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Guys, LAY OFF the excess RTV on Oil Drain Flanges.

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JusMX141

Moderator
15,147
1,287
Dec 13, 2005
Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Q- Why is my used or freshly-rebuilt turbo dumping oil past the turbine seal and into the exhaust system?

A- Incompetence.

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wow.. pooooooor tubro.. if your going to use that much rtv (which you shouldnt anyways) leave it settle a bit so it doesn;t just mushroom to the edges which does nothing for sealing.

when i picked up my 6 bolt, it was liked this to.. only everywhere.. drain line, thermostat housing even the oil drain plug had like half a bottle formed to it:ohdamn:
 
Looks like 2 different kinds of rtv LOL.. The black and the orange
 
You're right, Viper...this poor soul had a "gasket Lasagna" going on. There are two paper gaskets with copious amounts of RTV shoved in between the gaskets and also where the gaskets meet the flanges.
 
Augh. :ohdamn: That's why I have dirty spots all over the back of my car. There's red RTV all over this car. The bottom of the block and I are on round 3, still scraping that crap off. One of the first things I did was buy new oil drain gaskets though. Good to know there's less of a chance I'll be losing oil when everything's done.
 
That is most definitely thin layer there... A little bit of RTV pushing out from the seal is ok but WOW (not World of Warcraft LOL)!
 
Just throwing this out there, but that small 16g you rebuilt for me isn't blowing oil past the seals and I'm running it off the OFH with an oil feed kit like most of the vendors sell. And I have the balance shafts removed. I see almost 100psi by redline with the 10w-40 oil. The turbo shouldn't be seeing quite that much because of the restrictor in the banjo fitting, but it isn't blowing oil. The oil return gasket only has a thin film of RTV on it.
 
you think thats bad, I bought a dsm with a GIANT hole in the starter, the guy covered it with blue rtv, I wish I still had pictures.
 
Just throwing this out there, but that small 16g you rebuilt for me isn't blowing oil past the seals and I'm running it off the OFH with an oil feed kit like most of the vendors sell.
Right, because you started off with a freshly-rebuilt turbo; not to mention having a -4AN feed line that uses the banjo fitting end at the turbo adds a little restriction where some of the fittings that allow the oil to blast right into the cartridge do not.

Most of the guys who have trouble with blowing oil past seals are either using too much RTV like the example I've shown above (which cuts the oil's ability to drain by as much as 33% of what it should be), or they are installing an already well-used, 100K+ mile 14B that was taken from a 1G (fed from the head) and putting it on their 2G then feeding it from an oil supply source with roughly three times as much pressure as the turbo has seen it's entire life. Guess what the result is? ;)
 
The oil pan on my most recent 6 bolt purchase looked like the above op's pic. The oil pan on my 2g that I recently traded for my new TSi looked worse. There was about 3 different colors of RTV, and remains of the original gasket, as well as a new cork gasket with less than 500 miles and it was leaking. It took me 3 hrs to clean the block surface and oilpan surface well enough to get a good seal.

If you put a gasket on something, Clean it first derp dirty gasket surface is useless.
 
jeeeeze.... no brueno!!!!

was he a young kid.. if so i wouldn't feel so bad for him!!
but if it was an older man.. i would cry for his soul and ask why god made him sooo stupid!!

haha!
 
Whats the correct way to put on the return line without welding? I bought a an kit from extremepsi and new gaskets.
-shane
 
Someone did that on an mr2 that I bought. Well the used silicone on the thermostat housing, which worked its way into the head gasket and elsewhere in the cooling system. I bought it that way with the intention of fixing it. I knew it was a head gasket because it wouldn't start. Popping the cooling cap after cranking there would be loads of pressure. And having the cap off while cranking would pee out coolant. I ONLY use RTV for the valve cover gasket, and AS the oil pan gasket. Even with those 2 things I don't just go drive the car right after doing them.
 
Wow. I used a thin layer of RTV along with the paper gasket when I installed my return line. I then put a bead of rtv around the flange after it was bolted on the car. It hasn't leaked yet.
 
I've never understood why people do that? The most important part of getting two mating surfaces to seal is cleanliness. Then all you need is a super thin layer of rtv. I've always made sure to have a little "buffer space" between the rtv and the drain hole even with a thin layer.
 
Some kinda Garrett hybrid draining through an area smaller than a drinking straw. Yup, I get all kinds. :banghead:

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