need some thoughts turbo seals.....smoking

[Red Regal T]

After 110,000 miles on a stock turbo, my car started to smoke badly on startup and pretty good at idle. Replaced it with a stock turbo I just had rebuilt locally and stopped smoking. It's been on the car for a couple thousand miles and it's starting to smoke litely at idle and under WOT leading me to believe I'm having a turbo seal problem again.

Stopped by my turbo guy and told him I was going to take it off and bring it by. I asked him why the seals might be leaking and he shrugged his shoulders. Good answer. Can I get any suggestions from you folks on what may cause this after a couple thousand miles on a rebuild?

 

[John Larkin]

I did my own (with Sir Kendall of Frederick's help). The exhaust seal is really nothing more than a tiny little steel piston ring-type seal. It ain't easy to get to seat either. You need 3 arms. But once seated, the only thing really holding it in is proper torque on the compressor wheel and the force fit of the ring itself. This is my opinion only but if the compressor wheel nut backed off, it could have allowed the shaft to create some slop and popped the ring back out. After assembling mine wrong about 8 times, I finally came to the conclusion that 12 in-lbs with red loctite on the nut was the best solution for me. Ran it troublefree for a year before upgrading the whole turbo. You might pull the compressor housing off (since that's the easiest thing to do) and see if there's any slop and/or scraping on the inside of it. The whole turbo has to come off to do the exhaust side obviously. Good luck, and again this is my opinion only.

 

[Red Regal T]

Thanks, John. Sounds like putting one together is a PIA. I only have "two" hands. I took one apart the other day. I don't know what I'm looking at. I need a tutor. I'd sure like to get more input on this.

 

[Intercooler]

Do you have traces of oil in the IC, TB or downpipe? Did you do a total clean on the system when the last turbo went? If traces were left behind you could be getting it from there. Short of these, I think your turbo guy may not have done such a hot job.

 

[Drthv8r]

I rebuilt my stock turbo several years ago, to this day it's still running strong. I called John Craig and purchased the overhaul kit from him. Rebuilding a turbo isn't all that hard to do. John will help you over the phone if you run into a snag.

In fact John told me to go for it and try it myself. That for one thing I'll learn more about turbos and that I'll find out that there's no voodoo magic to them. John even took the time to fax some helpful instructions to me. Look up class act in the dictionary, that's where you'll find John Craig.

 

[Red Regal T]

Jesse, I didn't clean the system when replacing my original smoking turbo. However, have been running the rebuild for a couple thousand miles until I noticed smoking this week. I just pulled the turbo off and found slight oil residue in the inlet bell. Also discovered a hairline crack on the intercooler neck. Oil is litely seeping out of this crack. I'm putting on a known good turbo from a friend of mine just to be sure it's the turbo seal. Exhaust side doesn't show any problem. Any thoughts would be helpful. Thanks guys.

 

[Drthv8r]

I pulled the intercooler off the turbo then rev'ed the motor up. You could see a thin stream of oil blowing out the turbo. Not a mist but a stream. Seems I remember John saying a little oil residue isn't out the norm as long as it wasn't too excessive. I then told John it's streaming out the turbo and he said it's time for an overhaul.

Just don't jump the gun until you're sure it's the turbo. Some people first off put the blame on the turbo when a lot of times it's something else. Like replacing the PCV valve with a wrong one will cause the engine to smoke.

 

[Red Regal T]

Verdict is in.................guilty turbo. Replaced my turbo with a friend's and no more smoke. I'll be taking it back to my local rebuilder for another try. Thanks for all your inputs.

 

[dpok69]

whats the average cost of a rebuild job? Also how much is a rebuild kit?

 

[Red Regal T]

I paid $225 for this particular rebuild which included bearings and seals. I'm pretty sure I get a free fix due to the problems I'm having. I thought it was high but had no reference to go by. I could be wrong about it being high.

 

[Drthv8r]

When I puchased my rebuild kit it was $75.00 but that's been several years ago.

 

[BigTurbo6]

bad turbo

My turbo recently just blew a seal as well....who sells a good overhaul kit and about how much is it?

 

[TheDoughboy]

Originally posted by Drthv8r
I rebuilt my stock turbo several years ago, to this day it's still running strong. I called John Craig and purchased the overhaul kit from him. Rebuilding a turbo isn't all that hard to do. John will help you over the phone if you run into a snag.

In fact John told me to go for it and try it myself. That for one thing I'll learn more about turbos and that I'll find out that there's no voodoo magic to them. John even took the time to fax some helpful instructions to me. Look up class act in the dictionary, that's where you'll find John Craig.

How does one contact John?

Thanks,

Ron

 

[Drthv8r]

Limit Engineering - John C. Craig
885 Kiowa Ave Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403
1 (520) 453-7321
1 (520) 453-0789 (fax)

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