cometic and arp studs, at that time the shop replaced the valve stem seals with Vitons. However, I didn't finish the timing/turn it over until a year later. Could my seals have "dried up" and be causing this burning oil? When I had the stock T25 installed I saw no oil burn at idle though, it smoked ONLY immediately after shifting. I drove about 200 miles with it like this, only burned after shifting. I rebuilt it but found a good deal on a 16g so picked that up also and swapped instead, now I'm here.
 
Hmmm does the car keep smoking after you drive it for awhile? On my old 3g eclipse the valve stem seals were bad and would only burn smoke after i turn the car on and gave it some revs. After some normal driving, the oil burned off and there would be no more smoking. However that process would repeat everytime i shut the car off.

It could be (I could be very wrong) that the valve seals arent sealing well enough because they turned brittle over time. Does the car consistantly smoke or does it stop at some point?

Now for your 16g situation. You would want to run some type of restrictor on there. The problem with no restrictor is that the pressure from the oil feed housing is much greater(and consistant) than the feed from the head. I would 100% say keep the feed at the housing vs the head. However, over oiling the turbo can lead to premmature seal blowout and other nasty things. Will it fix your problem? I'm not sure but it will be beneficial and more cost effective if you do ever plan to go more than a 16g. Also how used was the turbo when you bought it?
 
Ill can you this, running unrestricted oil pressure from the housing will blow your turbos' seals. I ran a 50-trim this way. It is cleaner, more consistent and has more pressure but 16g turbos have been fed from the head since 1990 so...yea. Minor mistake, happens to the best. I'd suggest finding a reputable turbo rebuilder.

If it was the valve seals, smoking would stop after a few seconds of idle. Smoking under operation would mean major compression/power loss.
 
I assume it smokes pretty continuously as I drive but isn't thick at all, once I am stopped it starts becoming noticeable and smells of oil. I bought the 16G from another member here and it had 3000 miles on it supposedly but might have been a hard 3000. The hotside has some decent cracking around the wastegate and the actuator itself was pretty rusty so I replaced that already. No shaft play in/out or side/side and spins easily. The first 100 miles after swapping I didn't see ANY smoke at startup idle, just after boosting. I'm still at stock levels too 10 psi. Now that I've used it a bit it smokes right upon startup.

I should add I just installed a catch can and the extra 1-way valve on the pcv system thinking it was excessive blowby coating my pipes with oil, except after the install it immediately started smoking at idle.
I'm 98% sure I put the valve in the correct direction (pcv-->1-way valve-->intake manifold) but will recheck shortly in case that is causing more pressure buildup.

I can rebuild the turbo myself, I did my T25 already... didn't know if it's one of those things where once it starts smoking/leaking it won't stop. If I bought a head feed line kit and lowered the pressure might it stop? Or is it once oil starts leaking past the seals they have to be replaced? Thanks brane and mitsumike for the help.
 
Check the shaft play

The only way to really know is to reduce the oil feed pressure and see. You may be lucky and be fine, or you may not.
 
Ok im going to mention something here. Ive watched this thread since it started and well i want to just chime in.

In the mhi 16g is a small hole which is sized to be about .075" (ish) its smaller then a 2mm plug (.078") so my bet is a .075" or close to it, so a built in restrictor in a sence. Not that your going to trust just this hole alone but its a safe bet that its not been over fed, the T25 has once built into the OFH but thats a garrett based unit and garrett dont restrict there turbos, MHI seems like its run in the CHRA! Of course thats if its a true MHI and not a knockoff. Granted this i just seen recently in 2 of my MHI units!

So in my eyes the chance of it being blown by that is slim unless it was 1 not primed correctly before startup! Always happens........, 2 the seals was already leaking or was never built correctly or the end seal's groove was never cleaned out correctly and lastly still too much crank case pressure!

Again i am no turbo expert but recently ive been building my 16G up so its been a fun thing to look over it all and find things out like the hole in the CHRA thats NOT mentioned ANYWHERE ON DSMTUNERS!!!!!! Im not saying trust this alone but its small enough to do a good job for you! You need to test your own oil pressure and use the adaquate oil restrictor per your oil pressure!

If you want a fix take it apart, replace the rear seal once you cleaned it all up (including groove) and rebuild again, you would have been done already and gone through another step of elimination rather then awaiting replys on here for days!
 

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Can't run a mhi from ofh without a restrictor! If you keep driving your turbo is going to suffer greatly if it hasn't already. Switch to head location for feed or get proper restrictor only way bro. You have way to much oil pressure in boost for the mhi to handle. Ask me how I know LOL :)
 
I ordered a banjo bolt head feed kit and some ofh plugs, should be here Wednesday. PCV system and catch can are hooked up correctly, and I primed it correctly after install. Hopefully after I switch the lines it clears itself up and not too much damage has happened, I'm not driving it right now. If it doesn't stop smoking after switching to head fee, I guess the T25 goes back on and this 16G gets rebuilt!

ec17pse, I'm fairly certain there was a pinhole inside of the CHRA cartridge like you posted and its a genuine MHI 16G; I'll double check when the feed line comes in.

Thanks everyone for the help so far!
 
Well, it did blow the seals. Went to a head feed line and it still smoked pretty bad at idle. I let it sit for ~20 minutes and it didn't slow down smoke production. The center cartridge reeked of burnt oil when I took the old line off also. Live and learn I guess!
It'll get rebuilt probably in the next month, but the T25 is going back on for now :-/
Anyone else finds this thread later on, you MUST feed from the head like it was stock, or get the proper restrictor (0.075") in the oil filter housing with a MHI 16G. Thanks everyone also for the help.
 
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