1G White deposit on turbo exhaust inlet flange

[Myristica]

Hi all,

Do you know what the reasons can be for getting a white deposit on the turbo inlet flange?
I saw it first when I did a head rebuild a couple of months ago.

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I wish I had taken a better picture of this. but you can see that it's all white inside. It's like a thick white crust, it's hard, and it had some lines or cracks in it (only in the white not in the turbo housing itself).

Now the gasket is leaking and the white is blowing out now. So I'm getting a bit worried.

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Any ideas?

 

[2slow4now]

Burning water/coolant will leave a white residue.

Another possibility is running lean will leave white too.

 

[907dirtybird]

That looks concerning, not sure a lean condition would cause that much residue, seems like you are burning something that shouldn't be, like coolant. Hows your oil look? Is it milky?

 

[Insane20]

Ya the way it flows down you can tell its some sort of fluid leaving that. I vote coolant.

 

[Myristica]

It already was like that when I bought it. Could it be lean mixture going on for a long time?
Oil looks fine, I changed it a couple of times and it always looked fine.
He has had a new head gasket so if it's coolant it's not coming from the engine I guess

 

[linksys42]

Its just additives in the fuel (IE ethanol and others). Coupled with a exhaust leak at the flange. Go do a pull and shut the car off as soon as possible if not immediately and pull and read the plugs. Also log narrow-band O2 to give you an idea of the fuel mixture.

ya need to fix the exhaust leaks because they are pre O2 sensor. That's going to jack/give false readings to the O2 sensor/ECU.

When you pull the exhaust manifold to fix the leaks look at all the exhaust valves in every port to see if all of them have that white coating. If they do I am pretty sure its just additives, because i doubt you would be pushing coolant into every cylinder.

 

[milby43]

Hey, I noticed one time on my car on a cold start, that I could physically see a little bit of moisture being pushed out of the inlet flange area for my turbo. Kinda like little bubbles.

My guess is it's an exhaust leak, and the moisture that builds up in the exhaust it's being pushed through it.

In my case the gasket was shot, but it could be the flanges are warped or scored.

It's not a lean condition, cause when I pulled the exhaust manifold, there was signs of lean condition in the manifold or the turbo.

 

[Myristica]

I pulled the spark plugs, they are all white.

When I pulled the previous ones when doing the head rebuild a few months ago, the old ones looked fine.

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[Cdc1221]

That looks like its running lean. How did the head look? Specifically the exhaust valves

 

[zcox122]

My thoughts a first would be lean from looking at the plugs. But a pics of the head, chambers and ports, would be very helpful in diagnoses.

 

[Zufelt]

What kind of gas are you runnin In your car? I asking because I run Cheveron and Shell in my car. My plugs look the same, I was told it was because of the additives inside of the gas. Of course this doesn't count for the white powder in your manifold but both my manifold and plugs were white such as in the pic.

 

[linksys42]

I pulled the spark plugs, they are all white.

When I pulled the previous ones when doing the head rebuild a few months ago, the old ones looked fine.

It is additives in the fuel. Did you fix the manifold gasket leak yet/pull the manifold to verify the exhaust ports and valves color/white chalk in every port? By the look of the plugs every port is going to have that white chalk covering it. It is very easy to pull the manifold. You need to fix the pre O2 sensor exhaust leak or leaks anyway so the O2 sensor can report a accurate fuel mixture to the ECU. Unmetered air/fuel will be escaping from the leaks and will not be metered by the O2 sensor, throwing off your air fuel mixture that the ECU will see.

Do you have a data logger? So you can log O2 sensor out put and knock to verify that it isn't running lean (which i don't think that white chalk is a lean condition, its fuel additives) but to put your mind at ease and verify?

Are you using/burning any oil?

 

[2GBenDSM]

Like the above posts said, it could be you are simply running too lean. However, white powder on your spark plugs can also be a sign of a worn head gasket, you did a head rebuild right? Did you replace the gasket? And if so was it a quality part or a cheaper part? Take your oil filler cap off and look at the bottom of it, it should just be oil, if there is a white emulsion on it, there is most likely a problem with your head gasket.