Keep your PCV valve clean and here is why...
Thread Starter
Evolved Member
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 717
Likes: 0
From: Kelowna, B.C., Canada
Keep your PCV valve clean and here is why...
I just lost my turbo! 
It would seem so far, that a plugged PCV valve was the cause as well as the cause for some other problems caused in the engine. Here is what happened:
-First I started to notice the turbo being sluggish in reaching high boost. (1.25 bar)
-Then I noticed great preasure build up under the valve cover when under boost.
-This resulted in oil pissing out of the valve cover gasket onto the manifold.
-Car idled poorly.
-Turbo would now only hit 0.6 bar boost.
-After testing, found I had almost no vacuum.
-Checked the PCV valve and found it seized and semi plugged.
-After cleaning it out all the mentioned problems went away, except the turbo would still only go up to 0.6 bar and it did it very slowly. (took all of third gear to climb to that boost.)
-Opened up the intake side of the turbo only to find oil in with the turbine. That would mean bearings and seals, toast!
The conclusion I have come to so far, is the plugged PCV valve under high boost caused so much pressure, it went back into the crack case and interfered with the oil circulation going to the turbo causing the bearings to fail.
So far this is just my theory so far. On May 17th I'm taking my car into my mechanic in Vancouver to have the engine stripped down. I'll keep you guys posted as to what we find, in case there was a different cause. I may also go with a ceramic bearing turbo this time.
If anyone else has some theories about this, I'd love to hear them.
It would seem so far, that a plugged PCV valve was the cause as well as the cause for some other problems caused in the engine. Here is what happened:-First I started to notice the turbo being sluggish in reaching high boost. (1.25 bar)
-Then I noticed great preasure build up under the valve cover when under boost.
-This resulted in oil pissing out of the valve cover gasket onto the manifold.
-Car idled poorly.
-Turbo would now only hit 0.6 bar boost.
-After testing, found I had almost no vacuum.
-Checked the PCV valve and found it seized and semi plugged.
-After cleaning it out all the mentioned problems went away, except the turbo would still only go up to 0.6 bar and it did it very slowly. (took all of third gear to climb to that boost.)
-Opened up the intake side of the turbo only to find oil in with the turbine. That would mean bearings and seals, toast!
The conclusion I have come to so far, is the plugged PCV valve under high boost caused so much pressure, it went back into the crack case and interfered with the oil circulation going to the turbo causing the bearings to fail.
So far this is just my theory so far. On May 17th I'm taking my car into my mechanic in Vancouver to have the engine stripped down. I'll keep you guys posted as to what we find, in case there was a different cause. I may also go with a ceramic bearing turbo this time.
If anyone else has some theories about this, I'd love to hear them.
Last edited by evo_dan; May 13, 2002 at 04:12 AM.
That's my birfday! 
Seriously sorry to hear about that. You can't lose your car though! It's in my top 5 of all time best sleepers. Anyway...keep us posted. ::seriously considers starting a "dan's kids" turbo fund::
Seriously sorry to hear about that. You can't lose your car though! It's in my top 5 of all time best sleepers.
Anyway...keep us posted. ::seriously considers starting a "dan's kids" turbo fund::
Thanks HobieKopek. No, I don't plan on getting rid of this car. Even if I ever get an Evo, I'm keeping this car. If anything once it's fixed, it will be even faster. 
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
vtluu
Evo How To Requests / Questions / Tips
20
Aug 30, 2010 04:29 PM
