Mali2ude final build for Power Tour 08

[4cefed]

post a pic of your return at the pan so i can see it. Ive ran into this problem before and i may have the answer.

[thedugan]

Jody, with the way that car is going to handle and with all that horsepower even if you dont make it for day 1 of the power tour you have nothing to worry about. Heck, they could be two states ahead and you can still catch them...

Plus the gas station lines will be shorter.....

[camcojb]

Originally Posted by thedugan

Jody, with the way that car is going to handle and with all that horsepower even if you dont make it for day 1 of the power tour you have nothing to worry about. Heck, they could be two states ahead and you can still catch them...

Plus the gas station lines will be shorter.....

true, IF I was driving to the start. I'll miss my truck to ship it, it'll be in the Sacramento area this Friday picking up Charleys car.

Jody

[4cefed]

what are you using for PCV? Because if you have too much crankcase pressure that could be pressurizing the turbos and/or fighting the oil drain causing the oil to back up in the lines and leak past. Its happened to me before

[camcojb]

Originally Posted by 4cefed

what are you using for PCV? Because if you have too much crankcase pressure that could be pressurizing the turbos and/or fighting the oil drain causing the oil to back up in the lines and leak past. Its happened to me before

I have two #10 breather lines to remote tanks. The tanks have breather caps with a 5/8" line to the air filters so any smoke will get pulled back in. I checked those lines already, no oil in the tanks at all yet.

This started happening at idle, so there shouldn't be any pressure to deal with anyway. I've yet to see any boost with this engine in this car, but it was broken in in my GTO, ran great, no problems.

[68protouring454]

what changed between now and then? intake? anything else?

[camcojb]

Originally Posted by 68protouring454

what changed between now and then? intake? anything else?

nothing changed when it started to smoke. I've had the car running with this exact combo of parts for a couple weeks. It was sitting outside the shop, idling, charging the a/c. All of a sudden I noticed the smoke from the pipe, started completely without warning while idling. The engine sounded exactly the same.

When the other guy mentioned the no boost deal and the oil seal on the turbos it made me think; all the running had just been idling, tweaking the start, etc. while waiting for the wheels so I could drive the car. So it had been doing a lot of idling, but then again the engine has a few hundred miles on it as a boosted deal from my GTO, and was pretty much broken in, never smoked (other than when the scavenge pump for the turbos failed........... ). So since it wasn't a virgin start I wasn't too worried about letting it idle while I tweaked things.

It only smokes on one side. I just filled the tank and since the rain stopped I went out and tortured it a bit. Definitely got into boost several times in high gear to load it good. The smoking is not visible cruising down the road, at least I couldn't see it, and after a few miles I returned home. I let it idle for about 30 seconds before putting it in the shop and it had started to smoke again, albeit about half as much as before, noticeably less. So maybe the driving and loading the engine/turbo's is helping, but I just have a gut feeling there's something wrong with the one turbo oil seal. That cannot be fixed before Power Tour.

Jody

[ohcbird]

Jody-

I was looking at your pics & trying to figure out if the drains were working against the bottom of the sump (however, they look like they go to the front end sides of the pan)- might they be backing up against oil in the sump? If so, would it be possible to put a check valve inline (uphill) on each return line?

I know it's a pain, but I'd do a 'weep' check on the hot side before removing it. I've found bad seals by running a Q-tip in the area where the oil will puddle inside the turbine housing. This could eliminate your drain system from being at fault.

[camcojb]

Originally Posted by ohcbird

Jody-

I was looking at your pics & trying to figure out if the drains were working against the bottom of the sump (however, they look like they go to the front end sides of the pan)- might they be backing up against oil in the sump? If so, would it be possible to put a check valve inline (uphill) on each return line?

I know it's a pain, but I'd do a 'weep' check on the hot side before removing it. I've found bad seals by running a Q-tip in the area where the oil will puddle inside the turbine housing. This could eliminate your drain system from being at fault.

I think the drains are fine. I spoke with a friend who is pretty much a guru on turboed LSX's (thanks Kurt Urban!!!!!!!!), and he thinks it's too much oil pressure at idle causing the issue. Often it's only one turbo that exhibits it and he used restrictors in the oil feed line to get the pressure at the turbo in the 5-9 psi range. Still plenty of oil, but eliminates the oiling issue at idle, which is where mine seems to be.

I guess as the turbos spool they naturally direct oil down the drain lines, but at idle they aren't moving fast enough to do that and can easily back up in the turbo itself and push oil past the seal. There is no liquid oil coming out the downpipe, so it's pretty minor. And it does not appear to smoke at all cruising down the road, only at idle. It just doesn't take much oil in a hot exhaust pipe to get smoke though...........

[ohcbird]

I was thinking the same thing (pressure too high), even with restrictors... but I figured PT had that worked out for ya when they were on the Goat. We've had to use regulators on some uphill setups before (prior to the catridge). Anyway to slip one in there?

Either way- good luck on your final steps! I've long been a fan of your build mentality, and photog ability! How you find the patience to take pics while you're making progress, I don't know.