Blue Smoke - Lots of it at start up. stops when warm
 

Set up - Begi S1 turbo kit.

Have about 1000 miles on the set up.

Starting on 1-24-12

Replication of issue. -

Cold start the car. about 30 seconds to 1.5 minutes after starting I get a large amount of blueish white smoke. Enough to smoke up the front yard area of my house. After the car gets up to normal op temps the smoke seems to stop at idle. When going through the gears I will get blueish white smoke for about the first 15 minutes of driving. It then seems to stop. After the car is fully warm and driving for 15 minutes I notice no smoke. I also notice smoke from under the hood when I firsts start. I believe it is coming from the downpipe area.. have not been able to verify.

What I have done to trouble shoot - I did a compresion check. - car to op temp, pulled plugs, disconected cas, throttle to the floor, cranked car over until guage stopped reading.

Results from comp. test - #1 - #3 are all at 200. #4 is at 180. This is in normal range and 1-3 seem very good on compression.

Other information - My oil level is good. As we all know a little oil can make a lot of smoke. I will continue to monitor the level.

I removed the heat sheild from the turbo to see if I could see where the smoke from under the hood is coming from. By the time I did this the car was warm and the issue had stopped. I was unable to locate smoking area under the hood.

Possible unrealated - I have a high frequency rattle coming from someplace under the hood when the car begins to hit boost. At this time I do not believe it is the turbo but more from something else rattling. It is hard to determine since it only happens under boost and under load. Not sure if related at all.

Next step- Contacted BEGI who stated that they think I need to restrict the flow of oil to the turbo. I am ok with trying this step. I would think that with it stopping when the car is warm that it would not be oil delivery to the turbo.

QUESTIONS to the forum - With the information provided does the symptoms seem to be related to to much oil to the turbo and causing oil to bypass the seals? or does this seem to be a different issue all together that I am missing. I have no problem taking what BEGI says just wanted other opinions of what could be the issue. Then I would be able to continue with trouble shooting while waiting for the oil restrictor from BEGI.

Thanks

pull the intake off the turbo, is there oil all over the inlet and blades?


Sounds like valve seals but could be a number of things. Typically when it's due to overoiling the turbo, it's pretty easy to tell at idle that smoke is ocmming off the turbo, and you tend to get clouds of smoke mainly after a boosted run.

I have the same issue...I don't think I smoke quite as bad as you though depending on the size of your yard. Great compression and new valve seals though as well.

I've been pondering the idea of an oil restrictor on the -4an feed line I currently have.

Braineack - I will do that and report back what I find.

I had a mazdaspeed3 and the seals went bad on the the stock turbo around 22k miles. The symptoms of that was smoke during WOT runs all the time every time. It did not stop after warmed up. That is why I am kinda leaning as it not being an issue with the turbo.

The smoke at start up is leading me to think it is the valve seals. My only issue with that is that the comp. check seems to be good. I would think my readings would be much lower. Now it could be bad guage (cheap harbor frieght).

or it could be oil pooling after turing the car off. Then when I start it it is buring it all off. when it is warm the seals are not leaking enough for me to notice the smoke.

Will do what you suggested and see what the result is on that.

It is a small yard. It is enough that if I started the car and drove it away you would not want to be behind me.

My hope is it is as simple as an oil restrictor. Going to keep trouble shooting.

This was a big problem on my VWs and a small problem on my Miata a few years ago until I put on a .032" feed. No problems since and its been years.

Hmmm, I wonder what that could be?

I am assuming you think it is pinging? it is not, or does not seem like it to me. if you are assuming something else please speak up.

I had this same problem. I have begi turbo manifold, gt2860rs, downpipe and oil supply line kit. Setup was on for 5k mile and started smoking on start up. I have the begi in line oil filter and oil restrictor. Car has not smoked again, been about a week. Good luck and hope this helps.

Got the restrictor from Begi. put it in and it did absolutly nothing to reduce the smoking. called begi up. we came to the conclusion that the seals on the turbo are not working right and my choices are to buy a new turbo or rebuild this one.

Going to have to say that with less than 1000 miles on the turbo the Shanghai turbos are pretty much crap. now i assume others have luck with them but in my case mine was crap.

I felt the service from begi was very good. i was able to call with multiple questions and they were always quick to answer.

But as of right now with being told I need a new turbo after 1000 miles going to have to suggest others do not buy this kit.

Go FM or go with a kit with a garret turbo. guess the moral of the story is you get what you pay for. I went a cheaper route and now going to cost me more money.

i still dont think turbo sealz

did you check the intake pipe?

Braineack - are you talking about the air intake side? or pull the entire turbo off the header. i would think the header side would really suck balls to get off.. but the air intake side should not have oil on it.

this is what i did find when pulling the air intake side off. No oil.

http://youtu.be/vqkfeMTNOW8

http://youtu.be/vqkfeMTNOW8

i noticed scratches on the side of the housing so tried move the shaft. no forward and back play but side to side... is that normal?

How much side to side play do you have?

watch the video is the easiest way to see. i can measure if the video is not enough.

i would guess.. umm ---- i don't know.. haha. maybe 1/8th or 3/16th..

Host the video on youtube. It does not work in chrome, firefox, or Opera in Linux. So I cannot watch it

That shaft play is definitely excessive. There was an sr20 t25 for sale for about $130 in the classifieds recently. I would see if you could find it and pick it up. It should be a direct fit with your manifold and downpipe.

Here is a link to the turbo.

I guess this weekend going to pull the turbo off. anything else I should check to verify bad seals? or with the shaft play should i just say this turbo is crap after 1000 miles and move on.

just dont want to replace the turbo to find out it was something else.

Way too much play. My 2854 china from the shanghai kit is still going strong after 7k miles. It sucks that you got a bad one but look on the bright side, they only cost like $250-300 new and a comparable garrett is like $1000.

At least you have a cool paper weight now!;)

comparable in every way.. but would not fail at 1k haha.

figure should go bigger. need to do some reading up on different turbo I want to be at 250hp. right now with the china get 200. but my exhaust is holding me back. i wanted to buy exhaust first.

---- don't know what to do now. maybe just call it quits. going to have to much money into this thing by the time i am done.