Technical Turbo Woes

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Technical Turbo Woes

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Aug 31, 2003
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Banbury, Oxfordshire
Just completed latest journey in the turbo bringing her total mileage under my ownership to about 400-500 miles :D however we have a hiccup with the engine....

She's got bit of oil coming out the dump valve, is this normal? :confused: no blue smoke so wouldnt have thought oil seals, when i first start her up she idles about 500 revs and oil warning light comes on then she picks herself up, though this may be alternator related (500 revs bit), as i know the lights dim and revs drop when i use the leccy windows etc. and the oil warning light may well be as its running touch low (within limits mind! cept im assuming it has to be bit more full for the turbo etc - was planning on giving it full service anyway once i sort out a oil cooler etc)

Oh and i have slight white smoke on startup, and when idling (sitting about 90-95, fan starts coming on at this point, we have slight puffs of white smoke out of the breather - which also needs redirecting to lower down in the engine bay as at moment im dieing from the fumes :D :p)

although i think the smoke out of breather may be to do with the oil being hot, so oil cooler may sort that too... i hope :cry:

Cheers,
Alex
 
Hmmm, I ain't no turbo expert but have been learning from my jap mates.

Does the car have a boost guage? What boost pressure are you running?

At higher boost the oil under extreme pressure leaks past the seals and goes everywhere, this could be why your DV has oil coming from it.

I won't post anymore for fear of ridicule.

Liam
 
Hi Alex,

I told you it wouldn't be plain sailing :D
Oil from dump valve is normal - a light mist anyway, if the oil breather pipe feeds into the top of the air filter like some do (Every van Aaken turbo's like a snowflake - delicate, beautiful, fragile and different to all the others!)

Puffs of white smoke could just be normal steam and condensation, but keep an eye on your water levels.

Red hot, a normal cento runs under 10psi of oil pressure at idle, it doesn't need to be high as there's no hydraulic tappets etc. If the revs drop to 500 it's possible a healthy engine could momentarily bring the oil light on at a hot tickover. Running hotter oil (i.e. after a run in the turbo without the impending cooler) will thin the oil a little more, so pressures could fall.

A little mist from the breather filter is normal, mine will do it on occasion.

Have a good read through the Turbo Technics website - http://www.turbotechnics.com - these guys know their stuff and there's loads of help on there.
 
Lets all welcome input from the Godfather that is pete

Pete, what guages you got in yours? I'd suggest to Alex he gets an oil pressure guage, his boost sounds like he is getting an occasional spike could be a fuel or controller glitch.

You had it checked over Alex? Are you near the place Teresa used?

Liam
 
fixitagaintomorrow said:
Hi Alex,

I told you it wouldn't be plain sailing :D
Oil from dump valve is normal - a light mist anyway, if the oil breather pipe feeds into the top of the air filter like some do (Every van Aaken turbo's like a snowflake - delicate, beautiful, fragile and different to all the others!)

Puffs of white smoke could just be normal steam and condensation, but keep an eye on your water levels.

Red hot, a normal cento runs under 10psi of oil pressure at idle, it doesn't need to be high as there's no hydraulic tappets etc. If the revs drop to 500 it's possible a healthy engine could momentarily bring the oil light on at a hot tickover. Running hotter oil (i.e. after a run in the turbo without the impending cooler) will thin the oil a little more, so pressures could fall.

A little mist from the breather filter is normal, mine will do it on occasion.

Have a good read through the Turbo Technics website - http://www.turbotechnics.com - these guys know their stuff and there's loads of help on there.


Just the guy :D
Cheers for that pete,

My air filter has been redirected to next to the towing eye (where my oil cooler will go when i've got it sorted) and has had a breather filter put pretty much straight onto the rocker cover, which im guessing is why the cabin being stunk out by fumes! need to find somewhere to get a bit of pipe from to take it away from there a bit :eek:

Sorted the engine mount today (the garage who did the engine mount previously had put the nut and bolt in the wrong way round, made it interesteing as i couldnt slide the mount out :cry: but still have tiny bit of knocking when turning (cant remember which direction, only one, think was right) so will have to look at that tomorrow, but overall is running sweet as a nut, kept pace with a modded mx5 couple of hours ago, the guy actually turned around to look at the cinq in disbelief :D

Overall, i love it :D just a few small niggles which had me worried but probably just something to get used to :)

Thanks again for the speedy reply pete,
Alex
 
bloomfieldliam said:
Lets all welcome input from the Godfather that is Pete

Pete, what guages you got in yours? I'd suggest to Alex he gets an oil pressure guage, his boost sounds like he is getting an occasional spike could be a fuel or controller glitch.

You had it checked over Alex? Are you near the place Teresa used?

Liam

I've got a Lambda gauge so I can check it's not going weak, oil temp gauge to keep an eye on things, and boost gauge so I know what's happened when I give the actuator another 1/2 turn :)

High boost turbos usually run 0.6 bar, but it depends what stage development it was (snowflake...) Some had remapped ecu's, some mechanically altered timing, some a standard ecu. Bit difficult to say it's a problem without knowing what's installed. As long as it doesn't detonate it should be ok.
Boost is controlled by the wastegate on the turbo, it's all mechanical on these. The MF2 etc. has no bearing on boost pressure.
 
what do you mean by detonate? i have had a bit of something happen just the once dismissed it mind, but it kind of went to pull made bit of a misfire noise then pulled fine... been fine since though

Its defo running 0.5 bar with apparent low comp pistons- although reciept from van aaken simply states turbo conversion carried out at cost of £2400, previous guy did send me a pic of original paperwork not sure where its got to mind... was def running 0.5 bar when it left van aaken though

want to try and get a air fuel gauge also, but my main concern is a oil cooler first (along with a good service too :p)

Edit: and according to paperwork i have it has a superchip too (y)
 

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I've had problems with BP fuel, too. Had the ecu warning light on in the Marea when I used it after Optimax - no other fuel has caused this to happen.

IMO BP Ultimate isn't a patch on Optimax. Doesn't give as good MPG either.
 
oil vapour - get a swirl pot seperator or a catch tank, excess oil lowers fuel octane on the inlet. detonation is the sponatneous combustion of fuel charge due to excess heat/pressure, which then colides with the spark combustion flame front its bad news and can destroy pretty much anything.

Turbos do not like high pressure oil feed, a restrictor can sort this,
a coupe turbo 16v swirl pot maybe a cheap solution for the vapour.

rich
 
have found out the cause of the juddering... its because the air filter has been relocated next to the tow eye right at the bottom of the bumper and is getting some water flicked onto it, and in heavy rain causing the car to really struggle if i stick too close to another car (n) but plans were to relocate this anyway (y)

also i did notice today it ran alot smoother on ploptimax than on the bp stuff, esso seems marginally better but cant touch ploptimax, looks like i'll need to find the nearest shell garage (going to be quite a trek unfortunately :cry: )

Will try and sort out the oil cooler and other gubbins before looking into swirl pots as it may just be that oil temp is getting too high and the thin oil is just seeping thru the bearings on turbo possibly?

Cheers,
Alex
 
Alex, the turbo woes with the white smoke on idle,

The turbo should be fine, afaik, it's not water-cooled so the white smoke should just be condensation unless it lingers in the air for a while like oil smoke does, in which case you might have a cyliner not firing properly (which might explain the low idle).

Try plugs and leads, also try cleaning the ICV too just incase. If you change the plugs, try the Champion EON1's , i beleive pete uses these on the black 'un as they're a grade colder than the recommended ones.



Hope that helps, or please correct me if i'm wrong :)
 
Hi,
White smoke from the exhaust normally tells you that oil is getting into the exhaust system, possiblly from the exhaust valve stem seals or turbo exhaust seals.
Your turbo'ed engine is running almost double power and will generate plenty of heat, exhaust valves in most small turbo engines are sodium filled to aid cooling, your stem seals may be cooked...also most turbo engines run oil coolers, so your right in what you say, cooling needs to be sorted, could a R5 turbo rad be fitted to a cinq as these had an oil cooler built in..

Thanks
Paul T
 
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