Oil coming out of intake horn/grid heater spacer..

[YeaImDylan]

Hey all, sadly back again 

 

Noticed a little bit of oil was coming out around that gasket on the intake horn and the bolt there. 

 

Backstory, previous turbos I had a year ago ended up both going (P/O had a homemade budget compound setup). I swapped setups with a guy and the turbos no **** blew and were gushing oil when they went on his truck. I had a haze at idle and told him I didn't know condition etc and he still wanted them for the piping at the least. I'm assuming there was a good amount of oil in my intake system (intercooler etc). Is it possibly it's finally making it's way up? I have a brand new GT turbo with maybe 2k miles on it.

 

Other backstory, if any of you remember my post about my head issue, I have a missing bolt on my intake plenum (ear is broken off) making a major boost leak. I'm scared this may have damaged my seal on my turbo? I've read that can happen because it's potentially over spinning but I rarely go WOT and when I have, I'm only making 28lbs of boost. Turbo also has a wastegate so I feel that would save it form this possibility. I'm just worried that this turbo seal went prematurely due to me not being able to afford a head yet and have a fully sealed and functional system.

 

I'm at the point of wanting to find a solid lower mileage engine for a solid price and just swap that in and keep my injectors, tuner, turbo, etc... I worry that the engine is going to fail me one day as I truly don't trust the P/O when he rebuilt it. There are signs it was rebuilt due to the top of the block being polished and whatnot. I feel if he didn't torque something down in the engine, she would've blown by now.. as I've had her for 2 years now. Also saw a little vapor coming out of the puke tube which just starts making me worry again about it all. 

 

I've been checking oil levels and she sits at the same level the last few weeks (since I noticed the oil on the intake). I'm just at a loss and am worried I'll end up breaking the bank even more and I still have a loan out on this truck.

[wil440]

What do you mean by " a little bit of oil"  ?

 

easiest way of checking is to remove the intake horn and take a look at what oil is around inside, just easy it off slowly and you should get away without renewing the gasket and if it does get damaged a little silicon and it will be fine until you can get another, OR make a gasket out of a cereal box, and yes oil in an intercooler can and will get blown into the engine, can you remove the lowest intercooler hose and see whats in there ?  Have you got a blue haze now ???

If a turbo is passing oil you would know about it, it goes from nothing to a lot in a very short time and as you say the oil level is staying constant I doubt you have a turbo problem and I also doubt you've "overspun " it .... you'd hear that like a 747 landing in the bed

 

All engines breath a little through the breather it would be spluttering oil out if it was serious

 

 

[YeaImDylan]

1 hour ago, wil440 said:

What do you mean by " a little bit of oil"  ?

 

easiest way of checking is to remove the intake horn and take a look at what oil is around inside, just easy it off slowly and you should get away without renewing the gasket and if it does get damaged a little silicon and it will be fine until you can get another, OR make a gasket out of a cereal box, and yes oil in an intercooler can and will get blown into the engine, can you remove the lowest intercooler hose and see whats in there ?  Have you got a blue haze now ???

If a turbo is passing oil you would know about it, it goes from nothing to a lot in a very short time and as you say the oil level is staying constant I doubt you have a turbo problem and I also doubt you've "overspun " it .... you'd hear that like a 747 landing in the bed

 

All engines breath a little through the breather it would be spluttering oil out if it was serious

 

 

 Thank you for the ease of mind on the turbo part, I’ve seen mixed opinions on a boost leak causing the turbo to over spin or ruin a seal (or both). I’ll get down there sometime soon and check out the piping. There’s been residue in there before but that was after changing from the first set. I feel it would be hard to tell unless I scrub everything and then place it back on and then drive to see if this turbo is having any issues. 
 

no blue haze, just a grey haze that really

shows in the right sunlight.. I also have 150hp injectors in it and a hotrod pump. I’ve been told I’m fine with it hazing. The only time I had blueish haze was when I had fuel in my oil and it was very thin and probably getting burned a bit, that issue is fixed though.

[wil440]

As you say remove the intake, inspect, clean it then use the truck keeping an eye on the engine oil level

 

If the engine oil aint going down any oil in the intake isn't from the sump/turbo

 

In my line of work (mobile plant) if a turbo leaks oil into the intake then the intercooler is usually removed and cleaned out or at the least the intercooler removed and stood up to allow the oil to drain out, sometimes the angles and contruction of the hose stubs mean just removing the lower hose allows it all to slowly drip out

[YeaImDylan]

1 hour ago, wil440 said:

As you say remove the intake, inspect, clean it then use the truck keeping an eye on the engine oil level

 

If the engine oil aint going down any oil in the intake isn't from the sump/turbo

 

In my line of work (mobile plant) if a turbo leaks oil into the intake then the intercooler is usually removed and cleaned out or at the least the intercooler removed and stood up to allow the oil to drain out, sometimes the angles and contruction of the hose stubs mean just removing the lower hose allows it all to slowly drip out

Yeah I’ll make sure to clean both ends and then check the pipe before the intercooler and see if it’s pooling there at all. That would for sure show that the turbo is leaking!

[Mopar1973Man]

I would pull the entire air system and wash everything out with solvent and air dry. The only oil source is a failed turbo. The only reason a turbo would fail is not properly cooled off before shutdown or dust collecting on the compressor wheel and it gets out of balance. Remember turbos spin at a very high rate like 15,000 RPMs or more depending on fuel and turbo size. Dust problem typically from washable filters like K&N.