Turbo Failure

connorwhite.online

connorwhite.online

Active Member
I naively never thought the day would come but it seems my head gasket has been compromised. I first noticed white smoke and a loss of power, and discovered that I'd run pretty low on oil ( I let a gradual leak go far too long ). Simultaneously, I added hoseclamps to my Mishimoto catch can setup where oil had been sputtering out of the cylinder head outlet. With full oil, new air filter, full fuel bleeding and an airtight CCV setup I thought I'd be in the clear but it seems things actually got worse.

I drove probably 50 miles in this condition, and upon the final small drive I noticed bubbles around the glowplugs, a puddle of coolant on the ledge below the fuel rail, and a mess of oil all over the turbo, oil pan, transmission housing, exhaust, etc. Additionally, over the last 2 days there's been an oily/watery mess dripping from the transmission pan (must be running all the way down the housing, it's not trans oil). It looks like the coolant was never compromised (still hulk green), so I'm guessing maybe I caught the coolant weep just as it had happened, and the oil was coming from turbo regurgitation.

I have a baby due end of March so it's time for Daddy to hit the f***ing gas on this teardown. My only worry is identifying the main issue and preventing its repetition. The engine never overheated or anywhere close to it. I have fair reason to believe this is blow-by, seeing as the issue intensified once I tightened the CCV hose and increased restriction back to the intake, thereby building that pressure in the turbo oil drain. I'll probably go sans-catchcan regardless at first. I also have a brand spankin new turbo, and all gaskets. I'll drop the pan, change the oil filter and look for shards. Maybe I'll go ahead and change the thermostat too while I have the rad drained.

Would love to hear all the theories and experiences so I can be sure this won't just happen again, and let me know anything on the list I'm missing. Maybe I'll wait until the little one can help me in hard to reach spots with those tiny hands :D.
 

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I'd do a compression test if you can...

I recently had to do a head and headgasket swap. Its under my thread here . I was able to source all the parts i needed from Steven Lee at Rising Sun. It took me longer than expected as it got cold here. I had to wait on some other parts but the install was fairly straight forward. If you decide to proceed, let me know if you have questions
 
Ok, the glow plugs and injectors (shelf?) are well above the head gasket; if you're getting coolant there it's more likely the radiator hose/clamps. There's also a coolant bypass pipe somewhere in that area...

I agree w/ jixaw, I would not tear the head off w/o something more definitive. The coolant and oil both still being separate (uncontaminated) and not being low on coolant (?) would not indicate a head gasket. Check for bubbles/smoke coming from the radiator.... a good test here is a quick drive around the block on a cold engine; afterwards if the outlet hose is hard and/or the radiator pressurized then you can be pretty certain it's the head/head gasket.
 
sk66 said:
Ok, the glow plugs and injectors (shelf?) are well above the head gasket; if you're getting coolant there it's more likely the radiator hose/clamps. There's also a coolant bypass pipe somewhere in that area...

I agree w/ jixaw, I would not tear the head off w/o something more definitive. The coolant and oil both still being separate (uncontaminated) and not being low on coolant (?) would not indicate a head gasket. Check for bubbles/smoke coming from the radiator.... a good test here is a quick drive around the block on a cold engine; afterwards if the outlet hose is hard and/or the radiator pressurized then you can be pretty certain it's the head/head gasket.
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oh sorry, the shelf below that, right below the head.

Glad to hear it's not decisively the head. But I'm really not sure what this dripping coolant mess under my transmission would be coming from then.

I took the seat off, so maybe I'll just rev her for a few minutes and run the test

thanks @jixaw much appreciated. If I do have to tear it down, I've been looking at Cam's videos @ Project Addiction. I probably have more questions about your stereo system ;)

IMG_0380.jpeg
 

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connorwhite.online said:
oh sorry, the shelf below that, right below the head.

Glad to hear it's not decisively the head. But I'm really not sure what this dripping coolant mess under my transmission would be coming from then.

I took the seat off, so maybe I'll just rev her for a few minutes and run the test

thanks @jixaw much appreciated. If I do have to tear it down, I've been looking at Cam's videos @ Project Addiction. I probably have more questions about your stereo system ;)

View attachment 15641
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Let me know what questions you have. I mostly enjoyed that project.
 
Ok, after running the coolant test, I had neither bubbles nor an overly pressurized rad hose. Guess I'm safe on the coolant passages? I know that doesn't fully rule out the cylinder-to-cylinder head leak but I don't have a compression gauge handy. After tearing down the intake side it does look like almost all the oil is coming from the turbo. I'll just act like it's the turbo unless I find somethin fishy!
 
Well, you do need to find out where the coolant is coming from as well...
 
sk66 said:
Well, you do need to find out where the coolant is coming from as well...
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Still can't find a single hint of where the coolant came from but I'm tearing down the engine sides little by little.
Maybe it's the water pump housing per this post.

I also need to figure out if this Mishimoto catch can was the straw that broke the camels back. The baffling is incredibly tight (porous brass), so perhaps I just need a free-r flowing option. I'm sure my old piston rings (200k) are letting abnormal amounts of blow-by into the crank-case, but it's pretty clear now that the turbo flooded with oil as soon as I tightened down the CCV hose-clamps. I'd just deep-cleaned it last April, so all the oil is fresh. My catch can has barely any oil in it, and I've put probably 2,000 miles on it. I'm not sure if my bad glow plugs and gummed injectors could've added to the stress, but I'm changing those too.
 
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wet turbo contest! :D
Seems the majority of the oil was spitting into the turbine end luckily. Look at that damn buildup! Ruined my new exhaust system. When I removed the turbo the majority of oil came out of the air ports, not the oil feed or drain. It looks like there was a serious leak out of the manifold-to-turbo gasket, which made sense because the nuts were damn near hand-tight. Coolant leak seems to be from the heater hose on the other side of the block. Got my amayama order in and found most everything I needed. Thanks for the assistance @sk66 @jixaw . Designed a new manifold shield and egr delete plates so I'll throw up pics once it's all in and get the .dxf files in the open-source resources tab. Could use a hint as to which vacuum lines I can get rid of now that the EGR's gone (couldn't find that specific info on the forum). Based on the EPC diagrams it looks like the entire vacuum rail was for the EGR.
 

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sk66 said:
Oh, and to the AC solenoid (the vacuum line across the front of the engine)... I forgot about that one.
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Ahhh I was trying to make sense of that whole vacuum line/solenoid but couldn't find it in the epc-data. So that's the A/C line, I thought it was for the fuel pump!
Do I just plug the outlet on the vacuum pump that would go to the vacuum rail?
So vacuum connections are the two turbo-out lines to IP and Waste, and then the brake booster line that taps into the vacuum pump. Other than the brake booster, nothing's tapping into the vacuum pump. Right?
 
The two lines off of the turbo apply boost pressure to the wastegate actuator, and the IP boost compensator (rubber line runs across top of engine).

The vacuum pump applies vacuum to the vacuum rails/solenoids/EGR valve, the AC cut-off solenoid (line across front of engine), and the brake booster... only the brake booster is actually required, but the AC cut-off is nice to have IMO.

You do not want to create leaks in either system... plug any abandoned port/line.
 
sk66 said:
The vacuum pump applies vacuum to the vacuum rails/solenoids/EGR valve, the AC cut-off solenoid (line across front of engine), and the brake booster... only the brake booster is actually required, but the AC cut-off is nice to have IMO.
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I've deleted the air conditioning, but I guess I'm looking at what I think is the idol air control valve vacuum line coming from this solenoid which was connected across the engine to the vacuum rail. Is that right? Or was that for the AC? Can't find mention of that part in EPC


It looks like I should just plumb that solenoid to the vacuum pump and delete the rail entirely.IMG_0509.jpegIMG_0510.jpeg
 
I have the same symptoms as Connor. The mechanic I brought my van to traced the leaks to the turbo and dip stick O-ring. They suggested rebuilding the turbo which seems preferable considering the current prices on Amayama and Megazip. But they quoted $2200 to remove the turbo, send it to the rebuild shop, and re install, also replacing the dip stick O-ring. How hard is it to just take out the turbo myself and replace the O-ring? Is it a remove the driver’s seat and dive right in sort of thing? I changed all the belts, seals, pulleys, and water pump/thermostat already. Figure I could deliver it to a shop and spare the expense of all other labor. I’d replace surrounding gaskets and I guess the oil return tube?
 
Also, my coolant doesn’t appear compromised and is at full capacity since I did a flush a year ago. However, the mechanic spotted slight seepage from the head gasket…
 
@ScatteredPrints I wouldn’t go anywhere near the hearing cartridge. If you’re gonna spend that kind of money is just drop in a new D4BF with the shiny Garrett turbo. I can get back to you in a couple weeks but I bought my new TD-04 (the OG turbo) for $250. I’ll have to do a bit of driving on it for an honest review. It’s ~super easy~ to just swap the trbo out with a healthy can of PB Blaster. I also got new plugs and injectors from the same website. Guessing the quality won’t be 100% but it’s just holding me over til I do the brand new motor down the road.
 
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