I'm burning something... but what?

[Careless]

seriously, I don't know where to look.

 

I have done the following to my engine:

 

1) Port and Polish exhaust, Port + Smooth intake and bowls/seats.

2) Full home head job (valve seals, clean head, lap valve seats).

3) Compression test is 150psi across every cylinder with the Fel-Pro headgasket (har har).

4) New plugs, New Cap, New Rotor, New Taylor 409 Spiro Core custom wires 10.4mm wires.

5) Removed EGR.

6) Removed PCV system, and set up for oil catch can (no oil spitting out anywhere so far).

7) AICV installed. AIV installed.

8 ) Distributor Indexed properly.

9) Fidanza flywheel + new clutch.

10) E-Fan upgrade.

11) 350z Alternator upgrade using stock belt (works nice!)

12) Rebuilt Turbo with upgraded washer and seal kit.

13) Every accessible seal replaced.

14) Amsoil 10w30 + Magnafilter attachment + Napa Gold filter.

15) Used injector swap, same kind - 87T.

16) Another ECU swap, just to work out an ignition bug.

17) Vacuum reading is 20 inHg.

18) Stanza Throttle Body.

19) Coolant temp sensor + harness.

20) misc other things that I cannot remember, but I'm going to remove the charcoal can tomorrow too, in order to mount my catch can properly.

 

I've got something, most likely a bit of oil, burning. It burns more when I open the throttle. It smells a little oily, but it's not a deep blue, and there's some condensation building up in my exhaust from sitting for 8 months through the dead of winter and hot-cold cycles.

 

I can't, for the life of me, figure out where this oil is coming from or how it's making it's way to the cylinders. I am running a tad rich, as per the light on the ECU, but that'll be tuned out with the adjustment screw on the MAF, hopefully. It's not TERRIBLE oil consumption. but it's there, and it will probably lead to me getting pulled over if a cop tails my ass.

 

Is there anything after doing the listed mods up-top, that I should be checking to make sure no oil is spewing into the intake? I hosed everything down before re-installing it with some cleansers and solvents to make sure it was clean for sure.

 

I will pull the intake pipe off tomorrow, but I'm just curious to know if anyone has any ideas or anything to check. A friend says it could be a vacuum related issue now that my EGR is gone and perhaps I mixed a vacuum line or something... but to be honest, I'm stumped. I used an EGR diagram and it seems alright. I should double check it, but I'm sure it's right.

 

Anyone? Anything?

[Forrest]

Are you sure it is making its way into the cylinders? How do your plugs look?

 

Your turbo seals might be leaking.

[Careless]

Are you sure it is making its way into the cylinders? How do your plugs look?

 

Your turbo seals might be leaking.

 

Plugs were black, i think from a rich condition. They were not oily nor did they smell like oil much, if at all.

 

I replaced them with cheapo champion copper plugs that seem to idle better than the NGK-R V-powers.

 

That would indicate that it's dumping into the cat. But that would also mean that I would have to idle the car for a while for the cat to heat up to the point where it would burn any oil that comes out of the turbine housing. As far as I can tell, it smokes right from start up.

 

fakkk. I really don't want to have to remove this damn turbo again

[ZR8ED]

Have you taken the car out for a nice cruise? We are getting into that kind of weather now. I say get it out for a good 1/2 hour highway cruise..smooth driving..no hotfooting. Let everything fully warm up and give the exhaust a chance to get any oily residue out. Try to stay out of boost for a bit. After that, you may be able to get an idea of burning oil at startup/ idle/ boosting etc..

 

Just trying to eliminate some of the variables.

 

Scott.

[Careless]

Scott.

 

Thanks for the advice. That was my intention, until I noticed a small drippity drop of oil from where I had just cleaned the floor to do just that, take it out for a spin after lowering it off the stands (which it has been on since around this time last year for what seemed like a simple clutch job....ughhh).

 

now I find that my turbo is dripping from the center section on the exhaust side. my turbo rebuilder had given me the turbo and told me it was aligned and everything, and went on vacation.

 

At the time i was pressured by my landlord to get the car moving because he was selling the house (no longer doing so), so I had to call him and tell him that it was aligned about 1 inch off (which is huge!).

 

I instead spoke to his brother, who runs the business with him, and he told me to just loosen the bolts one by one, rotate the turbo, and retighten one by one until it's where it's supposed to be.

 

I did that, and it's leaking. so I don't know if it would have leaked anyways because the car was never started and oil pressure never built up, or if it's my fault. But having it misaligned is a problem in itself.

 

But now my cat and my o2 sensor are probably full of oil, and i took everything apart tonight. (record 2.5 hours)

 

But I can't get the turbo out. I may just drop my steering rack completely and put my new one in. Might as well.

[Pharaohabq]

that sucks. It could be that prior your turbo overheated w/o enough flow to keep it lubed and it cooked it's bearings. being an inch off I'd say it was installed wrong, to start with, but you're going to need to put it out and see what's going on. Sucks, it hurts to think it might be dead... jim... heh.

[Careless]

Is there a proper way of having the turbo circulate coolant before starting? I cranked the starter a good 5 or 10 times on a fresh battery for 6 or 7 seconds at a time, with some long pauses in between to get the oil in there... and I poured some oil into the turbo oil feed hole before doing that.

 

I removed the turbo on sunday along with my steering rack, which needs replacing.

 

I cleaned the ports yesterday night with some toothbrushes and simple green/brake clean, and

 

I'm going to get a call from Turbo-man today to see what went wrong. He rebuilt i around October, but I didn't start it till December, and now this.

[HowlerMonkey]

What does your turbo drain look like inside?

[Careless]

I can see straight through the drain pipe, the gasket was firmly planted round the drain hole nicely, and on the pan... I've put my finger through it many times to check for blockage, and there is a plate at the end that directs the oil downwards, there is plenty of room for it to seep back into the pan and I would assume that's a windage-plate that would stop from forcing windage air into the oil drain to block it from air-choking the flow.

 

I'm starting to think it's the comp-cams lube being too thick... maybe the turbo didn't like it and it pushed the seals out.

[Careless]

haven't gotten the turbo back yet (F! DAMN! JEEZ!) but there was some black sticky crap in there too. not spewing out though, but I think that was the oil in there.

 

I bought some crappy quaker state oil to flush my system and got a new filter to run that stuff through. I may do two filters through the crappy oil and then upgrade filter and oil. WHEN i get this turbo back.