Just installed billet 5857 turbo but having smoking problem

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May 17, 2002
sup guys, just installed a 5857 turbo on my car and the first test drive was fine, then today i went on a second drive for about 40 miles, and close to the end the car started smoking out of the tail pipes. not a huge amount but enough to smell and see(definately oil). im running a -4 braided teflon feed line from the stock supply location and a g body parts new drain line(the black nylon braided rubber one with barbed fittings on both ends). so im thinking maybe the -4 feed line is just a hair too big and was considering stepping down to a -3 or getting a .065 restrictor, but wanted to get everyones opinion on what i should do? im pretty sure its not the drain line backing up cause its a -10 if im not mistaken, makes a sharp 90 after the flange but its not kinked just barely starting to oval. thanks for any input already pmed patrick since hes the resident guru but wanted others opinions what theyve done.
 
I chose to run the -3 and the smoking disappeared. I bought SS brake line from Summit in the exact length I needed, super easy.
 
your referring to a bb billet turbo correct?

If it's dual ball bearing, there is already a restirctor. Changing the feed line won't matter. If it's journal bearing than it may be worth trying. I am not familiar with the G-body drain, is there any chance it's kinked or restrictive?
 
This is for a jornal bearing turbo. The return line is not kinked it's just a barbed -10 fitting on either side with a rubber hose in the middle.
 
sup guys, just installed a 5857 turbo on my car and the first test drive was fine, then today i went on a second drive for about 40 miles, and close to the end the car started smoking out of the tail pipes. not a huge amount but enough to smell and see(definately oil). im running a -4 braided teflon feed line from the stock supply location and a g body parts new drain line(the black nylon braided rubber one with barbed fittings on both ends). so im thinking maybe the -4 feed line is just a hair too big and was considering stepping down to a -3 or getting a .065 restrictor, but wanted to get everyones opinion on what i should do? im pretty sure its not the drain line backing up cause its a -10 if im not mistaken, makes a sharp 90 after the flange but its not kinked just barely starting to oval. thanks for any input already pmed patrick since hes the resident guru but wanted others opinions what theyve done.

Remove the 90, that is a no no

No sharp turns on the drain.
 
sup guys, ended up adjusting the angle of the drain line this afternoon. before it was kind of wrapping around the water pump outlet then going horizontal into the block, i i changed it up to go over the water pump outlet instead and is much more vertical than it was before, i think it was more that than anything. so then i took it out for a test drive 6-7 miles with a couple of wot blasts at 20 psi, no smoke through the whole drive. so im assuming that if it was going to leak through the seals it would do it most at wot. did catch a hint of burnt oil smell when i was turning around but it went away immediately, so im thinking tha might be some residual leftover from yesterday. will take another drive tomorrow and see how that goes. thanks for everyones help and also to patrick he followed up on my prob and even refered me to one of his vendors to get it checked out excellent service.
 
sup guys, just installed a 5857 turbo on my car and the first test drive was fine, then today i went on a second drive for about 40 miles, and close to the end the car started smoking out of the tail pipes. not a huge amount but enough to smell and see(definately oil). im running a -4 braided teflon feed line from the stock supply location and a g body parts new drain line(the black nylon braided rubber one with barbed fittings on both ends). so im thinking maybe the -4 feed line is just a hair too big and was considering stepping down to a -3 or getting a .065 restrictor, but wanted to get everyones opinion on what i should do? im pretty sure its not the drain line backing up cause its a -10 if im not mistaken, makes a sharp 90 after the flange but its not kinked just barely starting to oval. thanks for any input already pmed patrick since hes the resident guru but wanted others opinions what theyve done.

Read second to last sentence. First rule of turbo oil line routing, drain must be straight down with NO sharp turns.
 
ok so the problem still exists after driving for 30 miles yesterday it still burns some oil, i think less than before. there is no smoke like before but i can smell it at times, its very faint but there. funny thing is that it doesnt happen at higher rpms, only at cruising speeds and idle. so i think next im going to try and step down a size on the feed line, to a -3 and see if that stops it per gnvyus1's posts.
 
ok so the problem still exists after driving for 30 miles yesterday it still burns some oil, i think less than before. there is no smoke like before but i can smell it at times, its very faint but there. funny thing is that it doesnt happen at higher rpms, only at cruising speeds and idle. so i think next im going to try and step down a size on the feed line, to a -3 and see if that stops it per gnvyus1's posts.

could you be smelling oil from a VC breather??? if its just faint......
 
That could be possible cause I noticed when I put the new turbo in it sat much closer to the pass vc breather, kinda had to force it in actually. But I doubt it's that cause I don't smell any burnt oil when I open the hood. So I assume it's coming out of the exhaust.
 
Sorry to hear you are still having issues.

So.. what you're saying is, there's no telling how much oil is still trapped and or burning off inside your mufflers or exhaust system right?

A build up of oil inside your downpipe or downpipe elbow, can slowly burn off and cause fumes to get into the cabin at normal cruising speeds if your vent is open or your windows are down. I would take the downpipe off and start from there.

Looking for wet signs of oil in the turbine housing or downpipe elbow. If it is dry, then the next spot to check would be the 4 bolt flange at the downpipe testpipe/cat too cat back flange and look for signs of oil dripping. Both points can cause fumes to leak into the cabin. (Been there, done that)

You would know immediately if your oil seals were leaking, with definite signs of smoking at idle and normal cruise. And one other misconception about oil seals, they don't just blow out. Oil seals are a dynamic design and function similar to piston rings. It normally takes severe bearing wear and an imbalance to take out a seal. Meaning, the rotating assembly has to have a lot of thrust movement in order to start rubbing/breaking down the oil seal. At that point, the oil seal is the least of your concerns. More like compressor wheel and turbine wheel touching down / rubbing / dragging and self destructing.

In this picture, I've circled in red the turbine wheel oil seal location. You get a general idea of what's going on with this cutaway of an older T3 journal bearing turbo with water cooled center section.

GarrettT3turbocharger.jpg


If the turbo is smoking profusely, I would recommend definitely sending it back so we can take a look at it. On all of our journal bearing turbos, our guidelines we recommend are a -4 An feed line and a -10 An return line.
Hope this helps.

Patrick
 
Thanks Patrick, I will pull the downpipe and exhaust today and check it out. The smoking has stopped fully I think haven't seen any smoke from the tail pipes in over 60 mile of driving after the drain line was rerouted. Just the smell of burning oil occasionally whe cruising/idling
 
I'd bet its still residual burning off. Drains (the -10) have to work by gravity as well...very minor pressure post-turbo.
 
Ok so I've probably driven over 300 miles with no smoke from the tail pipes. But after long drives on the highway when I get off I can still smell burnt oil very faintly, it won't do it just sitting idling or cruising around town has to be after I get off a highway drive. Still residual burning off? The downpipe and test pipe are dry actually lots of black soot in the dump. Turbo performs great and hits hard. So I just wait it out or is there smoerjomf else to look at? Thanks
 
You mentioned that the oil smell is faint.

Could it be just the "normal" leaks that the Turbo V6 has?

one good source of oil smell is the leak that occurs on the back of the manifold and drips onto the crossover? Or maybe a Valve cover leaking onto the header? There was also a suggesting that it could be coming out of the breather?

If there is no smoke coming from the tailpipes, you likely solved the turbo oil issue and are now left with other ones?

One line that my buick buds use (both big block and turbo V6) is "If your buick stops leaking oil........maybe it's out of oil?"

:biggrin:
 
Only reason why I don't think it's an existing leak is that it wasn't there before I changed turbos. And I don't think it's anywhere around the engine cause I cant smell it under the hood. I guess well just have to chalk it up to old age
 
I dont think its a figment of your imagination. I have seen another billet unit that was put on and new smoke appeared. Further investigation is underway.
 
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