Ok, here's my problem. I put this turbo on which i bought used. Everything seems to work just great, no smoking or anything like that. However the turbo is dripping oil slowly out of the hot side of it. At first i thought it was the oil return hose dripping, but after taking it off, it seems to look like that isn't the case, but i'm not 100% on that. The cold side of it seems to be carboned up a little bit on the inside for some reason. I know these pictures suck and most likely don't help at all, but i took them with my phone because it's all i had at the time. I know pretty much nothing when it comes to tearing these things apart, so i'm hoping some of you out there can maybe tell me what's going on. The bolts around the hot side seemed to be a bit loose... or at least not as snug as i would have expected them to be.. so i don't know if that might have been part of the issue or not... If anyone can give me any tips on what i could do to figure this out, i would be most appreciative.

 

anyone?

 

looks like a bad seal,what brand turbo is that?

 

thanks dave! i was actually on your website earlier today reading some of your charts and information. I wish i could tell you what brand of turbo it is. It came with my hp stage 3 kit. I can only assume it's a Garrett or a Holset. My hp stage 1 60mm turbo kit is a holset, but the newer kit i had previously sold was a garrett as well as a few other peoples i saw. I've looked it over, but either i'm blind or when the turbo housing was polished it got covered somehow. my engine is a factory 76k mile 93 cobra bottom end, and has a breather through the passanger side valve cover. However blowby has never seemed to be be a problem in the past. I would like to think it's my drain being insufficient. the hose is plenty big, but the fitting i am using in my pan was used for my s-trim setup and is quite a bit smaller than the fitting on my turbo setup... now if i may, how much would it cost to have seals replaced if this is a worst case scenario type deal?

I'd also like to add that this entire kit was purchased new in oct 06 by the previous ower, and had virtually no runtime period as far as i was told... however the turbo has dripped the entire time i've had it on my car... however my 60mm never did and i ran it for a year without issue. There is no shaft play on the turbo that's leaking it feels great just like it should. Do you think i should just clean it off and put it back together and try it again?? maybe change that fitting that's in my oil pan to a bigger size?

 

It's a Garrett turbo...clipped P-trim turbine wheel. Judging by the backplate, it looks like Limit Engineering...no quality issues with them.

Dave hit it spot-on with your problem. If the drain or PCV doesn't fix it, then there's a slight chance of a cracked housing...but not very likely.

Oh, and it's not smoking now, but if it continues to leak like that, it will carbon up and get worse until you have oil literally in your exhaust pipe. Fix the drain.

 

Just like Dave said, it's most likely a drain issue. Use the biggest return line you can fit in there.

I was using a restrictor and a 1/2" ID hose and I still had oil in my turbine housing. Finally, I upped the return to 5/8" and it made a huge difference. Also, another thing I noticed was that if I overfilled my engine oil, it would cause my turbo to smoke. This is due to the return fitting being covered up by having too much oil in the pan.

 

wow guys thanks for the responses... i'm going to take some pictures of what i have running now, and make some changes. I will post pictures back in this thread so other people who might have this problem will have a better idea of what exactly i'm working with right now. I do hope this clears my problem up... So is there anything that i should do before putting the turbo back together.. at least what i took apart? does anyone know what exactly i should torque those bolts to?