Opinion on Water in Exhaust Pipe
 

Just in case anyone is ready to light me up about searching, I did try. I have had for some time a few water droplets spitting out of the tailpipe now and again that I was happy to think was condensation. Last night I began taking the exhaust off as I'm going with a larger one and I found quite a little puddle drain out of the midpipe (no cat or resonator). In terms of how much liquid was there, I'm going to hazard a guess of 5 ounces or a large Dixie cup size amount of water. I run mostly water in my car so it's rather difficult to say if there is antifreeze present in it. So my question is this. Has anyone else run into this with their turbo car? I'm wondering what the odds are that the seal in the turbo is letting a bit go into the exhaust or can I actually be getting that much condensation? I realize the right thing to do is to pull the manifold off and check pre-turbo for moisture there but I really don't wanna. LOL

Thanks everyone.

I was under the impression that the water side was just a jacket. There are no seals as it's isolated separately from the shaft unlike the oil side.

As far as the EFR is concerned, it's a cavity in the CHRA. it's completely isolated from the exhaust unless you have a crack.

How humid does it get in your area

This would be my guess. On mornings with heavy dew, my truck will pour water from the exhaust. It will leave a trail behind me as I leave the neighborhood.
The smoke you see on cold mornings, that is water in the exhaust. You see it in liquid form because of the ambient temperature relative to the dew point.

I believe water is a byproduct of hydrocarbon combustion, no?

How long did you drive the car before you found the puddle? As I understand it, driving for a short time and then shutting down tends to result in more condensation. Maybe try taking it for a half hour drive, and then check for water.

*edit*
After refreshing my memory: Water is produced as a byproduct of combustion, but it is in gaseous form in the cylinder. When the exhaust is cold, the water vapor condenses on the inside of the exhaust and drips out of the tailpipe, or puddles in any low spots. After driving for a while, however, the exhaust is no longer cold enough to cause it to condense, and it exits the tailpipe still in gas form, so no drops/puddles.

If there was coolant leaking into the cylinder, it would be vaporized during combustion, and then follow the same pattern as above, so I guess it would be difficult to tell the difference between combustion condensation and extra coolant vapor, except by the amount. I don't think you would necessarily find antifreeze in the condensation, because the water may not carry any particles from the gas with it when it condenses.

If you see that coolant in the radiator is not getting lower over time then that is not where the water is coming from. That's pretty easy to monitor if you were talking about large quantities.

Do a pressure check on the coolant system.

Thanks everyone and I'm sorry to not have responded sooner. I live in a very humid area and as the car is garaged over the Winter and just started every couple weeks and let warm up and then cooled back down, it certainly does lend itself to being moisture related. I was unable to tell from my coolant level because I have a very minor leak from one of the radiator (not stock) drain plugs. In the Summer I run mostly water with about 25% antifreeze but this Winter I drained and filled with the Ford stuff that is crazy expensive btw! This summer I'll be able to monitor the fluid level as there will be liquid in the overflow tank. I'm probably overly worried because it's a turbo'd car with 106K miles on the motor and it's putting out much more than it was intended to do. I will try to do a pressure test on it.

Thanks again everyone.
Ken

As others have stated, H2O is a product of combustion. If you are only starting the car once in a while to warm it up the water is most likely buildup from that. Under idle the exhaust system probably doesn't get up to the same temp as if you were driving on a freeway, and the exhaust velocity is lower, so the condensation has a chance to collect/pool up.