help me understand?? oil leak above turbo feed line

[jgbbkt]

I have only owned this car for about 3 weeks now and my boys took it on a trip out of
town. They got about 70 miles north of LA and started to throw heavy smoke out from under the hood. They pulled over and shut down only to find the engine bay wet with oil,
engine oil. After being towed to the nearest town they added oil and fired her up to find the leak they at first thought it was coming from the turbo feed line but after getting a
wrench on it and making sure it was tight they say that the oil is coming from above the
oil feed line port on the block they are not sure if it could be coming out between the head or not. This is a 97 GST, I have built several 6 bolt motors but this is our first 2 gen car,
when I looked under the hood it looked a lot like a 6 bolt motor to me so I assume its a 7
bolt version. My question is are the heads lubed the same on the two engines? with a oil
passage at the back of the head. I really blew it my boys are a long way away right now
and broke down and I'm just trying to get a game plan together to get them home. If its the head gasket due to loose head bolts I would think the engine would be building pressure in the cooling system as well. Has any one had an oil leak that only runs out at high idle in this area before that might be able to shed some light?

 

[DSM'r MOM]

Are they for sure it's not the turbo line? if not I really can't think of anything else, have they cleaned the area with break cleaner and put oil in it and started to see where it's coming from?

Need more info I would go look at my car right now, but it's a 6 bolt to, I just got done doing a turbo swap, and the copper washers on that line can wear out. Need to know it's 100% not coming from the turbo oil line before I can think of other places, As for the oil passages not to sure, but I do know it's almost the same as a 6bolt, just not as strong on the bottom end I wish I could help hope a wisemen reads this.

Anyway reply ASAP I will look around for oil passage info. How far away are they?

I hope this doesn't happen to my son


DSMr Mom

 

[jgbbkt]

They tell me that they are sure that is coming from above the turbo pressure line. they were able to get a little bit of a turn on the pressure feed line banjo fitting. But when they
filled it up with more oil it started to leak at hi rpms and they are pertty sure that it is not
the banjo fitting washers. Like I say this car is new to us we put some around 600-700
miles on it with no problems, so I felt good about them taking it south for the weekend
big mistake. Well lessons learned, my son is missing his tournament which started today.
they were going to take another look at it this morning and then decide if it was time to rent a U-haul and trailer and bring it home. I sleep ed on it myself last night and if it was leaking at the head gasket that would mean the head clamp bolts would have to be loose and we would have to be leaking cylinder pressure as well and that does not seem to be
the case. Another lesson learned next time one of my cars leave on a long trip it will have some basic tools on board. My boys know how to work on these cars but have nothing to
work with. Shoot the gas stations around them where they are did not have a single tool
nor did any of the stores!!!!! They may be forced to wait for the one shop to open this morning and pay to have them look at it. I will let you know what we find!!!!

 

[jgbbkt]

for what its worth I and my boys just got home 38 hours after I left to retrieve the car. After a quick look it was all the result of a failed turbo coolant line. The line ruptured and
dumped the coolant straight down in such a fashion that it did not hit any hot parts so it
did not throw any steam. It dropped the fluid so fast that the temp prob no dought was not submerged and their for did not indicate an over heat!!! the boys continued up the hill until the head gasket failed and oil pumped out onto the exhaust manifold giving them a smoke trail and their first indication that they had a problem. The car is hove I
removed the valve cover and tightend the head bolts and fired up the car no more oil leak
out the head gasket, but we have pressure building in the cooling system, nodought the fire rings were damaged on the head gasket. I have all the parts so will pull the head
tomarrow and check the head to make sure it did not warp. While I'm at it I will go ahead
and do the timing belt, balancer belt and water pump. ( I have the parts on the floor for my
other car so I'm good to go). Thus ends the mystery of the oil leak coming from above the turbo pressure line. As it was the line they were trying to tighten was actually one of the coolant lines any way. If you ever go over the grape vine north of LA watch out for the crew at Gorman they tried to talk the boys into signing the title over on the car because they said it would cost to much to send it home.Ha (they quoted the boys 3000.00 for a
U-Haul truck and trailer. What a laugh. It cost me 400.00 in fuel and trailer rental and 38 hours of my time.but it didn't cost me 3000.00 out of pocket for the boys to bring it home. shoot it would have been cheaper to ship in home on a car transport, the last time I moved a car that way it cost a 1000.00 to bring a car from Texas to Oregon. Like I say
watch out for the crew at Gorman they don't really want to help stranded motorist they just want to help themselves to your misfortune.