Oil leak on the turbo

[ricster]

The turbo on the Iron Maiden is a Chinese turbo. Its a Wa-Line turbo, and has performed well for me and presumably for the previous owner too. However... There seems to be a problem developing. There seems to be too much oil in the intercooler and in the piping from the compressor side to the IC.

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Now the turbo still sounds as good as the first day I brought it home. The main shaft still has an acceptable amount of play and still seems in decent condition, so I thought maybe there is too much blow by exiting the motor via a pipe from the tappet cover to the air intake pipe to the compressor wheel housing. Now I do have an oil catch can fitted in line so I didn't understand how this was possible.

So, I decided to do a little experiment. I removed the pipe ( from the tappet cover to the turbo air inlet ) and blanked off the turbo side to stop any unfiltered air being sucked in. I then took the pipe and squished it into a 2L cooldrink bottle with a few breathing holes in it to be able to see how much oil is working its way into the turbo compressor housing. I flushed out the intercooler to ensure that it was completely oil free.

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I also cleaned the compressor side of the turbo to again give the best possible results.

Well after about 3 months of driving, I have about a level tea spoon ( 5ml ) of oil in the cooldrink bottle. I think it took all of a week ( I use my Patrol every day ) after cleaning everything, to start showing the signs of oil around the turbo.

So.... Its not blow by from the motor. This leaves me with 2 other scenarios. First one... The oil seals on the turbo shaft are tired and need replacing, or the second one is that the turbo is getting to much oil.

This second scenario is the one that has me curious. I have read on many, many forums etc that there should be an oil restrictor fitted at the oil inlet to the turbo. Now mine has NEVER had one fitted. The oil feed pipe just screws onto the fitting on the turbo ( see the silver domed connector on the turbo oil inlet on pic below .... by the way this is a very old pic of the turbo when I had it off after the Iron Maiden burnt the hole in the number 2 piston 5 years ago )

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Is there supposed to be an oil restrictor fitted, and if so what the heck does it look like ??

I am also assuming that due to there being too much oil running through the turbo bearing, and at pressure, the seals have probably passed there prime and would need to be replaced anyway. I don't want to just replace them if that is not the cause of the problem. I hate masking problems, always better to find the root cause !!!

[Wilkie]

Ai Cedric you should have bought a Gas burner and not a Coal burner....

[Pieter B]

If I remember correctly my 2.7 had a restrictor "bolt". It looked/was a banjo type bolt. The hole through the bolt restricted the flow of oil to the turbo.

[ricster]

Ahhh... Thanks Pieter, I've probable seen one but never taken note of it.

Wilkie, this Iron Maiden has traveled many a long and difficult path together with me... she is like my soulmate !!

[Tinus lotz]

Dude have you only got oil cooling the turbo?
IMHO Turbos has become service items ....you can get a very good one from turbo works for about 4.5k brand new same tipe that Michael got on his patrol ......it cost about 4k to overhaul them......mabe its time dud just get the new one

[ricster]

Yeah thats the problem.... I need new tyres too.... I just don't have R12k for tyres and still R4k for turbo. The other thing is if its a restrictor that is needed then a new turbo isn't going to fix the problem.

[Wilkie]

Wilkie, this Iron Maiden has traveled many a long and difficult path together with me... she is like my soulmate !![/quote]

I hear you brother I hear you

[Kagiso II]

Yo Cedric .. I will be taking DIRTY HARRY to Jan Visser at TurboWorks when we r back from the Moz Outreach .. maybe we can go together ?
The turbo on DirtyHarry is an A X T as was imported from Azzie land .. way back [two owners ago]

[Michael]

Cedric, I would not be too worried about the oil coming from the compressor housing. I am not a turbo expert and you might already know this, but the seals in the turbo are actually made of metal and not rubber. This means excessive pil preasure cannot damage the seals imo.

A turbo place would give you better advise, and make sure they understand the problem and that they can guarantee you that there will be no oil coming from the compressor housing otherwise I will not do it.

The oil from the breather is also normal, the higher boost you run the more oil will be coming from the breather.

How much oil are you burning between services?

[ricster]

Oom Mac, thanks for the offer, but at the moment time and money is something I need to watch carefully at the moment.... I need tyres too...

Michael, yeah I'm not too worried about it, as its been like that for over a year now. I chatted to Brett last night from the forum, and he mentioned something to me that also makes a lot of sense. I do a LOT of short, stop start driving. I can only imagine that carbon buildup on the TD42 old school, and infact any diesel engine will be a lot worse than in a diesel motor that get driven longer distances. I do a full oil & filter service EVERY 5000Km with Delo 400 oil, but I can tell you that at 5000Km the oil is blacker than the deepest darkest tunnel underground. So with the seals being metal and not rubber, this carbon buildup could well be the root of all my evils.

The quantity of oil passing through the whole system is also not a major concern to be honest. Its just irritating to me. It shouldn't have this leak, so I have this itch that i need to scratch. I would estimate that out of 12 litres of oil for each service
I add about 1L. This consumption to me is acceptable ( to a degree ) as I know the short stop start trips is probably my root cause of this consumption.

I figured that with the higher boost there will be a higher oil content passing through the breather. That was why I decided to see what quantity of oil residue is coming out the breather by removing the pipe from the air intake. Honestly, I expected much MUCH higher volume of oil in the "Ricster Special Oil Capture" container, but clearly the 5ml of oil is more than acceptable over the 5000km that I've had it in. This does make me feel a lot better knowing that motor wise, everything is still in good condition, and that the root cause of this problem is either worn seals, or possible the fact that there is no oil restrictor fitted on my turbo oil inlet, possibly even a combination now of both, which makes sense too.... worn seals and too much oil pressure, with possible carbon buildup at the seals...... Hmmmm .....the thick plottens....