white smoke, blown turbo?

[1g dsm d22]

k so im helping this lady with her car. shes got a 91 tsi atuomatic and she came to my work getting a head gasket. long story short im trying to diagnose her problem. when we started the car white smoke started coming out of the exshaust, and out of the hose that goes hooked up to the intake from the valve cover. now she told me that she got the car for 800 and that the guy told her that all it needed was a head gasket to run right. soo there i am and i notice that the oil feed line from the turbo is not hooked up. so the turbo is NOT getting oil at all!! i dont know how long this has been like that but i wana know if this could be a sign of a blown turbo or is it the actual head gasket. turbo all is getting is coolant no oil .
i have not checked for shaft play, i didnt had time to take it appart.

 

[RT-AWD]

wow, well white smoke is coolant so headgasket yes. No oil to the turbo will waste the turbo for sure.

 

[1g dsm d22]

^^ yup yup. but it wouldnt throw white smoke right? (turbo)
and should i consider the turbo gone by now? what u guys think?

 

[constant_proj21]

Blown turbos usually burn oil, haven't seen one burn coolant (unless the center section cracked or something wild like that). The turbo is prob toast regardless.

 

[GRAVEDIGGER]

Did you pressure check the cooling system? Maybe it's just the turbo that is shot and it doesn't even need a head gasket. You definitely need to pressurize the cooling system and check the turbo for shaft play to help determine the source of your problem.

 

[1g dsm d22]

so i came to a conclusion to this. is both!! turbo blown for lack of oil for sure. and head gasket for sure because coolant is getting into the crankcase (oil). i opened the oil cap and its got very light brown spots on it, clearly is coolant. i told her how much i would do the job for since its a pretty decent job there. plus i told her i have a spare 14b since i upgraded to the 16g on mine, i would repalce the timing belt and waterpump since im already there, just 5 bolts and pump is off . she told me that shes gona think about it because she didnt think it was gona be that much of trouble. she might resell it she says.

 

[tsi1991awd]

On my old 91, it blew a hell of a lot of white smoke....it was from the turbo. It never overheated or anything. Once I replaced the turbo and the oil/coolant lines, it was golden.

On this 90 I have, they have a cheap ebay turbo on the car with a TON of in/out shaft play.....BLOWN, blowing white smoke everywhere. Not losing any coolant, no coolant in oil...has a fresh Cometic MLS so its not the HG. turbos can blow white smoke!

 

[RT-AWD]

when i bought my car the owner swore the turbo was on its last legs and needed to be swapped out...turns out the tubo was strong as can be.. 200+k miles on it and no shaft play and didnt burn oil turns out the rings were the issue burning a quart every few months not the turbo.

what do you mean throwing white smoke? if smoke is coming out of the valve cover id say thats not turbo related

 

[ist dwa]

so i came to a conclusion to this. is both!! turbo blown for lack of oil for sure. and head gasket for sure because coolant is getting into the crankcase (oil). i opened the oil cap and its got very light brown spots on it, clearly is coolant. i told her how much i would do the job for since its a pretty decent job there. plus i told her i have a spare 14b since i upgraded to the 16g on mine, i would repalce the timing belt and waterpump since im already there, just 5 bolts and pump is off . she told me that shes gona think about it because she didnt think it was gona be that much of trouble. she might resell it she says.

That was my first thought what you wrote, I would probably rebuild the motor if so, I mean how long has the car been running with coolant in the oiling system . Tell her the price of a jdm motor that comes with a turbo and see what she says.

 

[Sandman817]

i would recommend doing a Leak-down test for sure! Make sure the piston for each cylinder your testing is at TDC. Put as much pressure into the cylinder without turning it over and take the coolant cap off and look for bubbles. If it is bubbling, it is definitely a head gasket. anywhere from 3-15% is good even though most LDT's show up to 30% is good.

Just as a rule of thumb

• Coming out of the Dipstick tube=Rings
• Coming out of valve cover=Intake Valve not seated/burned/worn/leaking
• Bubbles in the coolant=Head gasket
• Air coming out of the exhaust=Exhaust valve not seated/burned/worn/leaking

 

[1g dsm d22]

i TRIED to check the dip stick to see if i could see any coolant on there but that thing was EMPTY. no oil at all in there. so like i said i have no idea how long this thing is been runing like this. i dont even know how the car was even able to start this morning.
and tsi1991awd, your talking about ebay turbos. or was the one before a MIHI? this car is all stock, but i get what your saying tho, lets say it WAS the turbo, would it be throwing the white smoke off the valve cover hose? cus its deffenetly coolant i just dont know exactly from where. i just wana save them some money and saving me some time by repalcing what the car actually needs. but like i said before it could be very well the head gasket and the turbo.
sandman817; i would of deffenetly do that. im familliar with the leak down test i just didnt had the right tools this morning to do one, just went and looked at the car.
i gave her my estimate and like said before she said it might be too much of trouble to even try to fix the car, now that i saw what the car was messing up on, like the turbo not having a oil feed.

what do you mean throwing white smoke? if smoke is coming out of the valve cover id say thats not turbo related

i see. makes sence.

 

[Ghostriderdsm]

take your rad cap off and turn the car on.. if it fires coolant out like a gun.. headgasket

 

[1g dsm d22]

take your rad cap off and turn the car on.. if it fires coolant out like a gun.. headgasket

ok. ill do that and laugh my ass off. then ill let them know......"its the head gasket".

 

[AlaskanDsm]

it's possible the oil feed line was moved over the oil housing for whatever reason. Just a possibility.

I would think that a compression/leakdown test would deff tell you if the HG was shot.

 

[garrettanda]

a really easy way to see if your turbo work is (get a shop vac specifically for this) make sure the inside of the shop vac is clean no hook up the hose to one side of the turbo seal it with tape or something of that matter and have it blow air! if it spins on both sides its good! i would only do this as a last resort type thing because you could blow some real nasty things inside your turbo

 

[AlaskanDsm]

a really easy way to see if your turbo work is (get a shop vac specifically for this) make sure the inside of the shop vac is clean no hook up the hose to one side of the turbo seal it with tape or something of that matter and have it blow air! if it spins on both sides its good! i would only do this as a last resort type thing because you could blow some real nasty things inside your turbo

WOW!! haha. I guess this would work but at the same time, would this be able to identify if the seals are bad or leaking?

 

[1g dsm d22]

^^ ya i agree. i saw a youtube vid about it tho. they were messing with a turbo and they were using the vac to watch it spin . it was interesting. but anyways back to the topic, tomorrow im gona go to the ladys house and do the job fore her. i did the coolant test and sure enough bubbleing all crazy. so hopefully itll take me......i say about a day to get it done . does anyone know how to remove the cylinder head without messing up the timing? i was talking to this guy the other day and he was telling me that theres a way to remove the head without having to remove all the belts and the whole shabang. he was telling me about holding the timing belt with a plyer or something. can anyone clarify for me if anyone knows about this?

 

[Ghostriderdsm]

You need to take the Timing belt off the remove the head?!

 

[ramsack]

white smoke is not always coolant, and it also oil burning in the exhaust. but since the turbo isn't hooked to an oil feed, this goes right to it being a head gasket definitely.

 

[AlaskanDsm]

unless there is some magical way of not taking the timing belt off the camshafts that are attached to the head... then no, you have to take the timing belt off anf not to mention, you would want to take it off so you can correctly put it back on, one tooth off and you could have a bad hole in your pocket.

 

[95blackGsTurbo]

If you have the proper tools, to depress the hydaulic tensioner it can be done easily. Remove the valve cover, line up the timing marks, scratch the timing gear and cam cap to make a line to ensure they are lined up perfectly. Depress the hydaulic tensioner to release the tension on the belt. Hold the cams with a cresent wrench and loosed the 17mm bolts that hold the cams gears to the cams and viola! How do you think I can swap cams in 30-45 minutes.

 

[AlaskanDsm]

ok ok... you win. But seriously... I didn't think that was possible. My magical solution just came true!! And there isn't a chance that the cams can be mounted incorrectly becasue of the little alignment dowel on the cam right?