So I just finished up installing a 40k mile motor, tilton clutch and rebuilt transmission. I go ahead and start it with no hassles, no smoke, no nothing. I then proceeded to set the timing which is spot on at 10 degrees using the megasquirt. After that I go onto tuning the idle which also never gave any problems. The problem arised when I started to tune the lower RPM's. About several minutes into the tuning I get a crazy amount of white smoke. Doesn't smell like coolant, more like a BBQ. When I let the throttle go, more smoke comes out then it stops. It never smokes at idle, only during constant throttle events and during decel. The car is up on stands and I haven't driven it yet. The smoke seems to linger around the exhaust like its dry ice smoke...

The reason the first motor was pulled was because of low compression and smoking. I guess the motor wasn't smoking, but the turbo was? I'm thinking the turbo's oil seals are going. I do have a restrictor in the oil feed line, but do not know what size. The turbo is a Garrett T3.

How would I know that it is the turbo seals that are bad and not the piston rings? I haven't pulled anything apart yet and would like to know exactly what I should check before I start tearing things down. Compression on the motor is at 195 across the board wet and dry so that lead me to think that it wasn't the motor, but the turbo. I've searched around the forums for some answers and it seems as if most of problems pointed to the turbo. Either the oil feed pressure is to high, the drain isn't efficient and bad seals. Before I put the turbo in I checked the shaft and there was very little to no play. The turbo was rebuilt approximately 10k miles ago which was about 2-3 years. I didn't rebuild it, but bought it that way.

One thing i'd also like to note is that when the motor was out, I did clean the engine bay so some (maybe plenty?) water got into the lower half of the downpipe which I didn't have to remove to pull everything. Could it be that its just burning the water?

 

Have you checked your downpipe and intercooler pipes for any oil to see if the turbo is bad?

 

I haven't checked anything yet. Just trying to get ideas before I start tearing everything apart. I should've checked the downpipe while the turbo was out. I just left the upper half attached to the turbo thinking it was the original motor that was starting to smoke.

Although, the intercooler pipes were dry and clean when I did remove them.

 

Alright, tore everything apart today and this is what I found:

1. No oil in the intercooler pipes
2. No oil in the downpipe
3. a small bit of oil in the intake portion of the turbo compressor
4. no oil in the turbine portion of the turbo
5. I could see a wet portion behind the turbine wheel

When I saw the wet spots behind the turbine wheel I disassembled the turbo to find that there was an oil leak behind the hat looking thing which leads me to believe that the oil seal has gone bad. I guess this makes sense since the oil pressure gets fairly high when i'm just cruising (approx. 60psi) which may be too high and my restrictor too big causing the oil to seep through the seals. Therefore, I will buy a rebuild kit for the turbo and a smaller restrictor. Here are some photos I took.

 

Yeah definitely sounds/looks like its the seal. Good luck. rebuild kit should be 80-100 bux?

 

I've been shopping around ebay and there are a variety of rebuild kits out there. Anyone got experience using the cheap $40 kits and the more expensive $60 - $90 kits?

 

If I were you, I would buy the $90 kits. You will sure on the quality of it. I've tried the cheap one and I regretted with its performance. :(

 

I have gotten away with the $40 kit on my T25. Worked just fine, ran it from 2009 to now... still is good!

I have rebuilt turbos many many times, those chinese rebuild kits are the same **** thats in the chinachargers, which most (if not all) CHRAs are built the same as Garrett.

super quick failed parts in the rebuilt turbo is usually due to how people rebuild them.

 

Defiantly looks like seals. I rebuilt a turbo with a cheap kit and all the other ones I have done I used a real garrett kit. It was worth the $80 because the one I used the cheap kit on I am rebuilding again only a year later. They all use the same parts just quality control is different so it is kinda hit or miss with the cheap ones.

 

agreed with hit and miss, thats china after all.