Smoke while in boost and manual boost controller question

[TheSmurf]

I’m having trouble with my GSX. I bought the car two months ago and after two or so weeks it started to smoke whitish grey smoke while I drove in boost. I took the turbo out of the car and looked at it. It has incredible shaft play so I’m pretty sure that that’s where the smoke was coming from. I am wondering what caused the turbo to breakdown in the first place. While cleaning out the oil from the intake and intercooler I found that the car is missing the BCS restrictor. Could this be the cause for the turbo breaking and if so can I replace it with a manual boost controller?

 

[MrBoxx]

Get a boost gauge if you don't already have one. The BCS restrictor would only raise boost a few psi, so it's probably not the problem, but you'll still want to know what it's boosting at. If the turbo is the stock T25, it's probably just normal wear and tear. Replace it as soon as you can, because the smoke will only get worse, until finally the wheels start hitting the housings, and then it's all over. Head out to the junkyard to find a replacement (T25 or 14b work fine) or hit up ebay or the ads here.

 

[ddavisaf]

The smoke is coming from the turbo indirectly. Here is what I mean.
Your t-25 cannot support your 3200 pound car. It's about as worthless as ___________ <-fill in the blank.
What is happening is you're running rich while under boost because your turbo sucks. Thus the greyish smoke. Now, if it were blue smoke you'd have a different problem to diagnose.
If you're still leary here is what you can do. Pull off your lower intercooler pipe. If when you pull it off, you dump about 1/4 quart of oil on yourself and the ground your turbo is bad. If it's just a light film of oil it's normal.

 

[TheSmurf]

I am replacing the turbo with an evo 3 16 g. I have read on here that it may be a blown head gasket so i am replacing that as well. When i took the turbo out of the car there was a cup of oil in the intercooler and as i said earlier there is a lot of shaft play in the turbo. The shaft moves in all directions at least an 1/8 inch to a 1/4 inch. What i don't want to do is spend a lot on a turbo and still have a problem that wrecks the new one. I don't have any part of the bcs where it should be in the hoses is empty space, the hoses aren't connected.What would this do to the boost of the turbo?

 

[ddavisaf]

Well... I would recommend getting a stainless steel oil feed line from the oil filter housing. This is a much better substitute than the stock feed line. Also, make sure you don't have any boost leaks, your pcv is in good working order, and you're regularly changing your oil with the correct oil.
Why guess about the headgasket? Why not run a compression test and make sure before you rip apart a motor that doesn't need it.
http://www.dsmgrrrl.com/FAQs/compression.htm

 

[TheSmurf]

I took the car to a friend of mine who is a mechanic and they checked the engine out and said that it was OK. I need to replace the valve cover gasket and oil pan gasket anyway so I'm going to do it out of convenience and just to make sure. The oil was changed when i first bought the car and then drained when i took the turbo out. What will the stainless steel oil lines do to help me?

Thanks for the help so far.

 

[oldman]

Why guess about the headgasket? Why not run a compression test and make sure before you rip apart a motor that doesn't need it.
http://www.dsmgrrrl.com/FAQs/compression.htm

Definitely do this before you pull the head. If cam gears were removed, make sure you didn't put them on the wrong side.

I don't have any part of the bcs where it should be in the hoses is empty space, the hoses aren't connected.What would this do to the boost of the turbo?

The factory bcs is a bleeder valve that increase the boost level by a couple of psi by bleeding pressure off the signal going to the actuator. When bypassed, you will run even lower boost level so you have nothing to worry about, just make sure that there is a hose connecting the compressor to the actuator and the little nipple on the intake pipe is plugged.

 

[TheSmurf]

The factory bcs is a bleeder valve that increase the boost level by a couple of psi by bleeding pressure off the signal going to the actuator. When bypassed, you will run even lower boost level so you have nothing to worry about, just make sure that there is a hose connecting the compressor to the actuator and the little nipple on the intake pipe is plugged.

Thanks. What should I do with the hoses. Leave them or what?

 

[oldman]

Thanks. What should I do with the hoses. Leave them or what?

What hoses? You have hoses just hanging there? Describe where everything is in detail.

 

[TheSmurf]

I have two hoses that should connect into the bcs. Where they should connect to the bcs they are hanging free. What should I do with them?

 

[oldman]

I have two hoses that should connect into the bcs. Where they should connect to the bcs they are hanging free. What should I do with them?

The top nipple on the bcs goes to the intake pipe, the bottom nipple goes to the T that splits to the compressor and actuator nipple. This is probably the reason why you have a bad turbo if in fact one of the hanging hoses connects to the T between the compressor and actuator.

 

[TheSmurf]

I am missing the entire BCS including what it is mounted in. Do I need to buy a new one or what do I do? If I need to buy one where do I find one?

 

[oldman]

Follow the hanging hoses and post back where they're connected to. Once again, I ask you to be as detail as you can. If you were being detail right from the start, it wouldn't have taken this many posts to figure out you have hanging hoses and that the bcs is completely gone. Don't just answer the questions, tell us everything all at once.

 

[TheSmurf]

Sorry about that. I'm new to this game. Thanks for the help.

 

[oldman]

Sorry about that. I'm new to this game. Thanks for the help.

No problem, just post back what you find. If you don't know the names of the component they're connected to, just describe the position and what they look like.

I suspect the previous owner had a mbc which he removed before selling you the car, hopefully he had the decency to have done it correctly, we will know for sure once you post back where the hanging hoses are connected to.

 

[TheSmurf]

My original question was if i could replace the bcs with a manual boost controller and if so would it just take its place?

My car is at a friends house because i cannot work on it where i live. I'll have him look.

 

[oldman]

My original question was if i could replace the bcs with a manual boost controller and if so would it just take its place?

Don't you also want to know

I am wondering what caused the turbo to breakdown in the first place.

and

While cleaning out the oil from the intake and intercooler I found that the car is missing the BCS restrictor. Could this be the cause for the turbo breaking

Which is a lot more important than what to do next.

 

[TheSmurf]

Yes I do also want to know those. I was thinking that this whould have something to do with it.

You said

The top nipple on the bcs goes to the intake pipe, the bottom nipple goes to the T that splits to the compressor and actuator nipple. This is probably the reason why you have a bad turbo if in fact one of the hanging hoses connects to the T between the compressor and actuator.

I thought that this could be corrected with a new bcs or mbc. I was thinking that answering the bcs problem would answer the questions you brought up in your last post.

 

[oldman]

I thought that this could be corrected with a new bcs or mbc. I was thinking that answering the bcs problem would answer the questions you brought up in your last post.

The answer to those question depends only on where those hanging hoses lead to. Let me break it down for you.

1. The hoses leads to no where (best case) and there is a hose connecting the compressor (turbo) nipple to the actuator nipple. This would indicate that the turbo die of old age or something else not related to the missing bcs.

2. The hoses runs to their respective stock location (bad) and the compressor, actuator and the intake pipe nipples are just open to the atmosphere, this means three things.

a. Sucking in unmetered/filtered air.
b. No signals to the actuator resulting in all out boost which you can't tell because of the stock boost gauge.
c. Over spinning the turbo due to a huge leak.

3. You can either go with another bcs, a mbc or neither by just connecting a hose between the compressor and the actuator nipple and run 10-12 psi. In any case, you should really have a boost gauge.

 

[TheSmurf]

Thank You. That pretty much answered that question completely. I cant get a hold of my friend but ill get over there and look. Thanks again for the info and your patience.