HELP! Why are my new turbos smoking???

[hitman17]

Ok so I have two newly rebuilt 13G turbos. I primed them first by pulling the ECI fuse then cranking the engine 5 times, let it sit for 10 minutes, crank again 5 times, let it sit for 10 minutes, reinstalled the fuse and started the car. After about 2 minutes the turbos started smoking. Why in the world would that happen to newly rebuilt turbos??? All the oil and coolant lines are hooked up properly.

It's blowing white smoke, that smells like exhaust. This is just at idle, I haven't even opened up the throttle yet.

Any ideas???

[Atrosity]

I have doubt it is your turbos if you are smoking at idle.

Is your car up to operating temperatures when you are smoking and is your car smoking at idle after you have driven your car around? It might be your VSS.

[hitman17]

My car is up on jack stands, so there isn't a whole lot of driving being done. :-). I was actually bleeding my brakes, and I notice smoke coming from the turbos.

My oil pressure is around 60, the temp if I remember correctly was around 120. Took about 2 minutes at idle.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if it was my VSS wouldn't I be blowing blue smoke out the rear of the car?

[green-lantern]

Did your old turbos blow? If so it's probably the old oil burning off in the exhaust.

[Atrosity]

I would get the car drivable and drive it around for 30 mins then see what kind of smoke is coming out of the exhaust.

Blue smoke looks like white smoke to me. :P

Sounds to me like old oil being burned up mixed with condensation.

[hitman17]

Yes my old turbos did blow. At least the rear one did. But now it looks like the front one is smoking more. Would the burning oil burn white? Would it smell like exhaust? Rough guess, how long should I let it run to burn it off? There may not be a good answer, but I figured I'd ask.

[hitman17]

Rear turbo was bad, no doubt. It looked like an oil bomb went off inside of it. There was oil in the intake pipe as well.

But since this is the first someone has mentioned a piston ring. Would that really be throwing smoke out by the turbos? The engine only has 3000 miles since it was rebuilt.... Or so I've been told. I have to plead stupid on this one. How would I check the piston rings.... I'm afraid of the answer being I have to remove the heads. I can say this, I know I spilled coolant in the area, but I figured 10 minutes at idle would burn all of it off. That's why I'm now concerned.

[green-lantern]

Is it the turbos smoking or is it smoking out of the exhaust? It’s normal for a bit of smoke to come off the turbo after a new install. It’s just burning off oils and crap that was on them. If they are smoking a good bit I would say there is a leak (feed line ect.).

If you had a blown turbo on the car before you installed these then it will most definitely smoke for a while until it burns all of the oil out of the exhaust. It could do this less and lees for a half hour of driving.

[hitman17]

Its coming from the turbos not the rear exhaust. But that makes sense, I'll let it run for a while since I can't drive it right now. Still waiting on a front bumper and a year past inspection, that may cause some more issues :-).

Thanks

[Austin@STM]

Turbos themselves will have oils on them that will take a while to burn off at idle because they wont get very hot at idle, plus if your hands or gloves were at all greasy when you installed the turbo's then that will just add to it.
Just double check all your connections are tight, and keep a fire extinguisher handy just in case.

-Austin@STM

[blindmist]

There was probably nothing wrong with your old turbos.
More often than not it's a broken ringland on a piston.


Pulling the plugs and having a close up look will prove it one way or the other, which is what you should have done in the first place.

Steve

Disregard this.... useless information again. Please stop steve. Seriously. You are hurting our platform. I destroyed a ring land and it didn't burn oil.


Go drive it for 30 minutes with some good boosting in there. Most likely it is just oil burning off from working on it.
Turbos don't tend to burn oil at idle, unless something is severely wrong.

[Lithium]

Did a guy named warren rebuild those for you?

[Unknownvr4]

There was probably nothing wrong with your old turbos.
More often than not it's a broken ringland on a piston.


Pulling the plugs and having a close up look will prove it one way or the other, which is what you should have done in the first place.

Steve

Oh god here we go again

[deathsled]

D I destroyed a ring land and it didn't burn oil.


I had broken ring lands on 4 pistons and it didn't burn oil or smoke lol

[blindmist]

I had broken ring lands on 4 pistons and it didn't burn oil or smoke lol

See. 5 pistons with busted ring lands, no burning oil or smoke. Steve's post is just fluff. Not even worthy of that. It's just crap.

[hitman17]

Ha, no. I rebuilt them, but I didn't clean them as well as they probably should have been. So yea, everyone is saying the same thing. Just let it burn! Thanks.

[green-lantern]

keep a fire extinguisher handy just in case.

-Austin@STM

Now this is good advice! I always carry one. It can save your ass for sure.

[blindmist]

Now this is good advice! I always carry one. It can save your ass for sure.

You know.... with as much shit as I have done/gone wrong with my car, I am AMAZED I have never once had a fire. Actually, I have never had a fire on one of my cars. But now that I see this post, I will have one.

[green-lantern]

You know.... with as much shit as I have done/gone wrong with my car, I am AMAZED I have never once had a fire. Actually, I have never had a fire on one of my cars. But now that I see this post, I will have one.

After I did some fuel mods I thought I should have one but then I started to think how much money I had under the hood. I should have been carrying one much sooner lol

[J_Parker]

A little off topic but I had an oops when I was cleaning my engine block up a while back. I was cleaning the block with brake clean letting it sit for about an hour then hit it with a torch to clean all the old oils and dirt off etc, but what I had disreguarded for the first time ever was the pile of floor dry under the engine stand that had been soaking up all the excess brake clean... Well there was some brake clean left in the oil passage in the block and ignited while hitting it with the torch... No big deal, but... A flaming drop managed to make it's way to the floor dry below... Needless to say a can and a half of brake clean was quite the blaze :p I always keep a fire extinguisher in arms reach, and luckily I did then too, or my dad wouldn't be so much of a happy camper ;) ... The engine block was extreamly clean though :D


As everyone is saying, just see if it'll burn off. My Soarer blew the turbos and head gasket and it took near to three hours for the excess oil and coolant in the exhaust to burn off. As well as when I put the second set of new turbos on there was a good bit of "anti-rust" oil coating on them that took I'd say about 1/2 hour to cook off.

[hitman17]

Ok, here we go again. Someone mentioned that it could be a bad shaft causing the smoking. Here the statement that's been made.

"I don't recommend rebuilding your own turbos because usually this is what happens, your out money and now asking is it my turbos? even if they did balance the turbos you have to have them aligned the same way they did on the balancer, did you send them the thrust setup and shaft nuts?

if not then you can reassemble and clock them the same way they were not sent in with them, and then you have to make sure they are now aligned properly. plus on td04 the tollerance on the shaft is .0003 i doubt you have the tools to see if the shaft is stll within wearable limits, and only .0001 on the straightness. along with a bunch of other variables on ring limits and clearances".

Now the alignment and balance were done after the rebuild, so I wouldn't think it would be that, but I wanted to ask you guys. What do you think?

[green-lantern]

It's a gamble rebuilding your own turbos. I did mine and they lasted quite a while but not as long as they should have.

[blindmist]

It's a gamble rebuilding your own turbos. I did mine and they lasted quite a while but not as long as they should have.

Yes, but I highly doubt that fresh rebuilt turbos would be burning oil at idle especially if they have barely been run/never boosted once.

[hitman17]

So you think the turbo might be bad?? The rebuilt was pretty simple, just taking out some old parts and replacing them with new ones. The alignment and balance were done by Forced Performance. They replaced the turbines as well.

[green-lantern]

Well they shouldn't be smoking anyway unless they are cracked or something. You would be smoking out the exhaust.

[hitman17]

So you think that it's just burn off? It's not smoking out the exhaust. If the shaft is bad, can I cause any damage by letting it run idle for 20 minutes, drive for 10? I figure that should get rid of most of the burn off, but I don't want to damage anything else. If the turbo is shot it's shot, I don't think I can do anything to it that a rebuild wouldn't fix.... right?

[green-lantern]

Yeah I think you are worrying too much (I really don’t know how much smoke you are talking about though). I’d grab the fire extinguisher and take it for a spin.

[GTOJOE]

I'm assuming you didn't modify the oil lines? cus stuffing with these can cause too much oil flow which will force the oil through the bearings and it will smoke.

[J_Parker]

Try some thicker oil, if what Joe is saying is what's happening, the thicker oil with subside the seepage through the bearings just enough to guage a difference, and put a prognosis to the problem. That's how I discovered the turbos were gone on my Soarer.

[blindmist]

Yeah I think you are worrying too much (I really don’t know how much smoke you are talking about though). I’d grab the fire extinguisher and take it for a spin.

I agree.

[green-lantern]

I'm assuming you didn't modify the oil lines? cus stuffing with these can cause too much oil flow which will force the oil through the bearings and it will smoke.

What are you talking about? stuffing?

[Lithium]

^ Stuffing the return lines to increase oil pressure in the center housing??

[green-lantern]

^ Stuffing the return lines to increase oil pressure in the center housing??

Really? How is this done? In my opinion these cars seem to have almost too much pressure already.

[GTOJOE]

By that I just meant play with/modifying them. If you change the size of these you will effect the oil pressure and flow. Seen this many times before. If you modify the oil lines from stock you will need to fit a restrictor to ensure the correct flow rate. Just poor choice of word :D

[green-lantern]

By that I just meant play with/modifying them. If you change the size of these you will effect the oil pressure and flow. Seen this many times before. If you modify the oil lines from stock you will need to fit a restrictor to ensure the correct flow rate. Just poor choice of word :D

OK, I thought that might be what you meant. Witch brings me to wonder if my turbo return lines could be too small. I've had issues with oil leaks from my turbos exhaust seal side. I know my custom lines are smaller and I have wondered about it before but I still thought they were big enough.

[Unknownvr4]

OK, I thought that might be what you meant. Witch brings me to wonder if my turbo return lines could be too small. I've had issues with oil leaks from my turbos exhaust seal side. I know my custom lines are smaller and I have wondered about it before but I still thought they were big enough.

This x2.

I have the 3sx stainless steel feed lines i believe...

[green-lantern]

This x2.

I have the 3sx stainless steel feed lines i believe...

Well mine are return lines. I could see smaller return lines causing turbo seals to leak but feed lines shouldn't effect the pressure too much.

[GTOJOE]

if the feed lines are too big there is too much flow and this causes leaking around the bearings. too small return lines causes a restriction and has the same effect.

[green-lantern]

if the feed lines are too big there is too much flow and this causes leaking around the bearings. too small return lines causes a restriction and has the same effect.

Well the banjo bolt and the rear brass fitting are the main restrictions so I wouldn't think that just bigger lines would make much of a difference.

EDIT: I do know that people can burn up turbos by putting restrictions in the feed lines trying to avoid leaking seals though.

[hitman17]

Here is an update. I ran the car for 10 minutes (just sitting in the garage), rev'd it a few times during those 10 minutes. I didn't see any smoke. I don't think it got up to running temp, but for right now I think that's a good sign. Would you agree?

[akotten]

Here is an update. I ran the car for 10 minutes (just sitting in the garage), rev'd it a few times during those 10 minutes. I didn't see any smoke. I don't think it got up to running temp, but for right now I think that's a good sign. Would you agree?

That might be a good sign, but I don't think you will really know for sure until get out, drive the car, and actually put some load on the turbos.

[blindmist]

Here is an update. I ran the car for 10 minutes (just sitting in the garage), rev'd it a few times during those 10 minutes. I didn't see any smoke. I don't think it got up to running temp, but for right now I think that's a good sign. Would you agree?


Told you they were fine. After doing a full rebuild of my engine and turbos, my car smoked for a good 20 minutes.

[J_Parker]

I'm sure you'll be fine, just cautiously take it for a rip around the block and see what happens. If anything is going to happen at all it usually does in the first five minuts of play time. Even so, sitting in the shop after a rebuild my cars always smoked after a good couple of revs, not even at operating temprature. Although there's a pile of money invested into the cars, you just have to leave the fear of doing something wrong at the back of your mind.... Unless you're a complete idiot and did something wrong continuing reguardless, which I'm sure yours isn't a case of. Confidence is the key to solving problems :)


..... Oh, and intellect too I suppose ;)

[blindmist]

Confidence is the key to solving problems :)


..... Oh, and common sense too I suppose ;)

Fixed that for ya.

[J_Parker]

Fixed that for ya.

Haha, thanks. I guess no one ever said we had to be "smart" to work on our cars :D

[blindmist]

Haha, thanks. I guess no one ever said we had to be "smart" to work on our cars :D

Yeah, except the common sense clause eliminates 70% of America.

[jbuhrman]

My car did the same thing when I took a 2 week trip to vegas, came back and it smoked(white smoke) very, very bad for about 25-30 minutes, then went away. Let it idle to get it warm, once it is take it for a trip around the block and keep your eye on gauges and the mirror to see if its smoking.

If its not, venture alittle further just to get some load on the turbo's if they are bad when you put them under load they will smoke black from oil leakage, they will make a god aweful sound and so on. In other words you will KNOW something is up when you put them under load.

Just take your time, keep an eye on everything and just go take the car for a sunday drive..(literly tomorow is sunday go do it)

[mb3000]

My car did the same thing when I took a 2 week trip to vegas, came back and it smoked(white smoke) very, very bad for about 25-30 minutes, then went away. Let it idle to get it warm, once it is take it for a trip around the block and keep your eye on gauges and the mirror to see if its smoking.

If its not, venture alittle further just to get some load on the turbo's if they are bad when you put them under load they will smoke black from oil leakage, they will make a god aweful sound and so on. In other words you will KNOW something is up when you put them under load.

Just take your time, keep an eye on everything and just go take the car for a sunday drive..(literly tomorow is sunday go do it)

^This