Technical Turbo Keeps Blowing!!!!!!

[DopTurbo]

Hey guys!

My first post here and I would like to start it of with a difficult one.

I have owned my little uno turbo for 3 years now , it has been modified and raced many a time but at the end of last year I got a bit of a problem when my TD04 13G turbo gave in on me , stated leaking oil to the exhaust housing through the small copper bearing that it has, as I thought this was supposed to happen because the turbo has quite some miles on it I just went out and bought another turbo(second hand):bang: , a sweitcher stage 2, after doing some modifications to the exhaust to accomodate the new turbo and putting it all back together I started to drive the car to my nearest exhaust shop to have it all checked up, as I went down my own street I realized the turbo was smoking again , to make a long story short, the same problem!!! I now bought myself a TD04-H also put it in myself as I do not trust other people working on my car again, the same problem reared its hairy head again !!! If someone could please tell me what the problem might be or where I should start looking it would be much appreciated.

Thank You

 

[custard]

are you sure the exhaust/IC isnt full of oil from the 1st turbo going?
how did you prime the turbo after fitting?

 

[DopTurbo]

There is no oil left in exhaust of that I am sure I even went for a 20 minute drive to make sure. The car idles with a little bit of smoke coming out, you dont see any smoke while driving but as soon as you shift gears and give some gas it gives a huge cloud!

How do you prime the turbo? (I just put some oil into both ends of the oil ports and forced it through with some compressed air)

And another thing, is it needed for the water hoses to run through the turbo, cause the first "expert" that worked on it said it doesn't need the water.

 

[F R O S T Y]

There is no oil left in exhaust of that I am sure I even went for a 20 minute drive to make sure. The car idles with a little bit of smoke coming out, you dont see any smoke while driving but as soon as you shift gears and give some gas it gives a huge cloud!

How do you prime the turbo? (I just put some oil into both ends of the oil ports and forced it through with some compressed air)

And another thing, is it needed for the water hoses to run through the turbo, cause the first "expert" that worked on it said it doesn't need the water.

I hate to say it but that sounds like Piston Slap to me, basicly your bottom end sounds like its knackered to me mate, what happens is the pistons and bore become out of tolerance meaning that there is not as good a seal as there should be allowing oil and fuel to mix, this happens when an engine gets damaged from the piston scratching the block inside which is giving you the smoke on gear change, oil is getting past the rings into the combustion chamber and burning off causing the cloud of smoke. Sounds like your bottom end might need to be torn apart and rebuilt!!!
I might be wrong but i had the EXACT same problem with mine and rebuilt it and hasnt smoked since!!!
3 turbos with the same problem is a bit iffy to me unless they were all fooked to begin with, remember turbos work on very precise tolerances, a slight bit of play in a bearing will cause you BIG problems, did you change the oil when you changed the turbos? Turbos can be damaged by contaminated oil dirt can damage the bearing very easily.
What state were your last turbos in when removed? They can tell you a lot about the root of the problem.
You need to try and trace where the oil is getting into the combustion chamber!!
I hope that helps!!!
F R O $ T Y

 

[Louie Bee]

I’m thinking it could worn piston rings too.

The other thing worn piston rings can lead to is an increase of blowby gas. This is gas escaping from the combustion chamber past the rings into the sump. Even on a brand new engine you get this to a degree.

The result of excessive blowby is a pressurised sump which can be the dipstick keeps getting blown out, oil breaches other seals (ant week point) or excessive oil is blown through the breather pipe…

If you have no catch tank, it makes its way back through the closed circuit breather set-up IE back through the turbo, and into the top end of the engine which burns it and turns it to black smoke.

Look out for oil coming out of the Dump Valve..

Either way it sounds like at least new piston rings possibly oversized pistons and a re-bore. May be wrong here. Perhaps do a compression test.

Its too easy to suspect a turbo but remember non turbo cars can smoke too .

Best of luck
Louie.

 

[DopTurbo]

Sorry guys but I took the turbo off again and saw that the oil only comes outy of the exhaust side of the turbo into the downpipe of the exhaust, it is actually wet from all the oil.

Before the last turbo change I also changed the oil, drained it all and even replaced the oil filter. I put in a new GUD fliter and also Shell Helix Ultra oil.

There is also no oil coming out of the breather pipe as I have cut off this pipe and placed a breather filter there.

if you have any other suggestions it would be appreciated because I dont want to buy another turbo and have the same thing happen again.

 

[antsuno2]

If you have oil coming out of the downpipe and not entering the turbo, and have checked the inlets ie from afm to turbo and are clean, then it sounds like the turbo seals are fooked!! and the tdo4 doesnt have the water cooling as with the t2 so they just connect the pipes, as yours must have been, i heard the t2 water cooled was only for the benefit for the colder europeans as to warm the car, Hmmm!! also if you have a water related prob ie white smoke! some disconnect the water to the turbo as to rule it out. this tdo4 seems to be a popular mod and reputed a hard turbo, but when installing a turbo its better to disconnect the ht lead and spin the engine over a good few times to get the oil pumping around the pipes and lubricates the turbo fully (prime) before you fire her up and put under stress, dry bearings!! NO GOOD!!! did you do the compression check, and check for blocked or kinked pipes! is the turbo oil feed pipe in good nick, i have my eye on 1 on fleabay for 20ish pounds, nice braided good luck with the UT mate!! "Antsuno2"

 

[SlinkyCinqi]

also just to add to this, what size are your oil feed pipe/fittings? you could have flooded the turbo bearings? resulting in oil passing the turbo seals, this can happen if you use fittings and pipes that are too big.

Just a thought

Lenny

 

[DopTurbo]

I took off the turbo today and had a look at it, the oil seems to be coming in through the inlet side of the turbo as there was oil dripping from the air outlet when I removed the turbo. I took the turbo back to the people I bought it from and they said that the turbo is fine.

Now my question is this is it possible for the oil pressure to be too high as mine is usually between 2 and 4 bar. The engine was redone about 20000km ago so I doubt that it is the rings or the pistons. I checked the oil inlet bolt size and the hole in the bolt itself is 2mm.

If anyone has any answers or suggestions please let me know.

 

[SteveNZ]

How do you prime the turbo? (I just put some oil into both ends of the oil ports and forced it through with some compressed air)

Bearing housings are not designed to cope with any pressure. Compressed air can damage a seal.

When turbos are new they are assembled with lube on the bearing surfaces. This is adiquate lube for the initial start up untill the engine can provide oil too it. The turbo will only be "idling" for a few seconds. no load, it will be fine.

Did you ever fit a new turbo? Just fit a good one as is. Make sure the return line is not blocked and the inlet is not too big. 2mm is ok.

 

[DopTurbo]

I would just like to thank everyone for their input on my little problem.

I finally solved the problem, what happened is that the breather filter that I installed somehow got blocked and caused the sump compression to go up but not enough for me to notice on the gauge, so all I did was fit a new filter and all is now solved.

 

[antsuno2]

any pics of your uno and the filter, good news for the UT! Ant!

 

[waynegts]

just a quick one,
when i fit a new turbo i leave the oil return pipe off turn the engine over, disconnect ignition first and make sure oil is passing through before connecting it.
if you have a ballbearing turbo you need just a pin hole sise reducer in your oil feed as they need less oil

 

[catbez]

Hey guys!

My first post here and I would like to start it of with a difficult one.

I have owned my little uno turbo for 3 years now , it has been modified and raced many a time but at the end of last year I got a bit of a problem when my TD04 13G turbo gave in on me , stated leaking oil to the exhaust housing through the small copper bearing that it has, as I thought this was supposed to happen because the turbo has quite some miles on it I just went out and bought another turbo(second hand):bang: , a sweitcher stage 2, after doing some modifications to the exhaust to accomodate the new turbo and putting it all back together I started to drive the car to my nearest exhaust shop to have it all checked up, as I went down my own street I realized the turbo was smoking again , to make a long story short, the same problem!!! I now bought myself a TD04-H also put it in myself as I do not trust other people working on my car again, the same problem reared its hairy head again !!! If someone could please tell me what the problem might be or where I should start looking it would be much appreciated.

Thank You

hiya matey sorryo hear about your turbos!! lol i bought one 4 weeks ago and somehow ive managed to collect 4 already, me bein a woman never satisfied lol,anyway i reakon its your valve stem seals.xx

 

[Wael]

Re: Turbo installation

hi there
i have my uno turbo since 1999 i made engine rebuilding (cylinder head and pistons )and turbo rebuilding kit everything should be ok but the exhaust has oil smoking , my mecanic need the in and out connection from the turbo to the engine to do it the right way .

thank you in advance for your help
Wael
uno turbo 1.4 ie model 1994 (1372cc)
turbo is garret T1

 

[faster4_tec]

could be valve stem seals, or just your cylinder head has melted a bit and oil is flooding out of hte HG. its possible, and the fact you've had 3turbo units do the same thing would make me think something worse has happened.

you'll find that turbo's will often smoke when cold, but as they heat up and the tolerances close in, the leak will stop, pretty much teh same with the engine. although any smoking ain't good.