Usually when I prime my turbo (at least on my old WRX) I would pour oil into the feed line. This is the first time, however, on my miata, I have a funnel going directly into the feed port. To flow through the turbo, does oil need pressure? Or is there an obstruction in my drain disallowing the oil from flowing through?

Thanks,

Brian

 

Oil needs pressure to go through the turbo. At least at any significant rate.

 

Thank you for the quick and helpful response.

 

what i did (and i think others do) is pull the plug wires off the plugs, take off the oil feed line and put it into a bottle, crank until you see oil coming out of the feed line to make sure its working, then re-install the feed line, crank a little more, put plugs back on and start it up.

 

That's what I'm doing now; I was nervous when oil wasn't flowing through the turbo initially though.

Thank you for the responses guys.

 

Hey aug,

Just adding to the previous post, i would recommend disconnecting the ignitor instead of disconnecting the plug wires since there is a chance you can burn out the coil packs. Also if you cranking for awhile you can disconnect the main EFI relay. This will allow you to crank but the fuel pump will not run.

 

I removed the main fuse, then cranked till i saw oil pressure. Put the fuse back in and fired her up

 

What I read in a car magazine was you hold the turbo in the engine bay connect up your turbo oil feed line to the turbo but not have the turbo fitted to the manifold.have a friend start the car then switch engine off once oil comes through the drain part of the turbo now you can fit the turbo to the car as its already primed.

 

I merely pulled the main relay and cranked until the oil pressure gauge moved to prime my turbo and all is well.

 

Why not just hold the wheel? If you have a man sized turbo that's not BB, its probably not going to spin at idle anyway.

 

my turbo is chinese; it's really small

 

F that priming stuff. Have someone hold the compressor wheel so it doesn't spin. Start the car, (maybe make sure oil is coming out the drain line by putting the line into an empty quart of oil), if you're getting oil, have your buddy let go of the compressor wheel. It's that simple.

 

I see there are a few ways to do this.

This might be a Megasquirt question, but I know that if you hold the gas to the floor while cranking the engine, it will not start because the factory ECU goes into a super lean (like 20:1 ) mode. This is sort of a universal thing among pretty much all fuel injected cars. Doing this could permit priming the turbo without pulling any electrical connectors.

Is there a similar function with Megasquirt?

 

Pull the injectors fuse instead of messing around with the spark plugs.

 

here is a screenshot from Tuner studio.. DIYPNP. I haven't tried it but it appears you can just floor it and crank to prime it, just like with stock ecu.

 

Assuming you are running a TPS, which a lot of people aren't. While a 1.6 came with a TPS, it doesn't get hooked up with most MS jobs.

BTW, what is the point of priming the turbo, and why don't you have to do this every time you start the car?

 

When u get a new turbo, its usually dry, sometimes it has grease from the factory to prevent rust and help with assembly. Grease is usually much thicker from the motor oil.

I have seen first hand what happens to new parts with such tight tolerances. They bind and get badly scratched (when a worker tries to straighten them out) to where they need to be refinished and in most cases thrown out since to refinish it you have to remove material you simply do not have. Oil is the life of a turbo.

Just a bit of a background at my job I usually work in the .0001 ranges.

 

OK, that makes sense. I have noticed that brand new turbos have a lot more resistance than one with even an hour or two on it. Where I work (a dyno lab) we always prime the oil systems on new engines (or ones that recently saw significant service) by cranking them until we see oil pressure, and only then letting them start. I always thought it was for benefit of the bottom end and cams.

So why is having it turn while being primed bad? (looking at what thirdgen said).

Also...how is it not going to get primed? I mean, you're saying that if I just start the engine normally...the turbo is somehow going to run dry until it fries the bearing? Why?

 

You want to have oil on it before it starts turning to prevent the chance of it binding.

Frying a bearing is not going to happen at idle in 10-20 seconds, the shaft binding and twisting since it has no oil is the only reason why its a good idea to prime it.

 

I filled my coolant line with oil before attaching it to the turbo then cranked the engine till I saw oil pressure for 5 seconds.

Connected injectors and coils and started it.