16g with no shaft play but oil in cold side

[Blaze4G63]

like the title says I was tearing down my engine and I pulled the j pipe and there was oil in the pipe and turbo. But when I check the turbo for shaft play its tight as a banjo string? Can the seals still be bad with no play? The oil never made it to the intercooler just a little bit in the j pipe. whats the issue here? It also never smoked under load.

 

[thomcasey]

Two possibilities.

1. Oil is form Valve Cover (line from Valve cover connected to intake pre-turbo)
2. Oils seal bad in turbo. Will not affect shaft play.

 

[Bluefire16]

^^ a bad oil seal in the turbo can affect the shaft. At first its gonna smoke, and progressively get worse. If driven with it for to long its only a matter of time before the turbine shaft starts to move due to lack of lubrication and heat build up on the shaft from improper lubrication.

 

[JusMX141]

2. Oils seal bad in turbo. Will not affect shaft play.

Not on the compressor side. There's no extreme heat to weaken the sealing ring like there is on the turbine side, so without shaft play it's virtually impossible for oil to bypass the compressor sealing ring during operation.


With the valve cover vent drawing oil into the inlet already being mentioned, another possibility is excessive crankcase pressure is preventing the turbo from draining properly, or the rubber o-ring between the center housing and the seal plate is flattened out and not doing it's job.

^^ a bad oil seal in the turbo can affect the shaft. At first its gonna smoke, and progressively get worse. If driven with it for to long its only a matter of time before the turbine shaft starts to move due to lack of lubrication and heat build up on the shaft from improper lubrication.

Again, only on the turbine side. Once 1500* exhaust is allowed into the center housing it will burn the turbine-side bearing and deprive it of oil until the turbo fails....but oil leakage on the compressor side does nothing but make a mess.

 

[liquidz28]

Two possibilities.

1. Oil is form Valve Cover (line from Valve cover connected to intake pre-turbo)
2. Oils seal bad in turbo. Will not affect shaft play.

#1, im going with the oil from valve cover.