Turbo Blowing White Smoke?
 

Hey guys,
I rebuilt my 1.8 in April 2014 with the help of zipstips and duffbuster
Manely rods
OEM Pistons
ALC race bearings
Fel-Pro Head Gasket
ARP Head studs
ID 1000cc injectors
AEM EMS

Drove it around for a few oil changes, and then took it to the dyno
at the vette doctors in long island. Turbo Blewup on the dyno.. I got a Gpop rebuild kit for the turbo and reinstalled the turbo yesterday (9-3-14). The turbo is a ebay T2 28/25 turbo, with a -10an return line and a -3an feed line.
I welded shut the feed fitting and drilled a small hole to "rig" a oil restrictor since i couldnt find they made one.

My problem now is that the car still blows white smoke. I did a compression test and it was pretty even across at 180psi.What do I do now? Did the piston rings not set yet? Is just leftover amounts of oil in the IC or the exhaust? Im not losing coolant or running hot, and its a new head gasket.. So im just confused at this point. Any input would be appericated!!

Are you sure it's the turbo? What does the smoke smell like? To me white usually means coolant.

I dont know for sure, but the turbo had a lot of shaft play and the car rolled white smoke like diesel trucks with black smoke, just to give an idea.The smoke smells like burned oil to me. But with good compression, new head gasket, and no signs of any coolant loss, what else can I look for?

Do you have coolant going to the turbo?

I might be mistaken but I thought that bearing type turbos don't use a restrictor... Could it be you starved the turbo when you did the dyno tune and now you need another rebuild? Just thinking out loud.

I do have coolant going to the turbo. When I first noticed the car smoking, I did some research and I found a site that said -2 lines dont need to be restricted but -3 did. It seemed to help for a little while until I did 3 dyno pulls.

Edit: Journal bearing turbo disco potato knock off

Ive always heard - 3 you dont need a restrictor and -4 you may

I just pulled the air filter off the turbo and I have a ton of oil in it and the charge pipe to the IC, if I take me "restrictor" out won't it make too much oil pressure and ruin my turbo again?

Could it have gotten there from your valve over breather? Mine is plumbed in just after the air filter. Could a failing PCV do it? Just trying to figure out the cheap possibilities first.

Off the head, I have the 2 lines going to a catch can and then the catch can has a breather filter. How would the PCV effect anything? Sorry if this is a noob response haha

.

To this day, I have yet to see a Journal Bearing Turbo loose its life from to much oil pressure, not saying its not possible, because anything can happen. Sure it makes some to allot of smoke and a mess, but after trial and error, and the oiling is correct it will usually recover and eventually stop smoking and leaking. Starting off with too little fills your life with : "Misery&Woe". My 2554, my oil issues went away with a 1/16 restrictor but im also using a 4an line and has been fine for over 8k. On a Sr20, the Factory fitting in it is restricted to almost 1.5mm or 1/16th and half that on the Ball Bearing Models. Same with IHI RHB5VJ11 that Used to be on Concealors F2 from the factory until he turned it into FrankenSlut. :)

Well I ended up buying 18psi's gt2560 turbo. Really hoping this solves my issue. In the mean time i have to take my intercooler off and clean out all the oil. Ill give updates once the turbo is installed. On a side note anyone want a china turbo for cheap? haha

What size?

I've read multiple times in the past that a failing turbo CAN cause white smoke. Basically when the oil is burnt up in the combustion chamber it is blue, but when it burns at a lower temperature being pushed past the turbo seals directly into the downpipe, it will not fully combust and burn off white

Report back and let us know how it goes with the new turbo!

My guess is I rebuilt it wrong?I used this write up

HOW TO: Rebuild a T25/T28 Turbo - SR20 Forum

Oil is definitely passing through the turbo seals.
Jmuse its China rep of a disco potato gt25/28 maybe used for 5k-7k hard miles. I was able to make 220whp.

had this problem with a chinacharger. the restrictor it came with was actually too big. Did the rivet in the oil line trick (was using -4 AN lines, but had a restrictor that wasn't enough) and all is well

I wish the trick worked for me! Either way, upgrading the turbo was a plan I had for the future. Im curious to see how a real turbo is going to work for me, updates soon!

You mean smoke-machine white? I've changed a dead turbo doing that, compressor wheel having a play of 1/6". The cloud behind that one was big and had a hang time of over a minute. Love when OEMs cut corners and make stuff brake just after 100k mi.
So oil smoke can be white, as was mentioned early in this thread.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411060195

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411060195

Heres some pictures to give an idea how much oil is going by the turbo. You'd swear i was changing my oil when i removed the piping haha

wow

make sure to thoroughly wash that all out before you bolt it all together

Im going to try and use gasoline and brake clean to clean all that out. Is this normal when a turbo seal gives to leak THAT much oil?

on a side note 18psi, i called usps to give me an update on tracking info, since that number hasnt been updated all week. theyre saying i should see it monday :facepalm:

At anyrate shouldnt be long until the cars back on the road!

I've no idea, apparently it completely burst open? that's a ton of oil.
gasoline and degreaser would be what I'd use. or maybe just degreaser, like purple power or something.

I've pretty much had terrible experience with every carrier lately. USPS, Fedex, all are idiots. I just pack really really well, and insure for at least the total amount, and hope for the best.

Holy wow. Nice find.. have fun with the new turbo.

No worries man it is what is. Theres still other stuff i can do to clean up the car in the mean time. If im able to get the car back together and around 250whp before snowfall this year ill be happy!

That's incredible! Top marks, great failure!

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411215344

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411215344


Yes! My turbo came in late yesterday, maybe today or tomorrow I'll get around to installing it

that box looks like it got gangbanged by elephants.
way to go usps.
glad I packed the heck out of it.

They saw the word fragile on it and thought orly!?

Oh it must be french they thought

Almost got it installed over the weekend. Just need to bolt on the down pipe and reroute bottom coolant hose ,intercooler piping is now in the way :vash:

NA/NB Compatibility Guide

I'm thinking i can use the lower coolant hose from a NB? but im open to suggestions

New turbo spits oil and I don't know why? -4 an to a restrictor. Then -10 an as a return. Maybe the line could get b straightend out better.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411857547

Also when throttle is applied the car the motor stalls?
I replaced the throttle body because my brother and I heard an electrical hum from the idle air control valve.
But the car still stalls out

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411857547

Homer might be right at this point

Any suggestions why the motor would stall?

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1411857671


Maybe an engine bay picture would help?

how straight is the oil return?

and did you make sure all the bolts/fasteners were torqued to spec per my note?

Check that oil return. 2 turbos spitting oil makes it sound like a blockage in the return to me.

I'm going to redo that line and see if that helps.

18 psi yeah i tightened everything down, and the turbo was clocked the correct way you shipped it too!

Anyone have the same problem with the motor stalling? When i searched it, the problem was solved once the valve was replaced. It has to be something dumb because the car was running pretty good until the turbo seals went bad spit all that oil into my intercooler

Those two breather lines going to the same little can inlet are too small and you are possibly building backpressure in the crankcase.

High crankcase pressure can push oil out of seals.

I deffinitly have high crank case pressure, i noticed that the other day too. ill redo those lines and let you guys know what happens. Thanks for the heads up!

Any updates? Curious what the problem turns out to be

No idea, im at the point of tearing it down and seeing if i possibly cracked a piston from the dyno pulls? But im fed up with the car and low on cash so itll probably sit broken until spring. if anything changes ill update the thread. thanks to everyone helping me troubleshoot it!

My white smoke was from blown rings. Leak down was actually OK too. Shoulda run compression too...

firgured I should update this since i hate following a thread to have it end with a real ending. duffbuster and i took the motor out last weekend and put together a "stock" rebuild. We didnt tear down the og built block yet, but were guessing either the piston cracked under pressure or the rings are junked. At this point i've spent to much time tinkering with the car rather than driving it. I'm putting the car back to stock and will be selling it once its finished. Thanks for everyone helping me out with trying to figure out the problem.

Same like my 1.6 miata bolt on turbo 😢