Turbo oil leak issue

[ikle]

Ok here is my problem, I have a newly rebuilt TA 49 turbo ( 1 month old with about 25 miles on it) that is leaking oil where the exhaust housing and center section bolt together. I have read many posts were others are having the same exact problem and it was stated that it is because of oil flooding (to large of a oil supply line), to much crank case pressure or a restricted oil drain line. I contacted the turbo company that rebuilt it and they said I might have a -6 line coming off the turbo saver instead of a -4 supply line ,so I have one on order (but as I compare it to my -4 fuel pressure line it looks identical, so I am thinking the oil supply line on order isn't going to help). I also have valve cover breathers installed in each valve cover but the are a little dirty. My pcv I have I purchased from Auto Zone about 2-3 years ago that was recommended from other members, I don't remember the part # but I believe it is made of plastic instead of metal like the stock one.. The car has almost 50,000 original miles and when I had the turbo off the oil drain looked good. So the questions I have is:
1) can the vents on the valve covers be cleaned or do I need to replace them?
2) will I be better off replacing the pcv I have with a RJC pcv ?
3) should I replace the oil drain even though it looks good ?
Also any other suggestions you might have would be great. Thanks,Kyle.

 

[ikle]

Anyone ?

 

[1KWIKSIX]

Ok here is my problem, I have a newly rebuilt TA 49 turbo ( 1 month old with about 25 miles on it) that is leaking oil where the exhaust housing and center section bolt together. I have read many posts were others are having the same exact problem and it was stated that it is because of oil flooding (to large of a oil supply line), to much crank case pressure or a restricted oil drain line. I contacted the turbo company that rebuilt it and they said I might have a -6 line coming off the turbo saver instead of a -4 supply line ,so I have one on order (but as I compare it to my -4 fuel pressure line it looks identical, so I am thinking the oil supply line on order isn't going to help). I also have valve cover breathers installed in each valve cover but the are a little dirty. My pcv I have I purchased from Auto Zone about 2-3 years ago that was recommended from other members, I don't remember the part # but I believe it is made of plastic instead of metal like the stock one.. The car has almost 50,000 original miles and when I had the turbo off the oil drain looked good. So the questions I have is:
1) can the vents on the valve covers be cleaned or do I need to replace them?
2) will I be better off replacing the pcv I have with a RJC pcv ?
3) should I replace the oil drain even though it looks good ?
Also any other suggestions you might have would be great. Thanks,Kyle.

Kyle,

1)as long as your breathers on the valve cover are not restricted, they should be OK. If you've got baffled rubber grommets installed, you should be sure to cut / remove some of the rubber mat'l that is covering the two different slots / baffles as they are very restrictive and would definitely be a contributing factor to your issue.

2)in my experience the black plastic PCV valve sold at AutoZone works fine....again, check by blowing into one end to ensure that it seals and stops the flow of your air. If not replace it with another one....I have found I needed to check this in the store before buying as I ran across a few that were defective right in the box! Factory PCV or Autozone replacement have both worked fine for me....I just prefer the AutoZone one as seems to help keep my BLM's more consistent.

3) oil feed lines size and restrictors would give you the type of problems you are encountering too. Read up and use the search engine, there is tons of information on here about this. From my recollection, many others have experienced this problem too. Since you've already contacted the turbo company (I assume it's Precision) follow thru with their recommendations. Hopefully it will resolve this issue for you.


dave

 

[ikle]

Kyle,

1)as long as your breathers on the valve cover are not restricted, they should be OK. If you've got baffled rubber grommets installed, you should be sure to cut / remove some of the rubber mat'l that is covering the two different slots / baffles as they are very restrictive and would definitely be a contributing factor to your issue.

2)in my experience the black plastic PCV valve sold at AutoZone works fine....again, check by blowing into one end to ensure that it seals and stops the flow of your air. If not replace it with another one....I have found I needed to check this in the store before buying as I ran across a few that were defective right in the box! Factory PCV or Autozone replacement have both worked fine for me....I just prefer the AutoZone one as seems to help keep my BLM's more consistent.

3) oil feed lines size and restrictors would give you the type of problems you are encountering too. Read up and use the search engine, there is tons of information on here about this. From my recollection, many others have experienced this problem too. Since you've already contacted the turbo company (I assume it's Precision) follow thru with their recommendations. Hopefully it will resolve this issue for you.


dave

Dave thanks for the reply. Kyle

 

[bison]

The oil feed size doesnt matter if it's a journal turbo. The internal clearances of the cartridge regulate the oil.

 

[mgmshar]

Just a thought...

I thought I had this problem. But, I'm now pretty sure that the oil near my center section-to-exhaust housing bolts actually came from a leaking turbo oil drain. When the heat shield is on and the fans turn on, the air swirls around under the turbo with enough velocity to pick up the drops of oil from the leaking drain and deposit them in other places. At least that's what I saw on my car with a TA49.

When I would get the oil hot with a few WOT blasts and then shut off the car, I would see a drop of oil form on the turbo drain bolt head. That is how I figured out the the drain was leaking. Make darn sure the drain isn't leaking before you condemn the turbo.

Good luck,

PS: I put a brand new gasket on the drain and tightened the bolts to factory specs, and it still leaked. The flange on my drain is warped pretty badly, which is pretty common. I got it mostly sealed by using RTV on the gasket. I'm planning to install a new drain the next time I pull the turbo. Just because the drain looked good visually doesn't mean it will seal.

 

[ikle]

Heres an update, a couple of days ago I cleaned up all the oil that had leaked out between the center section and exhaust housing. The car hasn't been started in over a week and the oil is still slowly seeping out, it looks like I never cleaned it up. How is this even possiable ? Is there some type of valley inside the center section where oil sits to lubricate the bearing during start up so you don't have a dry start situation ? In my opinion I think there is something wrong with this turbo because my stocker that I removed, that has a lot of up and down play in the shaft, has never leaked or burned a drop. I really need to resolve this issue before the warrantee is up next month. Thanks, Kyle.

 

[ikle]

With all of the knowledgeable members here no one has an answere ? Has anyone experiance this before or am I the only one. Thanks, Kyle .

 

[TurboBuRick]

Are you sure it's not the oil feed or drain line leaking? That would seem more logical and more consistent with a recent swap.

RL

 

[ikle]

Are you sure it's not the oil feed or drain line leaking? That would seem more logical and more consistent with a recent swap.

RL

The leak is coming from the lowest bolt, across from the oil drain,that holds the center section to the exhaust housing. The drain shows no signs of leakage and the oil feed shows no signs either. Thanks for your reply.

 

[turbokinetic]

The leak is coming from the lowest bolt, across from the oil drain,that holds the center section to the exhaust housing. The drain shows no signs of leakage and the oil feed shows no signs either. Thanks for your reply.

I too have seen this problem on Garrett-style T3-frame turbos. I would suggest checking to see what size of oil feed orifice you need. One of my N/A to turbo conversions leaks the exact same as you describe (between the center section and the turbine hsg.) but only sometimes. I have no restrictor and this is a good Garrett journal bearing turbo. Otherwise, the car performs flawlessly.

Sincerely,
David

 

[ikle]

I too have seen this problem on Garrett-style T3-frame turbos. I would suggest checking to see what size of oil feed orifice you need. One of my N/A to turbo conversions leaks the exact same as you describe (between the center section and the turbine hsg.) but only sometimes. I have no restrictor and this is a good Garrett journal bearing turbo. Otherwise, the car performs flawlessly.

Sincerely,
David

David I am using a PTE Turbo Saver with their recommend -4 oil feed line and the oil feed fitting that came in the kit. So I don't believe it's a oil feed problem, but I am no expert. Thanks, Kyle.

 

[turbokinetic]

David I am using a PTE Turbo Saver with their recommend -4 oil feed line and the oil feed fitting that came in the kit. So I don't believe it's a oil feed problem, but I am no expert. Thanks, Kyle.

I see! I think, because you installed all the parts Precision recommend; and the turbo still leaks, maybe they should examine the turbo, as a possible warranty claim, IMHO. Precision is a very well respected brand and there are thousands of their turbos out there that don't leak. I'm sure if there is some small defect in it, they will happy to have it out of circulation!

I know that most turbos have an iron sealing ring on the exhaust side. If this were somehow compromised, it would allow the turbo leak oil as you describe. But otherwise the turbo would work fine. Possibly this could be the problem, but that's internal to the turbo.

Good luck with it!
David

 

[mgmshar]

I wanted to re-open this discussion...

Like the OP, I have a TA-49, except mine is now well over ten years old and probably has well over 100 passes on it. I finally decided that it was time for a rebuild, so I just pulled it off the car earlier this evening.

I had posted previously that I thought oil was leaking from the turbo oil drain gasket, and indeed it was. When I reinstalled the turbo oil drain last time, I used RTV, and that definitely stopped the oil drain leak. However, after a WOT blast, I would still get smoke and burning oil smell from the area of the turbo. Strange.

Please see the picture below. Clearly, there is oil leaking from the bottom two bolts that retain the exhaust housing to the center section.

What would cause this? Would a bad exhaust-side oil seal in the turbo cause this? Something else?

Not sure if it matters, but that's a Precision 0.85 AR housing. I put that on the turbo in about 2002 or 2003.

PS: I'm getting the turbo rebuilt, so I'll report back what was found. If anybody else has figured this out, please advise.

Thanks,

 

[bison]

I wanted to re-open this discussion...

Like the OP, I have a TA-49, except mine is now well over ten years old and probably has well over 100 passes on it. I finally decided that it was time for a rebuild, so I just pulled it off the car earlier this evening.

I had posted previously that I thought oil was leaking from the turbo oil drain gasket, and indeed it was. When I reinstalled the turbo oil drain last time, I used RTV, and that definitely stopped the oil drain leak. However, after a WOT blast, I would still get smoke and burning oil smell from the area of the turbo. Strange.

Please see the picture below. Clearly, there is oil leaking from the bottom two bolts that retain the exhaust housing to the center section.

What would cause this? Would a bad exhaust-side oil seal in the turbo cause this? Something else?

Not sure if it matters, but that's a Precision 0.85 AR housing. I put that on the turbo in about 2002 or 2003.

PS: I'm getting the turbo rebuilt, so I'll report back what was found. If anybody else has figured this out, please advise.

Thanks,

If the turbo doesn't have drain back restriction and the clearances in the turbo are ok then the ex side sealing ring has probably lost it's tension. I've replaced the ex sealing ring and decarbonized the shaft/bearing housing on a lot of these style turbos and ball bearing that were built from 2007-2008. In almost all of them the ring was totally shot. It had zero spring left in it and often was difficult to remove from the shaft because the ends were butted in the groove. Once the shaft is cleaned up in the slinger area and the sealing bore is checked along with everything else it can go back together. VSR balancing is needed on some of the ball bearing turbos. I address the compressor side sealing ring also since it's usually shot also. Sometimes the seal plate needs to be bushed or replaced. Good times.

 

[ikle]

I wanted to re-open this discussion...

Like the OP, I have a TA-49, except mine is now well over ten years old and probably has well over 100 passes on it. I finally decided that it was time for a rebuild, so I just pulled it off the car earlier this evening.

I had posted previously that I thought oil was leaking from the turbo oil drain gasket, and indeed it was. When I reinstalled the turbo oil drain last time, I used RTV, and that definitely stopped the oil drain leak. However, after a WOT blast, I would still get smoke and burning oil smell from the area of the turbo. Strange.

Please see the picture below. Clearly, there is oil leaking from the bottom two bolts that retain the exhaust housing to the center section.

What would cause this? Would a bad exhaust-side oil seal in the turbo cause this? Something else?

Not sure if it matters, but that's a Precision 0.85 AR housing. I put that on the turbo in about 2002 or 2003.

PS: I'm getting the turbo rebuilt, so I'll report back what was found. If anybody else has figured this out, please advise.

View attachment 178132

Thanks,

That looks identical to mine but mine has about 50-75 miles on it, I just gave up to what is causing this problem. If you find out please let me know. Thanks, Kyle.

 

[ikle]

That looks identical to mine but mine has about 50-75 miles on it, I just gave up to what is causing this problem. If you find out please let me know. Thanks, Kyle.

Maybe I should give John Craig a try, I was told he knows his stuff when it comes to these old school turbos.

 

[bob86gn]

I am going to reach out to Patrick by email. Similar problem with my TE-44. I had to pull the DP today to get to my passenger side A-arm and this is what I found:

I bought it back in March of 2011 and it took me almost a year to put it on my stocker so I am not sure if sitting was part of the problem.
Either way, it is leaking like a sieve. This is the beauty of GNs, they keep you on your toes, every project turns into another one.

 

[ikle]

I sent my TA-49 there twice, with the same results. Right know I have about $750 invested into this old school turbo, which to me is way too much $$$$ for old technology. I was really interested in a getting a newer turbo like the TA-58, but I don't want to take a chance spending over $1,000 and having issues with it. For now I am probably going back to my stock turbo, since it gave me no issues, until I get this TA-49 fixed.

 

[ikle]

I am going to reach out to Patrick by email. Similar problem with my TE-44. I had to pull the DP today to get to my passenger side A-arm and this is what I found:

I bought it back in March of 2011 and it took me almost a year to put it on my stocker so I am not sure if sitting was part of the problem.
Either way, it is leaking like a sieve. This is the beauty of GNs, they keep you on your toes, every project turns into another one.

I hope you have better luck than I did.