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