[Thumpszilla]

Ok so I am driving down the road and all of the sudden I am producing a smokescreen. I whip to the side of the road and I have oil coming out of the bottom of the turbo just to the front of the return line and between the case halves. I am pretty turbo stupid but the car was not running differently just losing oil. So my car is sitting on the side of the road going to get it tomorrow. Could the return line be clogged not letting the turbo drain and maybe pressure be pushing it through the case? Need to know what to look at to figure it out and get it fixed. Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[Thumpszilla]

Almost forgot 1998 1.8t

 

[4zfed]

First off, that turbo is blown and needs to be rebuilt or replaced. Whether it is due to a clogged return line needs to be determined by inspecting the return line once it is off the car.

I would recommend using this opportunity to flush the feed and return lines and to inspect/clean the oil pickup screen.

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[Thumpszilla]

Just put a new oil pump in a week ago and did an engine oil flush before doing so. Will go get a turbo this weekend I know where a low mileage wreck is and the engine was clean enough to eat off of. I will get the return line as well just in case. Is it easier to get the turbo out if you pull it with the exhaust manifold?

 

[4zfed]

The trick to pulling the turbo is is wether you are able to loosen the innermost bolt holding it to the exhaust manifold. You need a 17mm offset box wrench or a very short swivel socket. If you can't get that one loose, you will need to take the manifold off with the turbo.

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[Thumpszilla]

I think I will just pull them together on both cars.

 

[Thumpszilla]

What size fitting does the oil feed line take at the turbo?

 

[Thumpszilla]

Sorry first post wasn't showing on my phone. So I posted again.

 

[Electron Man]

What size fitting does the oil feed line take at the turbo?

A good set of flare nut wrenches has what you'll need. Do not attempt this job with open-end wrenches. :facepalm:

 

[Thumpszilla]

Ok as I have said I don't know alot about turbo's. I pulled my old turbo and the shaft was broken and both impellers just flopped around. So I went and got a used one. The used one had no play in the shafts it spun freely and the waste gate opened and closed easily by pushing the rod. I got it installed today and I knew I had alot of oil in my exhaust from the last one flying to pieces. So I let the car set and run to burn it out. After a while it cleared up. I have no check engine light, I ran diagnostic with vcds lite no codes, my mechanical oil pressure gauge reads about 40psi at idle (new oil pump) and about 80 above 2k rpm. I took it down the road and the car ran great till I opened it up a little bit, then it smoked like crazy again. Could I be getting to much oil into the turbo and its not draining fast enough? I have seen all kinds of oil feed line kits with a restricted flow fitting that goes into the turbo. Do I need to get one of those? Yes we built oil pressure before we started the car by turning it over with the fuel pump disabled. So we didn't start it with a dry turbo. I really need to get this thing driveable but I am at a loss here. Please help!!

 

[Iowegian]

Did you clean the oil out of the intercooler and any other air intake paths? Maybe you are still burning old oil in the intake when the turbo spools up.

 

[Thumpszilla]

I did not. I don't know a whole lot about turbos and first time dealing with a blown one like this. How do I clean the intercooler and stuff out? I had planned on dropping the exhaust back loose at the clamp tomorrow and blow it out with the water hose to see if I still had oil in it trapped somewhere. Do I just hose out the intercooler too?

 

[Iowegian]

I'm no expert but I'd start by disconnecting the hoses between the turbo and the air intake. There is usually a small amount of oil right present just before the intercooler. You can disconnect the rubber hose there and clean that out. I would guess you have quite a bit of oil there since your turbo went kaput. I'd also remove and clean any other rubber pipes/hoses that are easy to get at. There is a metal pipe that is basically part of the frame in the front of the car. No idea on how to clean that but depending on what you find elsewhere you can try compressed air, a rag on a wire, etc. As for the intercooler, once again, no idea. I guess I'd just pull it off and maybe run something like a Simple Green solution through it. Just draining the oil from the hose before the intercooler may be enough though. Eventually I'd expect all the old oil to get burned up. Blowing that much smoke through the exhaust could damage the catalytic converters in the process so I'd try to clean it up as best you can.

 

[Thumpszilla]

Took out the intercooler and all the rubber lines and cleaned them with degreaser, cleaned the heat exchanger tube with a pressure washer, and total got about a half a pint of oil out of it. Still smokes just a little bit and threw a code for the wastegate valve right before I got home. So maybe I can afford that next week and finally have this thing dependable. Any brands of wastegate valve to stay away from?