or at least I think it is but what do you guys make of it?

ive been getting a decent amount of oil appearing on the outlet end of the aftermarket front intercooler. its dripping onto the radiator support rail below so we're talking about an unusually large amount of oil here not a trickle and its gunky borderline milky oil. not the usual mist spray of oil but inside the silicone elbow hose there was a nasty pool of it. i cleaned that out 2 months back and its all returned. no mayo in the oil filler cap or engine breathers.

now ive noticed oil around the elbow on the inlet hose side of the intercooler and the hose joiner from the turbo outlet to metal boost pipe leading the intercooler also has a wetness around it . both ends very wet. i cant tell if it oil contaminated with water. i can test for that easy enough tomorrow but engine wise compression is spot on and there is no oil in the upper intake pipe pre-intake manifold (bar a tiny amount of mist on the bottom) and there is no smoking at all. it drives nice but ive noticed a roughness to it especially at 2500rpm any gear. 60mph is rough at those revs but go faster and its not so bad.say beyond 3-3500rpm.

ive noticed the brand new expansion tank fitted 6 months back is no longer nice and clear but has developed a light brown residue inside it but im not losing any water and oil consumption doesnt seem OTT.

not sure if its related but i have oil leaking off the oil filter even though thats on nice and tight (well not overly tight as they say hand tight is enough). engine breather is clear and the firetrap is new. ive not inspected the turbo yet but could do with some thoughts as to whether this level of oil is normal or if the turbo is dying as far as the seals go.

the turbo is an IHI watercooled VL7 and im not sure if its possible for water to cross contaminate with oil if galleries crack into each other .....
oil pressure takes a step drop to about 1.4-1.5 bar on the gauge when the motors hot but it used to stay at 2 bar when hot all day long.

im just a bit lost now on ideas and what it could be.

no, oil in the boost pipework is not normal and is bad.... oil in the boost pipes is almost certainly oil seals in the turbo, and it will be mixed with the moisture in air to make it a bit milky looking... You will get this for quite a while before it billows smoke out the rear particularly on a car with a CAT.

Have seen quite a few turbo cars that seems to all of a sudden started smoking when decatted which can't itself make seals go so i think the CAT can hide the early symptoms a bit...?

Dirty coolant is more likely just the coolant picking up all the nasty gunky stuff thats stuck in there from before. Try draining it out and filling with clean water and some flush, follow the flush instructions as to how long you leave it in there, then drain. Refill with just water again and run upto temp (so the thermostat is open and water is flowing all the way round the system), drain again. Keep refilling, warming up and draining until what comes out is as clean as the clean water that went in. And then fill with your 50/50 coolant/water mix. It should then stay clean for ages and ages - I think its very unlikely water and oil is mixing at the turbo - not really looked into exactly how water cooling works in a turbo but i suspect the only way that is possible is if there is a crack in the housing.

thanks blu. interesting to hear that about the turbo being ok but could be about to billow! ive got another good unit on standby so i guess ill wait for it to get worse. i do still run a cat on my car (rare for GT owners probably) so maybe thats delayed things.

i do feel she should giving a touch more at the top end - my spare GT pulls hard to 6200rpm on a standard boost valve and fiat chip. my daily GT really isnt happy revving and boosting much beyond 6k with a custom map and dawes device that raises the boost to around 18psi.