Did my Turbo just puke?

rang-a-stang

rang-a-stang

Silver Member
Car description in my signature.
I bought my car new and have 135k miles on it now. On a road trip this weekend it started smoking pretty darn bad after about 6 hours at ~73MPH. It runs fine, the oil in the crank case does not seem low, no check engine light. Here is what I am seeing (took this video tonight after all my troubleshooting, then went for a spin to get it up to temp).
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Today I started troubleshooting. I pulled the intercooler and it seems clean and dry inside.
IMG_4248.JPG
IMG_4249.JPG

Next I pulled the spark plugs (about 20K miles on Denso ITV22's) and they all look dry. Here is #3's plug but they all look the same.
IMG_4251.JPG
Did a compression check, all 4 cylinders were 175-180 psi.
Next I pulled opened up my exhaust where the Test pipe meets the cat back and felt inside. It is very carbon'ey but no wet oil in there.
I am assuming this is all pointing toward the oil seal on my turbo has started to fail and is sending oil into the exhaust? Could it be my PCV Valve? I assume if my PCV valve were bad, I would get a CEL, no?
 
You would not get a CEL if your PCV valve dies. You can take the TMIC and throttle body off and check for oil in the intake manifold (make sure you have a replacement gasket for the TB since the OEM is not reuseable). If there is any oil then your PCV valve is sticking open, or you just have long term build up from not having a catch can installed.

It could be your turbo seals on the exhaust side. No way to check those seals without removing the downpipe. Carbon build up in the exhaust is unfortunately normal on these cars and not really an indicator of anything.
 
Copy all, gentlemen. I appreciate the input. It's time to clean my intake valves again, anyway so I guess I'll order a PCV valve at the same time. I do not have a catch can and I do remember seeing some oil in the intake when I cleaned my valves at 80k miles but I expected that since no CC.

If I pull the down pipe and it is the oil seal, what should I expect to see? Raw oil on the housing?

I will be out of town for the next week so for now I will just plan to do my intake valves/PCV valve when I get home with some optimism that it will stop the smoking....while knowing it probably won't (because it's probably the oil seal on the Turbo).
 
You will see sludge build up on the turbine wheel. Similar to what caked up intake valves look like.

At that point you can have the turbo rebuilt, or replace it.

Here is a quick Google image I grabbed. It is not a k04, but you get the idea.
turbo-leaking-oil.jpg
 
rang-a-stang said:
Car description in my signature.
I bought my car new and have 135k miles on it now. On a road trip this weekend it started smoking pretty darn bad after about 6 hours at ~73MPH. It runs fine, the oil in the crank case does not seem low, no check engine light. Here is what I am seeing (took this video tonight after all my troubleshooting, then went for a spin to get it up to temp).
Template public:_media_site_embed_googledrive not found. Try rebuilding or reinstalling the s9e/MediaSites add-on.
Template public:_media_site_embed_googledrive not found. Try rebuilding or reinstalling the s9e/MediaSites add-on.
Today I started troubleshooting. I pulled the intercooler and it seems clean and dry inside.
View attachment 14621
View attachment 14626

Next I pulled the spark plugs (about 20K miles on Denso ITV22's) and they all look dry. Here is #3's plug but they all look the same.
View attachment 14624
Did a compression check, all 4 cylinders were 175-180 psi.
Next I pulled opened up my exhaust where the Test pipe meets the cat back and felt inside. It is very carbon'ey but no wet oil in there.
I am assuming this is all pointing toward the oil seal on my turbo has started to fail and is sending oil into the exhaust? Could it be my PCV Valve? I assume if my PCV valve were bad, I would get a CEL, no?
Click to expand...
I watched the videos , that looks just like mine did when I went catless and finally got to see how bad the turbo was. Someone asked if my car was on fire at a stop light. It was much worse after hooning and then idling.
 
HAHAHA!! OK, good point @Awafrican! I say "normal amount" because I do not have a CC so there is always a light glazing in my intake from PCV.

@DTB Not sure which vacuum port you are speaking of. I had oil in the entire exhaust side of my turbo:
BnBF

There was also some oil dribbling down the turbo oil return pipe since it was leaking out of the housing , but not enough to hit the ground.
Like I said above, the whole inside of my intake manifold has a light glazing of oil in it from the PCV system. I can take pictures but it just looks like dirty oil in an intake. It mixes with EGR soot and makes a mess in there. I clean it out each time I clean my valves (about every 40k miles) but it's pretty much always there.
 
That's definitely some turbo puke! You tossing a OCC in with the new turbo? I didn't see it in your purchase list but while you're in there may not be a bad idea, I recommend the damond stage 1 OCC to help keep that PCV junk out of your intake
 
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