Ok, here's my problem:

Took the car out for a drive yesterday. Started fine, ran fine, drove it nice till it was warm. Once warm, did a small pull on low boost (20psi). After I let off and stepped on the brakes, noticed a small cloud of white-ish smoke coming from the rear. It went away quickly. Did the pull again, the smoke cloud got worse, after letting off the gas. Drove it slowly and seemed when I was off the gas, or idling, the smoke got worse.

Stopped on the side of the road and white smoke was coming from the exhaust, at a pretty good volume. Took it back home, thinking I may have blown a head gasket... it looked like that. By the time I got back to my house, driving very slowly was causing a large amount of smoke.

Went and took out the #1 spark plug. Steam or something odd was coming out of the #1 spark plug hole... still thought I blew a head gasket. Did a compression test on each cylinder and they all held slightly over 150, which from what I have read on here, is pretty normal. Next, went back to the exhausted, looked in the muffler and it was coated in oil. A pretty significant amount... wiping your finger in it, you'd have a finger full of oil.

So, now I think it's the turbo... I pulled the turbo out of the car. The first thing I noticed, when disconnecting the lower intercooler piping, oil DRAINED out of it. Isn't the only way oil can get in your intake tract is from a turbo gone bad? There was also a small pool of oil sitting in the intake side of the turbo. Shaft play wasn't bad, but it didn't seem good either.

Pulled the turbo out... both sides were caked in oil... the intake and the hotside. Also, looking at the o2 housing, the port from the wastegate was dry, while the port from the turbo was wet.

So, does this sound like a turbo that has gone bad? Or is there something else in conjunction that I should look at as well?

Here are some pics:

As you can see, the exhaust is dry:


Hotside of the turbo, all wet:


Oil in the intake side:

 

The only other place oil can come from is the vent on the head, from what I can understand you have a LOT more oil than that. I am no expert so please dont take me seriously, but FP Red time?

 

The red out yet? I will probably send this off to be redone into something like that.

I had a spare '05 turbo, which is what is going in right now. But I have a lot of cleaning to do, all the intake tract needs to be cleaned out.

 

Pics added.

 

I would have to guess the turbo has gone bad and the oil lubricating the bearings is leaking ... If you did the FP EVO green wouldn't that put you in NASA TTS?

 

Looks like your seals are shot in the turbo. Same symptoms when my turbo blew... lots of oil (and coolant i think) out of the exhaust. The shaft had snapped and the turbo seized so there was no question once I had it apart.

Is this your stock turbo? I'm sure you already know but make sure you clean out EVERYTHING.. IC tubes, IC, etc etc

 

I had this same issue when I had my pcv valve deleted and the valvecover inlet was vented....

The solution for me was to replace the pcv valve and clean everything out, major PITA....

The oil in the intake is what makes me think it is something similar to my issue and not a blown turbo

 

Yeah, it's my stock turbo. I've been spending all day cleaning everything out. There was probably a 1/4 quart of oil in my LICP.

 

I have another stock '05 turbo that's going in. I'll probably have this one core'd on a FP green or red, and do cams and go into TTS next year.

 

You know, I thought of this too... but here's why I dont think that's my issue:

1) I have the pcv going to my oil catch, which returns to the intake, but on the other end of the oil catch can, and it'd have to pass a LOT of fine steel wool to make it back to that. I also looked at this line pretty closely and there was no oil coming out of it.

2) The part where my oil catch comes back into my intake is clean as a whistle. The only oil in my intake (pre-turbo) is right at the turbo itself, the rest of the pipe is clean.

3) There is oil on the hotside of the turbo, but not the wastegate. The exhaust runners from the engine are clean as well as the manifold. Bone dry. Makes me believe that the oil HAD to have come from the turbo.

 

so is it bad to delete the PCV valve and vent it?

 

Instead of venting the PCV valve, you should use a good dual catch can to filter both sides of the PCV system. That way you're still venting the valve cover as designed and you're keeping the gunk buildup in your intake manifold to a minimum.

Fireball, good luck on the replacement. Must be nice to have a spare turbo laying around.

l8r)

 

Turbo is done. Good thing you have a spare. Seen that happen to A LOT of DSMs.

 

It very well could be the turbo, and since you already have it apart why not swap it out. I would just hate to see you clean all of those parts out of oil and then have the same thing happen again in the very near future.

The problem I had resulted in no oil in the exhaust runners, basically none in the intake except for in the inlet of the turbo, and a bunch in the exhaust and IC pipes.

Good luck with the project, the fmic cleaning is not fun, especially if you have to do it twice.

Honestly, I would put the pcv valve going straight back into the intake manifold for the time being. Although then you wont know what caused the problem, but you would stand a better chance against getting oil all thoughout your pipes again.

Dont trash that spare turbo just yet...

 

One other thing, check the oil pump and oil pan seals, and see if you have any seeping oil around those areas where you normally would not see them.

If you see wet oil there, then the pcv is at fault IMO....

The crankcase pressure is too great as the pcv valve has been obstructed somehow and cant vent the extra pressure. Thus, causing the oil to back up in the turbo and out of the exhaust and thru the intake and surrounding oil seals...

That pressurized air that came out of the spark plug was your first clue that it was a pcv issue. A blown turbo would not cause this.