cooked or salvageable?

[shadow88]

HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION

Let's say the oil drainback tube was kinked or restricted. Vehicle smoked out of the exhaust from oil backing up in the turbo. If the oil return is corrected, is the turbo damaged or will it come back to life?

[Lee'sdaytona]

I would say it would be ok. I would think having too much oil in there would be much better than no oil at all where it would seize for sure. I would guess that after fixing the problem, it would smoke for a bit as the excess oil burns off than you would be ok
-Lee

[The S is Silent]

Would not having a PCV valve cause a turbo to smoke intermittently? This thread just made me think about the problem I'm having...would too much crankcase pressure cause the oil to not drain out of the turbo fast enough?

As for your hypothetical...I have no experience to base an answer on. Your guess is as good as mine.

[Chris W]

HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION

Let's say the oil drainback tube was kinked or restricted. Vehicle smoked out of the exhaust from oil backing up in the turbo. If the oil return is corrected, is the turbo damaged or will it come back to life?

Check/replace fouled spark plugs. Check/replace plugged catalytic convertor. Blowing oil out the turbo will kill a cat in short order. In most cases, turbo seals will reseat themselves without issues.

Chris-TU

[altered7151]

Would not having a PCV valve cause a turbo to smoke intermittently? This thread just made me think about the problem I'm having...would too much crankcase pressure cause the oil to not drain out of the turbo fast enough?

As for your hypothetical...I have no experience to base an answer on. Your guess is as good as mine.

Its not really the turbo smoking as it is oil pushing past the rings. I had an intermitten smoking problem like you described, was just running a breather on the valvecover nipple. I thought the turbo might be going, but tried hooking up the pcv system before replacing the turbo and if cured all the smoking problems.

[shadow88]

Thank you for your responses Lee, Matt, Tyler, and Chris (twice).

I'm attempting to use a tbi manifold and the oil drain tube looks to be on a poor angle to properly drain the oil back into the block. I know most people relocate the tube into the oil pan, but I just had the pan off last weekend on my back in the garage, and I really would like to not have to do that again.

When it's up and running and I can do it at work with a hoist, sure, but for now I'd like to just try it for the drive into work.

Has anybody with a tbi manifold used the drain tube in the block (shortened and angled obvoiusly) OR does this HAVE to go into the pan?

[BadAssPerformance]

A few years ago I had a fresh S-60 turbo from Turbonetics that smoked the first time I started the car up with it on it. Turned out the return line was slightly kinked and that motor had high enough oil pressure that even a slight kink couldnt let it drain sufficiently. The Turbonetics guy said that it shouldnt cause any problems cause the turbo has a drain hole that dumps the oil out the exhaust side if it gets too high. The drain hole is there so that it doesnt get pressurized and damage the seal. Not sure if all turbos have such a drain hole? Chris?

If this does happen, in addition to what Chris said about the cat being FUBAR, the oil might take a while to burn out o the rest of the exhaust too, so it might smoke a little while even after it is draining properly.

About the return line into the oil pan... with the car on the ground and your return line going into the block, what angle is it at? If your TBI manifold lowers the turbo so that the return line doesnt have any 'rake' to it then it will not drain sufficiently. if it has some rake to it then it might be ok to get you to your shop with the lift, just keep the RPM low so the oil pressure is low...

[shadow88]

engine was on it's final mock-up today. I re-did the tbi manifold mounting angle to try to help oil drain back angles. It's at about 10 deg. from dead flat.

So far it's the stock garrett, I'll use this to get to a dyno, then hopefully purchase the best turbo for my application. It ought to be running by sunday, (Beware nieghbours......lots of noise until exhaust is put back on..hehehehe)

does anyone know if 10 deg. is enough?

[Chris W]

engine was on it's final mock-up today. I re-did the tbi manifold mounting angle to try to help oil drain back angles. It's at about 10 deg. from dead flat.

So far it's the stock garrett, I'll use this to get to a dyno, then hopefully purchase the best turbo for my application. It ought to be running by sunday, (Beware nieghbours......lots of noise until exhaust is put back on..hehehehe)

does anyone know if 10 deg. is enough?

The angle of the drainback should not exceed 20 degrees from straight down.

Hope that helps,

Chris-TU

[BadAssPerformance]

Good to know. Is the stock one that steep?

[GLHSKEN]

Almost straight up and down... You are from chicago, you should know that... "Chicagoland... all our cars are stock" ;)

[BadAssPerformance]

Yep, all our cars are stock! ;) not sure about the vertical thing tho, especially with the engine tilted back.

[shadow88]

I measured the engine tilt with the engine assembled and wheel on the ground = 13 deg. on my car (slight pre-load from solid bobble strut).

It's together now, pics coming soon, should be running in the very near future.

I had to bend the hell out of the oil return tubes to achieve a 10 deg. angle. I'll let you know if it smokes or I pull the pan off.

Oh, who am I kidding, I'll tow the bugger to work:D

[shadow88]

This question is now answered.

JT was correct about the high revs=high oil pressure. It didn't smoke going to work, but after a quick burnout in the parking lot, it smokes. Today the oil drain was relocated to the pan and now things are cool.

Thanks for all the answers, just in case your'e wondering, it's salvagable.:thumb:

[BadAssPerformance]

Good to hear you got it working! :thumb: