Hey Doc, I'm leaking...
 

Last night, driving home, I noticed a "burning oil" smell while driving around town. I thought it was the dually truck in front of me at first but when the truck pulled away, the smell remained. Parked the car, opened the hood and didn't notice anything strange under the hood.

This morning, I checked the oil and it was a little down so I added a half-quart or so. After letting the engine get up to temp, I notice a small stream of smoke emanating from somewhere under the turbo manifold, I'd figured it was oil from when when i was adding it (I can't aim). Everything was fine on the freeway but when I pulled off the exit and came to a stop, smoke came up from under the hood. Not a whole lot of smoke, but just imagine Snoop Dogg smoking some weed in the engine bay. The smoke dissipated when at speed, but you can still smell the burning oil.

After work tonight, I pulled away from the parking spot and noticed a nice 5inch diameter oil spot. Judging from the spill location, its coming from somewhere on the driver side of the engine, which makes sense because it's burning off on the manifold. I'm going to take a closer look on the morning with more light.

Any clue to where the oil might be coming from? Valve gasket were changed 6 months ago along with CAS o-ring and a complete front end timing belt change, so my only guess is the oil lines from the turbo. Besides being that, could anything else be wrong to cause this? There is no smoke coming from the exhaust at all so I'm pretty confident it's not inside the engine..right?

Thanks.

Feed line connections all tight?

I managed to wear a hole in my Greddy's feed line after it got trapped by the downpipe and the shelf that runs along the sides of the bay.

Little bit of crankcase pressure and a bad dipstick O'Ring can also do this.

True, but that wouldn't explain the leaking-while-parked bit, right?

In my garage(uphill slope) it did it with no crankcase pressure, but it may have been a little overfilled by the owner.

hole in drain line?

I'll check everything mentioned when I get the chance, it's raining cats and dogs here in san diego. Had to take the beater Corrolla today.

Drain line hose clamp was a tiny bit loose, loose enough to cause a little puddle of oil on the lower wishbone suspension.

Problem solved, thanks guys.

Brain was the closest.

^Not so fast...

Took it to work today and the fucker started to smoke again. Looked at the bottom and a oil was dripping from the downpipe. Popped the hood, and felt around until I found a small hole on the steel-braided oil feed line! It looks it was chaffing up against the steering assembly.

Anybody know a good source for a greddy-sized oil feed line?? I need to order it ASAP. Thanks.

https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/sho...308#post204308


good luck

Bingo, thanks for the link!