Leaky turbo

H

Hedgehog

New Member
Anyone experiencing oil leaking form thier turbo?
My mechanic says it’s no biggie and is normal for a car this old…
Should I believe him?
Thanks!
Beau
Qld Australia
 
I mean sure its normal i suppose, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be that way.

Do you happen to know where it is leaking from?
Underneath you have an oil in and out.
Oil in uses a copper washer on either side of the fitting.
Oil out is a paper gasket.
Both of these cost pennies for the parts.

At the intake side there tends to be a buildup of oil around the rubber piping. The Pipes tend to be old and not seal well. You can replace these with the oem rubber or you can find these in silicone.

As far as the turbo unit itself, i can’t say whether or not it is common for the unit itself to leak. I would think if it did that would signify bigger problems.


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Agree with @Nenw , maybe spray with a degreaser and see where the oil continues to leak from. New seals/gaskets will help, a high-flow catch-can will solve oil in your intake line.

The one thing I'd be super wary of..... I had installed a catch-can (to solve the oil getting into my intake through the rocker-cover breather) that proved to be far too restrictive, and it absolutely backfired. It caused massive pressure in my oil system and the turbo didn't drain so I had huge amounts of oil leaking into the exhaust. Destroyed my turbo.

See for yourself: https://delicaforum.com/index.php?threads/turbo-failure.4843/post-39466
 
Nenw said:
As far as the turbo unit itself, i can’t say whether or not it is common for the unit itself to leak. I would think if it did that would signify bigger problems.
Click to expand...
Excessive blow-by can cause the turbo to weep a little oil into the intake. But other than that, no, a turbo leaking oil is not ok; if it gets bad enough it can result in engine runaway.
 
Hedgehog said:
Ok thanks everyone I will get it checked out by another mechanic
Click to expand...
Before you do that do what @connorwhite.online suggested and grab a can of degreaser, get that oil cleaned up, drive it for a short bit. See where the oil is originating from. This way you have a better sense for yourself. It helps your mechanic identify the potential culprit a bit easier and the whole process feels a little bit better informed.

As you do that you may want to tighten the intake tube, and check that the oil in and out are torque to spec. You may be surprised to find out that something is loose.
 
So the oil actually looks like it is coming from above the turbo and dripping down onto it.. hoping someone has an idea at what we are looking at here TIA 6BE7C335-699B-4342-AE97-E135D9A05029.jpeg
 
Can you see any oil from the top? If you pull the hose is it full of oil on the inside or is that all external? If it's external the runaway concern is less extreme. It would have to be dumping a pretty good amount of oil into the intake manifold to be fueling itself.
 
That's the bottom of the EGR valve. And it would be getting oil from the inlet (turbo or blowby).
 
In terms of these catch cans being too restrictive @connorwhite.online did you find another solution or use a different brand of catch can? Is there one you reccomend @sk66?
Thanks so much for all your help guys this forum is amazing! What a community!
 
@Hedgehog Seems like a lot of people on here have the ProVent 150, although it seems too bulky to me. I don't condone any Mishimotos, unless you can remove the baffle. It's far too restrictive for an old 4D56. Truthfully I have a hose running straight to the ground and a breather filter on my PCV intake. I still see a tiny bit of oil on my intake EGR blanking plate somehow, but I'll run this thing to the ground before I chase another turbo oil leak.
 
I picked up a provent 150 a while ago and it’s still sitting in a box. As @connorwhite.online mentioned it’s pretty bulky and there isn't a really good spot to put it in. You have to get creative with it. I thought perhaps by the air filter but wasn’t sure if having such a long run of hose from the valve cover would be problematic or not. Then I just got lazy.
 
I have a smaller catch can located on the firewall where the vacuum solenoids were, also an added valve cover breather.

Van was down for 2 weeks... many tasks, few accomplishments, and I almost killed the engine.

This all started while investigating a random odd noise and oil at/from the turbo... First I took off all of the intake stuff to inspect the turbo, which checked out fine in terms of bearings/play. Good news there, but plenty of oil from the valve cover breather. To get to the of the top of the...
delicaforum.com delicaforum.com
 
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