Ideas for fix for IHI turbo oil return pipe please
 

The car is an MSM with a rebuilt motor following a major blow up. It now has a high flowed version of the original IHI turbo, which may not have been perfectly lined up on installation. This may been been all or part of the cause of a tiny crack appearing in the short oil return pipe from the turbo to the sump. Or the pipe might just have been damaged during disassembly or storage. Either way, it might be a small crack but it can sure dump some oil!

In a perfect world the repair to the cracked pipe would include adding a flexible section to avoid a repeat of the same problem, but local fabrication shops can't see a way to do that with such a short section of pipe.

There is a spare undamaged OEM pipe which can go on if necessary.

Meanwhile, if anyone has any experience of the same issue and has found a solution I'd be glad to hear about it.

Damn that pipe, I did the exact same thing on my car!

Replaced the sump with a VVT one and Speedflow fittings, but be warned it is a royal PITA to work on if you don't remove the subframe:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1343456780

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1343456780

Cheers

Nice solution. Thanks for the pics.

Fully aware of the PITA.

The original SE sump has had baffles added to avoid oil starvation on the track so I'd prefer not to change it. We've already had to drop the K frame once to re-seal a leak on the sump and would prefer to avoid doing it again (2 people, 10 hours).

But I have a bad feeling we'll be dropping the K frame to remove the sump and modify it to do what you've done. Maybe we'll call it a 20 man-hour oil change?

I added the Maruha oil pan baffle to mine, it wasn't very expensive.

The Maruha oil pan was also a good way to go. My fully baffled sum was way more $$$ but I convinced myself to go the whole hog with safeguards on the rebuild - and I needed a new sump anyway as there was only half of it left attached to the highly ventilated crankcase after the blow up.

Next time you have to re seal the sump, pull the engine and transmission, 2 people 4 hours (tops).

Can you use a tubing cutter to cut out the cracked section and use oil rated hose and hose clamps?

Timk I should get some of those speedflow fittings for my setup. I've been unable to use normal AN lines because my shit is almost as short as the MSM setup.

this is what I would do.

Sounds like a plan. Thanks.

If you have another undamaged OEM one... why don't you just spend the 20 minutes and replace it, instead of trying to clamp hose over metal soft enough that it will crimp the turn BEFORE the clamp/hose is tight enough to leak everywhere?

You'll never ever be able to get a clean cut without removing the damn thing in the first place.

I think i have one PM me if you need it.

He says in OP that he already has one, which is why i don't understand the need for a thread. :rofl:

Yes, I have a spare, but suspect it may suffer the same fate if installed as is. I was looking for inspiration I guess. It would be fair to say I need as much inspiration as possible after the rebuild/enhancement process I've endured for over a year and still not reached the end of.

I had the same problem last year on my MSM, broke 4 lines until I decided to pull the motor and and do a after market fix...that didn't end well since shops all said the line would be to short...ended up getting another line and clocked the turbo until the line perfectly slid in.

This is the scenario I'm trying to avoid, hence my request for suggestions.

PS What a dreadful piece of design.

They don't typically break on their own. They break from trying to move things around without removing it first

It's really not a problem, i promise you.

It's not a great design from a "this is so easy" perspective, but they didn't want to use a hose in the name of "Will this last for 200k miles?"

Seriously, just get in there and replace it. It's not special, it's not hard, and it shouldn't take you longer than 30 minutes. It's 4 nuts/bolts that are quite easy to get to if you have a decent set of extensions/wobbles.


Source: I replaced one after i destroyed it not knowing it was there doing an exhaust manifold gasket job.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1403273660