Ok, I have an odd situation. The charge pipe popped of my turbo today, and the inside of the turbo compressor was covered in oil. Now, my crankcase breather is not connected to the intake, so the oil is not from the crankcase. The only explnation is the oil is comeing from inside the turbo itself. This is odd, because it is a non water cooled garrett T3. I rebuilt the turbo when I got it, but I do not think I messed up, it was very easy to do. The only other explanation would be that I am getting too much oil. I do not have a restrictor on the feed line, but I was told by many that I would not need it. When the car is as cold as can be, I am always under 90psi on the oil pressure gauge. So... any ideas?

P.S, The turbo has NO shaft play, and still spins super smooth.


The feed line is a: -3AN Goodridge Crimp hose assembly

 

Sounds like you DO need a restrictor

 

K, thanks. I did not do any damage to the turbo by not having a restrictor.. did I?

 

anyone?

 

probably not, but only way you will know is after you get the restrictor in there and see if it still has oil in it, hopefully you'll be alright...but you may have a turbo rebuild on your hands

 

more than likely if you remedy the problem now you'll be ok. What size feed line are you running? The turbo only really needs something like 20psi of oil max. I forget the # exactly and it may vary from turbo to turbo but if the turbo itself were actually getting 90psi, It would definitely get past the seals eventually.

 

no, once you add the restrictor, if there is still oil on the pipes then it may need a rebuild, however, I bet that'll clear it up.

 

I did some testing to see what kind of oil pressure I was seeing at the turbo and I was maxxing out at like 56 or so. Anyway, the recommended restrictor for your journal bearing turbo is .060 and it just so happens that 1/8" pop rivets have an ID of .071.
So get yourself a 1/8 shorty aluminum pop rivet and install it at the turbo between two -AN fittings. The fittings smash the rivet and hold it in place. Works great and on my car lowered the oil pressure at the turbo 7-9 psi.

When you do have a restrictor installed. It's a good idea to check it once in a while. If any piece of trash goes through the feed it could block the restrictor. Then again if it gets in your turbo it's going to block something in there anyway. I check mine to make sure it's clean.

 

yeah. check the charge pipes and remove any oil from the intercooler. Fix pressure situation, drive on it and after a while check out the pipes again. If the're's oil, replace turbo seals.

 

If your breather port on the valve cover just has a filter on it, you might not have enough vacuum for good oil drain out of the turbo. There's a reason that port NEEDS to be connected to the intake. If you're really worried about oil entering the intake from there, make a catch-can for $10 at HD.

BTW, a -3an line into a T3 is pretty universal... I don't know of a lot of people who use restrictors on T3's. I bet if you connect that breather tube up, that your problems will go away.

 

I do, else burnage.

 

Been running mine with just a filter since day 1. 2500ish miles with a journal-bearing T25, -3AN with no restrictor, and 3000ish miles with a ball-bearing GT25R, -3AN with an .035 restrictor.

 

I've been running with no restrictor on mine for about a week. When I do the oil change next weekend I'll check, but I don't think I have this issue.... yet.

 

Samnavey, you may have saved me.

I went for a run today, without going over 1 psi of boost. I pupe the pipe off the turbo, and volia, no oil. This means that it cannot be an over oiling problem. Now there are only 2 Things I can think of.

Eaither 1) Samnavey is right. Sam, I am attatching the line to the intake tounight, then ill go for a drive, and ill see if it works

2) The crankcase area is getting pressureized, which would cause the drain line to become pressurized. When I took the pvc valve off, it seemed to work, and rattled when I shook it. But im going to get a new one anyway.

The only other way is that my rings are shot. But, the engine still runs good so I dunno if that is it.

Comments, ideas?

 

some systems are senstive. you may have a leaking pcv, you may have bad rings, you may have a bad drain line.

reattaching the breather helps pull vacuum out of the case, so if your rigns were the cause it can help seals, the the pcv is the case it helps, or if the turbo is the blame it help draw the oil out.

 

Well, I guess I was wrong about the T3 not needing a restrictor... but as for the breather tube, there are a lot more cases of people saying that was their problem than guys saying they don't run one but never had a problem.

Sav, perhaps your -3an line and no restrictor is about equal to what I run. I use a -4an line and my restrictor is an aluminum pop-rivet. My breather line is just a tube routed to about 6" in front of the turbo. I've never had an oil problem either. Some day I might hook up a catch-can if I ever come across a free one to see if there's anything actually coming out of there.

 

you typically dont need a restrictor with -3an...

 

Im pretty sure its not an over oiling problem. It must be

1) Bad PVC

2) the lack of breather (will be fixed tounight)

3) bad rings.

When I shake the PVC should I hear rattleing or not?

Can A bad pvc caruse the crankcase/oil pan to become pressureized?

 

OK

Sam- I attched the line to the intake. Holy crap! The car idles so much better. Def something I shoulda done a long time ago. Im still not sure on the turbo oil issue.. Ill drive it alittle and see what happenes.

 

Well ther is still oil in it after a couple booster runs. Im going to have to switch out the PVC valve and hope for the best I guess!