A couple of years ago I turbo'd my Honda V6 in a sandcar using a rebuilt T4 turbo I had previously used on a VW engine in the same car. Since the VW was air coooled I had not used the water cooling feature of the turbo. With the Honda engine I plumbed it for water cooling. A friend helped me put fluids in the engine and new radiator/cooling system for initial startup. He commented that it was taking more water than he expected to fill the system. A short time later water began to pour out of the valve cover vent tube at the top of one of the heads! The entire engine had filled with water. Turns out that the division between the oil drain side of the turbo and the water jacket was not intact (I don't know why or how) and water was draining directly into the engine through the turbo oil drain line. Since the water cooling wasn't absolutely necessary on an open frame car, I simply plugged the water fittings in the turbo and drained the engine to solve the immediate problem. Turbo continued to work fine without water cooling. I never really determined the exact nature of the internal leak in the turbo, but I know it can happen. Probably not likely with a new turbo.

Norm

 

you can clearly see the oil (yellow) and water (blue) galleys here.

 

Ok I know this has been asked before (and sorry to threadjack but its kinda still on topic) but:

HOW dangerous or bad is it to run a water/oil plumbed turbo with just oil and cap off the water lines?

Since the motor rebuild I've been running my turbo (only on 8psi for now) on oil only. I make sure and keep it on a bit longer than usual to let it cool down a bit before I shut the car off and all that, but is it hurting anything that I don't have my water lines hooked up? I don't notice a difference and nothing broke yet, but......

 

not dangerous, not bad. Hell why even go as far as capping off the ports?

 

So what are the water lines in there for then? Just for EXTRA cooling? Kinda a luxury if you will?

 

to prevent choking oil after shut off and to put load on your cooling system during driving.

 

Braineack, by looking at this picture. I wonder if i could have some how fractured the oil galley in the turbo? I mean the banjo bolt seems to sit snug and flush, but it did seem awful long of a bolt. It may have been just barely long enough to put enough pressure on the galley and crack it on a final turn, while lookiing visably flush on the outside. Well, at least i hope this is the worst of my problems, but it probally wont be. Now that i think of it though, when i first got this block from a forum member. the first thing i noticed when i got it home was that by the crank on the front main seal between the harmonic balancer and the crank gear, there was a bunch of coolant corrosion. Are there any areas near the front of the motor where as coolant can go into the motor oil somehow. At that time i thought that the motor was just leaking a little bit of coolant. It was an odd place to see the coolant though, being that it was crusted all over the crank gear.

 

Well I just pressure tested the coolant. With the oil drain bolt out and no oil in it (let it drained over night), I noticed that there was watery oil comming out of the oil pan. About a drop every 3 seconds. Im preety sure that the coolant is pulling some residual oil from other parts of the pan. But the car sat overnight on jack stands to drain. The shop thinks that since it has barely been ran and its still somewhat new that coolant could be pushing into my motor because the head gasket has not completly sealed. But even if that were true, wouldn't it be comming out of the exhaust and be burning coolant? At this point im not so sure what to do. But it seems that it had nothing to do with the turbo. Should i bypass the oil cooler and pressurize the system again and see if it still drips out?

 

worth a shot if anything imo

 

Coolant level is still going down, and the oil level rose slightly and seems a little watery. Do you guys think if i use that UV coolant dye and drain the oil that the dye will still show up?. I dont want it running to the point where the oil starts turning brown. With my luck i'll either spin another bearing or hydrolock the motor by that time. Aside from an oil analysis (not sure where to get that done), can you guys suggest a way to check to see if coolant is in fact entering my oil system?

 

I would just do an oil change and visually inspect your oil. It will be immediately obvious if there is water / coolant in it. If you have some old oil lying around, just dump some water / coolant in it and mix it around, and compare it to what comes out of your car (to be 100% sure you know what to look for).

 

I'm running oil & water cooling right now, and my coolant gets hot almost right away, and I do have over heating issues on a hot day. I'll probably switch to only oil cooling and just install a turbo timer.

 

It sounds like you have narrowed down the variables. Hate tot tell you it but it seams to me that either your block or your head is cracked. In my experiance the headgasket will seat when you torque the head down and runnit till the first heat cycle is done. As far as coolant beeing caked on the front of the engine it could have been that the water pump had taken a **** and spilled out and the PO had overheated the engine.

There are three options that I can see.
1. Block is cracked.
2. Head is cracked.
3. Headgasket is damaged or on wrong.

Either way you will need to remove the block. Sorry for the bad news.

Have a great day,
Jared

 

Dustin, I did what you recommended last night actually. Still hard to decipher if it truely is coolant since the oil is still somewhat fresh. That is what i am thinking jared. It can probally be only one of thoes possibilities. I will take a sample of my oil to a place to have it analized and confirm 100% that coolant is present. In the meanwhile the shop I had build my motor gave me this product called irontite. Its an all weather seal that claims its an ultimate fix for head gasket leaks and coolant leaks. It claims as follows : Seals intake gasket leaks, cracks in cylinder heads and engine blocks, prevents anti-freeze seepage through gaskets and hoses, lubricates waterpump seals. The ower of the shop (the guy who built my motor) gave me a bottle and suggested I try this first before i decide to take the motor out. I told him should this not work will he take the motor back and go through it again? Luckliy he said yes. So first, an oil analysis next the irontite, then if all else fails back to the shop. Atleast its only a few blocks down from me.

 

From my experience, those coolant additives are horrible. A friend of mine put it into his Minivan and it stopped his coolant leak, but totally clogged his heater core.

 

Use the British crap Subaru made its customers use for headgasket leak warranty coverage circa 2000.

 

Hustler, Ill look into this. Dustin, that is the reason why im leery on using this. But it seems as if im on the ends of my strings, and the shop will be taking the motor back incase it doesn't get solved. I've also been doing some research on this and found this website (Dipstick Oil Analysis) on lesson three it talks about why oil levels would be rising. Which makes me wonder, at what afr would you have to be running to get blow-by (i believe that is the term) in which fuel goes into the oi?

 

You'd have to be INSANELY rich for there to be so much fuel in there that it starts destroying the oil on the walls and possibly seeping through the rings. We're talking AFR's in the 9-8-7's. So rich the sensor won't even go that low.

 

Honestly I wouild never use that stuf, unless I was in BFE and could not get my car towed home. If you are going to use it I would bypass the heater core and radiator. This stuf may just cost more problems later on. Personally I would take the car back to them and tell them to inspect it throughly and let you know what is wrong. They built it. That is why labor is so expensive. There is a warenty on the labor if there is no warenty then I would not go back.

Have a great day,
Jared