setup: custom gt28rs turbos, -4 feed line -10 drain line, .062 restrictors with 20psi at idle. true 3" dual exhaust no crossover. running 10w30 royal purple that i have already heard needs to go. I have some rotella 15w40 that heard is the way to go.


Anyways if you are sittin idling at a stop light or a drive thru it will gradually start to smoke out the drivers side exhaust. it starts really light then smokes more and more as you sit. As soon as you accelerate it puffs a giant cloud of lightish blue smoke and then doesnt appear to smoke at all while driving or under boost.

Any indeas? is it possible that it is a pcv issue? I am running an open breather on my dirvers side cover and I have drilled out my factory pcv valve which is fed to a check valve then to a catch tank and into my pass. turbo inlet temporarily. I had it hooked up to the vacuum on the manifold but with the open filter it was creating a nasty vacuum leak. I have a haltech ready to go in which will solve that problem but i want to wait to see how much this issue is going to hurt my wallet.


hope that made sense. thank you all for the help

 

i know on the mazda i had, oil would get into the turbo and not drain back out and start smoking, it had something to do with the oil seal on the bearing i believe...

But it smoked exactly like you said yours does... The longer u sit, the more it throws out then when you drive off it puts out a smokescreen. Does the smoke smell like burnt oil?

 

Sounds like the oil isn't draining well from that turbo.

 

It could be a lot of things. It could be leaky valve stem seals, turbo oil seal. The only way to tell is to take apart the intake piping and check for oil. If the seal is bad on the turbo it is likely leaking fron bith sides. I don't think it could be the PCV system. At idle would be the least likely time for a PCV issueto show up.

 

I do need to pull the inlet pipe off and check it. I got under the car and did a visual inspection and the drain looked good, no kinks. The smoke smells like oil for sure.

Jetpilot- why would valve seals only leak at idle though? If it is seals wouldnt they leak in boost as well?

 

First check the area around the BOV. If any oil is getting into your intake it will have to pass the BOV and will vent oil from there.

The smoke at ilde will be less diluted due to the reduction in airflow. If you take the same amount of oil and dilute it with increased airflow through the motor at higher RPM's it won't be as noticeable.

 

I have the EXACT same issue now!! I have the Greddy TD05H-18G kit. I was guessing the turbo seals were definitely gone, but now I'm beginning to wonder. I did compression test and all was good 145-150psi in all cylinders. I did have oil on the back side of plugs 5&6, not on the piston side, which tells me thats valve cover gaskets. Also my intake pipe is clean. Any ideas?... TIA..

P.S. I dont know what thread jacking is, but if this is it then, dude, sorry, just trying to help us all out..

 

To see if it's a valve guide or piston rings gone bad pull the spark pulg out and read it. It will be full of carbon and oil deposits if the oil is getting into the cylinder. Compression tests are worthless in my opinion. I don't know why more people don't embrace the leakdown test as it it gives much better results. It's a little more involved than doing a compression test but well worth it.

A compression test done on my last motor revealed no issues. We then did a leakdown test and saw 2 weak cylinders.

 

All the spark plugs looked good, almost new. I wish I had done a leakdown test but I'm almost certain that its turbo seals on the driver side. All there is to do now is pull the exhaust side and find all the oil there. The car runs and pulls fine and hard. With the boost turned all the way down it still gets to 5.9psi. If you have any other questions please ask, Thanks!

 

post pics of the business end of the setup... hard to e-diagnose a custom turbo setup if you cant even see it!

 

Hmmm... why only one side - and only at idle? That would indicate a turbo specific issue (driver's side for true dual exhaust or passenger's side if you've got an X pipe).

 

its all good dude, i wouldnt consider it thread jacking jus yet Its all about getting good info to help us all. our issue does sound different though. My valve cover gaskets are good I have no oil on the TOP of the plugs.

Jetpilot-
I had my plugs out the other day just to do a visual. and it looked pretty standard. nice tan colored electrode and I didnt notice anything out of the ordinary with the porcelain. Im running NGK iridium tipped plugs. I did do a compression test it was legit. So it looks like its time for a leakdown test this weekend.

Phunk- Im going to get some pics of my setup up and possibly some video footage of the smoking. thanks for your input in advance and I might add your fuel rails are working flawlessy

Rcdash- yeah its true dual with no crossover so it is definitely something wrong with the drivers side bank. Im really leaning towards a turbo issue.

 

A good look at my drain line prior to install



shows both drains..


I can get some more pics in a little bit. Not sure what ones will help most though.

 

k heres some video. the quality sucks because its on my cellphone.

this is one i recorded for my friend. dont mind the audio



This one I just recored today kinda hard to see the smoke but youi can tell its there and that the other bank isnt smoking.



And this is a couple revs to clear it out. the other side is looks like it is smoking but its pretty cold outside and i think its steam. might wanna turn your speakers down my exhaust distorts the pickup really bad

 

I've never seen oil return at that location on the VQ.

 

+1. That driver's side return is much further back than every other setup I've seen. I'm not sure if that's a place where oil pools or not... Perhaps phunk will know.

 

well i guess neither had we lol. But it looked legit when we were gettin everything ready. But if that drain location isnt working properly then why after 15,000 miles would it just now start smoking?

rcdash- That is something i just started thinkin about staring at the pictures. I wasnt thinkin about pooling oil. we just figured its above the oil level so it should drain fine.

 

This may sound like a stupid question but could it be misfiring too? I saw the exact same thing with the sound more or less on my buddies land cruiser...we put a custom turbo into it. I just wanna throw that out there...the way that smoke is coming out just makes me think about it.

 

Well a friend of mine noticed how it was "puffing" and said it looks like oil in just one cylinder (instead of a turbo issue) because it is not a consant smoking. But my exhaust is true dual with no cross over so i would expect it to puff like that due to firing order. I am probably wrong, its probably just one more excuse i give myself to make me feel better about everything

I dont think misfiring would cause it to do that mainly because the smoke is from oil. I dont think it is fuel related at all.

Also though my car has always sounded like it is misfiring at idle. I suspect from poor injector scaling from my big injectors and less then adequate ems. but if i can fix the smoking then I will put my haltech in.

 

i doubt its the turbo drain plumbing causing an issue. you could test that by idling the car with the turbo draining into a bucket and the oil pan bung blocked off. of course, you can only do this until you have lost a quart or two of oil and then you run risk losing oil pressure.

i think its gotta be either a seal in the turbo or a problem with a cylinder on that bank. i would run leakdown test on that bank, and if the results come up good, yank the turbo for a rebuild?