Mr. Wob

iTrader: (2)

I need help guys: let me start at the beginning and so you have the full story.

Was at the track last weekend and at the beginning of my lap in a warm but not hot car, I shifted from first to second and something felt odd. About a 1/4 mile later I started smelling oil and smoke started pouring out everywhere. I dropped my rpm and drove over to the pits.

Got to the pits and after having to clean up oil and restart a few times to actually track down the leak I found my braided SS turbo oil feed line had a split under the SS skin. About 1/4" section had oil coming out from the braiding. Called BEGi (I have an S4 kit) and got a new one sent.

Yesterday started the replacement. You have to remove a lot to get the bottom end of the oil feed line on the block, so I figured now was a good time to replace my cracked manifold and incorrect downpipe that I had in my garage from BEGi that were sent a few weeks ago.

Pulled the turbo, manifold and dp out of the car and replaced both the manny and the dp. Checked the turbo for shaft play and it seemed as stock. Reinstalled everything. Started it up, idle test is good, warmed up, still ok. Pulled out of the garage and washed it. Took for a drive not under boost until warm (a few blocks). Got into boost - went 1st to 2nd under 80% throttle and then to 3rd for a second. Then started hearing almost the sound of like a turbine blade touching the side of the compressor sporadically. Not rhythmic - just a random "ting" noise.

Turned around and drove back to the garage - tried listening where the sound was coming from and it sounded like the turbo. gave it a couple rpm blip to hear if it changed frequency of occurrence and it did. Then I started to hear some what sounded like knock. I shut the car off.

I check the oil feed line for leaks and see if its warm: Line is warm but not hot. The drain line is what seems to be warmer than the feed line.

Started back up. Takes a second to start and when it does the knock sound is gone but I still get the "ting" sound from the turbo. I blip it a couple rpm the knock sound is back but worse, idle is real bad and it sounds like a Subaru all of a sudden. Struggles to keep idle and evens out a little but with realllllly bad rhythmic knocking. Turbo noise still there. Car can barely run.

My guess with talking to Sam is the knocking is HLA noise from lack of oil pressure and the turbo "ting", may be from the same. Let's suppose it is even - what would cause that? I thought that perhaps the new oil feed line could be blocked and that would cause the turbo to be deprived, but it doesnt explain the HLA noise then. Even if I starved the turbo of oil on the track and the turbo was shot - let assume it is - does the feed line off the block run before the oil channel to the head? Could I have starved both? The turbo spooled just fine when I was in boost on the test drive. Engine drove just fine before boost too.

So here are a few caveats to the day too:
1) When replacing the turbo parts I noticed two little bearing looking ***** on my work bench. First thing I thought is oh god the turbo spit up some bearings. But they didnt look metal, they looked like plastic or something. I put one in a pair of vice grips and it shattered into dust and little shards - white inside, grayish brown on the outside. After talking to Sam, he mentioned the way the cartridge is setup (GT2560R), the channels the oil is fed through would not allow for two bearings to come out, moreover that the turbo wouldn't spin as cleanly and freely as I described it did. I don't know what those ***** go to. Could have just been stuff on the workbench - but I don't know. Still freaking me out a little now.

2) I moved the WB sensor back to another bung about 1 foot further downstream. WB is showing its running really rich when it get the Subaru sound. I am getting some fluctuations in A/F too, but this is very mechanical sounded problem.

3) I turned boost up 1lb to 13-14psi from 12-13psi when I reinstalled the turbo

4) I was only down about 1.5 quarts of oil from the track.

Any help would be really appreciated. I am at such a lose. I pulled the valve cover off to look for obvious signs of damage but nothing seemed irregular. It really seems like lack of oil pressure, but I can't figure out why.

Sorry for the long post - I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure this out. My wallet is a little scared too.

Thanks too to Sam for helping me over the phone yesterday.

Faeflora

iTrader: (2)

EMS?

BTW when I installed my S5 and started it up, oil started spurting out of the feed line and I had to get a replacement too :(.

Mr. Wob

iTrader: (2)

MSPnP.

I'll reserve my thoughts on BEGi for another time.

dustinb

There's lot of trouble shooting things you could do. You could disconnect your ignition coil, disconnect the turbo oil feed, point it into a cup, and have someone turn the motor over. Oil should spray out at a fast rate. This will verify if you're getting oil there or not. To see if the knock is coming from the turbo or your motor, you can pull the wastegate arm off of the turbo and turn the car on (make sure you hooked the oil feed back up). This should stop the turbo from spooling, and you can tell then if the knock is turbo and motor, or just turbo. You might want to also check your coolant to make sure it doesn't have oil in it. Is your motor built at all? 13 to 14lb, if not tuned properly with the correct octane can cause bad things in a stock motor.

Mr. Wob

iTrader: (2)

Motor is not built - i never had any problems with the tune and its on 93 since day one.

Even if there is a rich condition that can be explained by the turbo noise, it doesnt explain the HLA noise that developed simutaniously. I'm at a loss.