Oil in Trubo

[Dj-Ram17]

So my car has been losing coolant and oil and smoking from the engine bay and exhaust(whitish smoke) No coolant in oil or oil in coolant and car doesn't overheat and i had a couple people tell me its the head gasket so i was planing on buying everything and fixing it but my dad said it could be a turbo. So today before i bought the stuff i took out the air intake hose off to check the turbo and found some oil just sitting in the turbo. Does this mean its bad?

 

[boosted99_420]

Sounds like the seals went on the turbo to me. So your dad was probly right.

 

[LiquidX]

"Mommy, I want a Trubo!"

Anyway, having oil sitting in front of the compressor doesn't mean the turbo is bad. I'll assume you are recirculated and you have the breather line from the valve cover still hooked up to the intake pipe?

If you are getting blow by into the crank case, pressure builds up and the PCV and breather evacuate the system using engine vacuum. There is a big chance that you are getting oil into your intake pipe from the valve cover breather.

To check the turbo, you need to see if it has shaft play. Excessive radial play is a big indication that the seals are going out/bad especially if the fins can hit the wall. Axial play should be mostly non existent.

I would consider doing a leak down test to see where you are loosing coolant and oil if it's in the combustion chamber. If you were to leak coolant into the turbine via the turbo then you have a majorly damaged turbo which is damn near impossible to happen without it cracking in half.

 

[Dj-Ram17]

To be honest I understood half of what you just said , if your asking if its 100% stock then yes but i checked for shaft play and there's barely any, very very little movement side to side

 

[LiquidX]

To be honest I understood half of what you just said , if your asking if its 100% stock then yes but i checked for shaft play and there's barely any, very very little movement side to side

Then your turbo is most likely fine.

On the passenger side of the valve cover, there is a nipple with a hose coming off of it. That hose hooks up to the intake pipe. When the car is on, there is vacuum in the intake pipe and that vacuum extends into the the line and then into the valve cover. That is causing a vacuum in the crank case which is a good thing.

Sometimes, oil will be getting splashed around and get sucked into the vacuum line and it will deposit in the intake manifold and over time it will be dispersed through out the whole intake track.

A good free "mod" is to pull the intake pipes out including the intercooler and wash them out with a de greaser to remove any oil build up.

Your friends are correct, you won't always have oil and coolant mixing with a blown head gasket. It depends on where it's damaged if it's allowing the oil and coolant passages to intersect each other and mix.


As I mentioned, you will want to perform what is call a "leak down test". What happens is you will pressurize the combustion chambers with pressurized air and monitor the "leak down". You can find better instructions else where by searching around

 

[Dj-Ram17]

Okay I'll try that, should i do a compression test first or just do the leak down test? Also i heard that some places let you rent the tests does pep boys or autozone do that?

 

[LiquidX]

Compression test (while good for other things) will only tell you your compression pressure and if you have any obvious issues like a hole in the piston, bent valve/s, bad piston rings, etc. If you were to find you have a low compression cylinder you would still do a leak down test afterwards to narrow down the issue so you aren't tossing money at a possible problem that isn't there.

I would just start with a leak down test unless you want to see what your compression is at as well.

 

[luv2rallye]

To be honest I understood half of what you just said , if your asking if its 100% stock then yes but i checked for shaft play and there's barely any, very very little movement side to side

Movement in/out is the worse condition - too much and the fins on the compressor/turbine wheels will crash into the sidewalls.