Turbo Dilemma

it never ends ...

ran a compression test, and pretty much had a nice even 155-158 across all 4.

But the car smokes like something out of James Bond in boost. Hell, I've got oil smoke coming out of my BOV when it vents.

Compression is good, O2 sensor is new (like 5 minutes on it) ...

All fingers point at the T2. Which would explain the total lack of power, weird noises and smoke from the back of the motor *lol*

Now the dilemma facing me. I have 3 turbos in my trunk, none of which are a garett bolt pattern. I was going to swap eventually, but I didn't get too far with my manifold yet. Like not anywhere.

So, I could try and hunt down a T2 or T25, or T28 (yeah ... right)

But I have no $$ to spend.

The manifold will cost me nothing but my time and a bit of steel.

But, I'm not sure that any of the 3 turbos I have are good. One has no shaft play, spins loverly etc etc ... but that doesn't guarantee the seals.

I can get a rebuild kit for around $100 ... but I've never attempted something like that. I don't even know if you can just do the seals without disturbing the shaft.

So technically for the cost of steel, a seal kit, and custom lines, I can just carry on with my original plan.

Am I delusional>?

if its got no shaft play, I would go with trying to make a manifold and drop that sucker in. Chances are that they are still good as far as seals. The cost of steel...probally not too much.

And yes, you ARE delusional! :lick:

if its got no shaft play, I would go with trying to make a manifold and drop that sucker in. Chances are that they are still good as far as seals. The cost of steel...probally not too much.

And yes, you ARE delusional! :lick:

:werd:

and just for fun.... :honda:

you *know* it's gonna be a lot more time and money that just that. you might be able to kludge something together real quick, but i wouldn't want to drive the car too far. plus i didn't really see a workshop you had to work in as well, heh.

if ya got the time and don't mind the car being down while you do the work, go nuts. or if you want, i'll 'loan' you my old t2 c/w exhaust manifold =). it was good 3 months or so ago. if you wanna trade for one of your old turbos and stock manifold, i can see what i can do about making a custom mani. for the turbo. the only thing is next year i'm up for emmissions testing (my t25 dump pipe doesn't have an egr tube). i don't know how i'll do without the egr in. i was holding on to the stock t2 in case i needed it for testing...

Well, it might not be necessary. Just finished reading the FSM, and one of the causes of my "symptoms" (the only on that doesn't involve "replace turbocharger assy." as a solution) is a leaky oil line. This would also explain the smoke from the back of the block.

If that's all it is, which maybe I'm grasping at straws here, I'm laughing.

If not, it's manifold time. I know it's not going to be easy, but it's not exactly rocket science either.

I have a friend who can laser cut any design I want out of any grade steel I want for free. Him and his dad run a steel shop, and they've got wicked programs that allow you to scan in even a rough drawing, and the computer will fix any inconsitencies. From there, it's just angle cuts and welding tube. I already have the flange, as I tried to make an adapter once. The adapter worked, it just mounted the turbo too close to everything, including the ground. Not being able to weld to cast iron, it had to be bolt on, which necessitated it being about 2 inches long.

ReNEsIs has the same turbo set up on his, and he's been very helpful with how he made his manifold.

Even if the T2 isn't toast, I'm going to go ahead with the manifold.

You only got to see where the car lives ... not where all the work gets done :twisted:

i had the oil feed line for my turbo break and it caused alot of smoke but none through the tailpipe really mostly under the car and in the cabin

o yeah. I had an oil line break too. It was the top feed oil tube. It blew and i had smoke in the cabin, and under the car like nothing else, but nothing from the tailpipe really. But then again, with a huge cloud of smoke trailing behind hte car, you cant really tell where its comming from. But its all fixed now :) :lick:

Blown oil seals will get yah smokin...

but, either way get that new mani with a turbo on there...! :)

Well I could get that welder again, and I have nothing to do on the weekends until the very end of July, so let me know whats going on...8) 8)

YellowPrelude:

Once you got the line back on was your turbo fried? Also how long did you drive it like that? Mine blew a few weeks ago and i am replacing all the coolant and oil lines and i was wondering about your turbo.

Mine blew like as I was entering my neighborhood so I drove less than .2 miles to get to my driveway and then I kiilled the engine. I drained the oil later and stilll had 3 Qt's so I only lost 1 Qt when it blew. DAMN lucky though. The turbo is still good with no shaft play on it. It stayed oiled, just a good amount leaked out where it busted.

My oil line cracked too. I was loosing oil at a VERY fast rate. So I took it to my mechanics. At this point it had oil pouring out the bottom. You could see my trail of oil every where I went. The problem was my car was running VERY crappy and was blowing black smoke out the tailpipe like nobodies business.

Well we both decided it had blown a seal and was getting oil into the engine to make it run rough as well as pissing it out the turbo. (At this point my mechanic didnt think the oil line had a problem)

So I went to the wrecker and managed to find a turbo on a car there and took it to him to do the work. He pulled the head and everythign to get "the nut" off. Replaced the turbo and the head gasket. Then all of a sudden he notices that the oil ine is cracked. He never admitted it, but the turbo was fine the whole time. In fact its nor running in 95ACC's car with no problems at all!

THEN he calls and says BTW I need to replace your cap and rotor, the one tab is broken off.

So it seems that the cap broke just after I got the hole in my line. That made the car run rich so it smoked, and ran very bad. But they were 2 different problems.

I would check out your ignition system just to be sure its not that.

Well, crawling around the engine bay, I noticed one of the oil lines (I'm assuming, there were two hard lines that made 90º bends around the block) looked wet with oil, and it seems that there's a lot of oil on the side of the block.

But while trying to trace the lines with my hands, I just kept getting my hand stuck, and not even being able to find where the line actually goes into the turbo.

So it is possible it's just the line? ****. I still don't get how it ends up in the exhaust. It's definitely burning a lot of oil *lol* I have no idea how I can even get to the lines, let alone replace one. Can it be done without pulling the turbo?

I don't want to change the lines to find out that it really is the turbo, then I'm out $$ on the lines too, because I don't think they're the same ends on my TDO

Alex, we need to get together again. I doubt I'll need the welder any time too soon, as I have to figure this out before I commit to anything. I'm going away tonight, but I should be back some point tomorrow during the day. I've also got Friday off work, so as of Friday AM through to Sunday midnight, I'm open for car stuff. Let me know what's best for you.

i worked on getting my oil lines back on last night. i think bart has some tips for removing/installing the turbo. i definatly reccomend removing it as a hole assembly. the oil feed line was like $8 if i remember correctly.

I wouldnt try to get the lines off wihtout taking the turbo off too. And if you are going to replace them, then I recomend going with the braided custom ones instead of replacing with the crap metal junk from factory

Check you CAP and rotor setup first though. It could be that.