I have recently started having a bit of an oil burning smell coming from the engine bay when I to a full boost pull. There are no leaks in the engine bay and AFAIK (before I turbocharged it) the engine didn't burn oil.

I'm thinking it may be turbo seals? Is there any way to test this other than looking into the piping?

There is also a small exhaust leak from mani to turbo, so if the engine burns a little bit of oil could the smell/exhaust gas be escaping from there?

 

If there isn't smoke coming out your tailpipe, it's not going to be your oil seal. Who knows, maybe your valve cover gasket is leaking a bit of oil, or your TPS o-ring, and it's getting hot and smelling.

 

How is your PCV system set up?

 

And specifically tell us about your PCV valve. Sounds to me like you're pressurizing your crank case.

 

No tailpipe smoke

PCV on the intake side is stock. The valve is only a week old as well

Exhaust side it's just laying open right now. So the crank case fumes are kinda pointing at the manifold.

It only does it when it's under boost. If I do a hard pull keeping it under 0PSI it dosen't do it.

Should I vent the PCV on the intake side to a can then?

 

Cap the port on the manifold (or fill it with JB weld) and gut/vent the PCV valve to atmosphere.

 

I'll block the port and vent the PCV and take it for a spin... see if it solves my problem.

 

I'm betting it will. Be warned though, if you try to use a cap long term, they will continually fail if you use cheap ones. The Napa cap that I have on mine seems to be holding up fairly well, but all of the schucks/orielly/autozone ones I put on there would balloon and pop after a while.

 

I'm running a catch can with a breather and that think reeks of hot oil after some boosted runs when the hood is popped OR when coming to a stop at a light with the windows/top down.

 

Hmm i have this exact issue. I am running a breather on the hot side valve cover port. Is a catch can the real answer then?

I was assuming it was the turbo on my car as well, because ive popped the hood shortly after a boosted run and could see what looked like oil vapor coming off of the turbo. And im still running the stock greddy drain line, which as you know sucks *****.

 

^^

I think it's the fumes burning on the exhaust that come out of the breather. I just picked up a circut sports catch tank locally for a great price.

I'm going to run a rubber one for now and keep a few spares in the car. I'm pulling my upper intake manifold shortly to tap some holes for more vaccum ports shortly. So I will drill/tap/insert bolt into that hole when I do.

I don't like running the ECU, FPR and boost gauge off the same vaccum port.

 

I just did my drain for the Greddy last week. Drilled tapped the pan and ran 5/8th fuel hose with heat sleeving. A good temp set up until my silicone drain hose arrives.

 

The fumes are vapor- and they smell like burnt oil. But the breather does get saturated with oil, so that oil may be getting on the manifold/turbo. My catch can is on the intake side and it still produces the burnt oil smell. AAMOF after a dozen consecutive boosted runs for tuning you could actually see the oil vapor "steaming" from the breather at the top of the catch can. This is primarily because my catch doesn't have anything in it for this vapor to condense on. It should. And then I should route the port the breather is on back to the intake tube pre-turbo - if I had one to route it too.

 

I may do that. But right now it's just a filter. When I remove my PS I am going to run a downtube with a filter so I'll have a port to route it to.

And I remeber when I got the PCV valve I blew in it from both sides. One side was obvioulsy supposed to blow through easy but I could also blow a bit from the other side. So that makes me think that when under 10PSI of boost it is creeping a few pounds into the crank case. = no good.

 

Thanks for the insight.

Falcon, you should just cap the Intake manifold port, hollow out your pcv valve, and run both to a catch can. I am doing this asap.

 

That's what I'm going to do, except I am going to tap the hole when I pull the valve cover and run two AN lines

 

My vented hood seems to suck all vapors out of the engine compartment and the smells get sucked into the fresh air cabin inlet at the base of the windshield on the passenger side. Have to run the heater controls on the recirculation on long steady climes to avoid smells. Under full load if you are vented to atmosphere you will get some smelly vapors out your vent which I believe is normal.

Also,
The baffle setup in the valve cover for the normal PCV hole doesn’t work as well as the intended vent port on the exhaust side. I’ve noticed on some tracks it will spew oil. High g left hand turn up hill under acceleration seemed to do that for me (turns 5 and 6 at Laguna)

Bob

 

Run VC venting to a catch can with a filter to atmo. If you can't stand the vapor smells from underhood then run the other line out of the catch can under the car to a point under the back of the car to vent. I've seen it done before with success on several turbo cars. Just remember to empty the catch can periodically.

 

In my case, this smell was indeed coming from the turbo. It was cured by adding a oil restrictor.

 

Picking up a can tommorow. We'll see how it goes.