LoneStarS30Z Posted March 29, 2010 Share Posted March 29, 2010 (edited) I've searched some and I'm looking to re-confirm what I think may already be my problems before I go digging into something else. Lately my L28ET has been giving out a little white smoke. It always gave a good size puff on start up, but would quickly go away when warmed up. Now I've been noticing when I'm stopped at some intersections, I see white smoke coming out of the exhaust. Its not overwhelming, but noticeable. Also, I've noticed alot of black "spots" on my driveway behind the car's exhaust which looks alot like really small spots of oil, as if the car is shooting oil out the exhaust upon starting. And the last piece of evidence, a couple of days ago when I took my intercooler piping off for a repaint, I noticed the pipe coming straight from the turbo to the intercooler was coated with oil in the inside, but none of the other pipes in the system had any signs of oil, only that one pipe coming straight from the turbo. So with that said, would I be correct to assume my turbo may need rebuilding, and its not my head gasket going bad? This is my first time personally coming face to face with this problem, so my assumptions only come from research and what I've read. So a little more reassuring would be awesome. The turbo is a ITS SH 60-1 (Innovative Turbo Systems). One last question, I don't have an oil catch can set up into my system either, would having one be a great benefit also? Edited March 29, 2010 by xevenskyline Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oddmanout84 Posted March 30, 2010 Share Posted March 30, 2010 (edited) You and me are in just about the same boat at the same time. Only mine doesn't shoot white smoke at any time beyond warmup, figured that's just condensation. Don't have an oil catch system either, but my cooling system is all out of whack. Check your radiator fluid level, start up the car with the cap off and watch it. Let it warm up a bit until the engine "burps". When I revved mine during this I got small bubbles, and unless my eyes were playing tricks on me some of the bubbles were oily. I'm PRAYING its not a BHG, but I'm expecting the worst... edit: BTW, I don't have the intercooler piping-oil issue that you have, but then again my turbo is freshly built. Rebuilding the turbo is easy as long as you're not dealing with a bent shaft or anything. Edited March 30, 2010 by Oddmanout84 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoneStarS30Z Posted March 30, 2010 Author Share Posted March 30, 2010 I've been watching the rad fluid pretty closely lately after I just drained the system to install a water temp sensor. I've pretty sure I've burped all the bubbles out of the system, but sometimes when I check the radiator fluid again after a day or 2, the level is slightly lower than when I topped it off. Like maybe a 1/4 a cup of water needs to be added to top off and that's it, so I'm wondering if I'm slowly burning coolant, or I'm still getting air out of the system. Weirdly enough, it didn't smoke at all this morning on the way to work. I'm contemplating just changing the headgasket anyways. I have to change the valve cover gasket and the oil pan gasket, so I was considering completing the trifecta and just knocking that out too for peace of mind. Only thing is that I've never done a HG change before. Makes me nervous even though I head its easy on our L28's. I think I may take off that intercooler pipe and try to clean it off better then check it again a few days later and see how it looks. Anyone else got an opinion on the matter? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoneStarS30Z Posted April 22, 2010 Author Share Posted April 22, 2010 Bumpers. Still wondering what type of blow by (or where for that matter) gives oily deposits on the hot side of my intercooler piping. Also if I was to install a oil catch can, what 2 points should the hoses be connected to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossman Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 If you suspect the turbo seals are bad then just have the turbo rebuilt. As Oddmanout mentioned, turbo rebuilds are relatively cheap and easy to do. Do you have a restrictor in the oil feed line? Too much oil pressure can blow thru the seals. Is your crank case and valve cover vented? You mentioned not having a catch can. All a catch can does is catch the oil instead of letting it blow out into the atmosphere. Having one vs. just venting the crank case won't help. It is a problem if you have your crank case closed up. In that case it will blow gases and oil out the seals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoneStarS30Z Posted April 22, 2010 Author Share Posted April 22, 2010 The crank case is vented with one of those "mini-me" looking cold air intake filters. I'll have to check the oil lines, but if I remember right there wasn't an oil restrictor at all, just a straight steel braided line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mayolives Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 QUOTE:"I'm contemplating just changing the head gasket anyways. Anyone else got an opinion on the matter?" Before you start replacing or changing parts I would suggest trying to determine where to oil is coming from and if there is a water leak, what is causing the leak. A really good way to answer the oil and water concerns would be to perform a leak down test. The procedure is relatively easy and you can search and find exactly how to do it. You cam borrow a tester from a local parts house with a loaner program. The results of this test will give you a very good idea of the general health of your engine. IMHO, a leak down test is probably the best over all test we can do to get a better idea of what going on inside an engine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoneStarS30Z Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 Bump from the grave. So long story short, I'm stationed in Japan, Z is back in Texas, I may plan some leave some time soon to go back and get the Z running good. Before I left, I attempted to fix the oil leak by changing the oil pan gasket and it turned out to an epic fail, the oil pan bolt holes were extremely dimpled from the previous owners over torquing them. Thanks for another screw up! Anyways, when I pulled the pan off, I noticed a greenish tinge to the oil, that's gotta be coolant right which in turn is a leak in the headgasket right? So I have a possible blown turbo oil seal, and a bad headgasket. Do you guys concur? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB240zDET Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Bump from the grave. So long story short, I'm stationed in Japan, Z is back in Texas, I may plan some leave some time soon to go back and get the Z running good. Before I left, I attempted to fix the oil leak by changing the oil pan gasket and it turned out to an epic fail, the oil pan bolt holes were extremely dimpled from the previous owners over torquing them. Thanks for another screw up! Anyways, when I pulled the pan off, I noticed a greenish tinge to the oil, that's gotta be coolant right which in turn is a leak in the headgasket right? So I have a possible blown turbo oil seal, and a bad headgasket. Do you guys concur? Correct. A bad headgasket will cause coolant to mix with the engine oil. Although if there is coolant in the oil then that could be coolant being burned in the turbo. So there is a chance that the turbo seals are still good. But for good measure I would replace the head gasket and rebuild the turbo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoneStarS30Z Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 That was the plan, I need to do some reading on the process of changing the head gasket, I'm wondering if I can get away without rebalancing the turbo if I'm just changing the seals and I use paint marker to lightly mark where everything lines up together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB240zDET Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 I would just get the turbo re-balanced. There is a thread on here about that debate and from what I have gathered is to go ahead and pay for the balancing of the turbo to be on the safe side. Do it right the first and don't worry about weather it will be ok, just to say yourself the doubt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoneStarS30Z Posted January 21, 2012 Author Share Posted January 21, 2012 I've read that also, it's not that I'd rather not get it professionally re-balanced, it's just the turn around time I wouldn't be to afford to take forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roger280zx Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Find someone local to cut down on turnaround time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deaner Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Call Innovative and see what they offer for rebuilds. Better off just sending it off or buying another one. Most turbos nowadays are throw aways. Next do a leakdown. A little greenish film for the most part is normal. It's condensation. Now if you have water running off the dipstick you're in trouble. The smoke is more than likely oil puddled in the exhaust burning off. As far as a catch can, do you mean you have no breather setup at all or you just don't have a can? Not having a crank case breather with create blow by(smoke, low compression,etc) not to mention blow out seals. Hope this helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLOZ UP Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 I just had an "incident" with my crankcase system. I had mocked up some tubing for a catch can I am building, but to judge the lengths I just had the tubes connected both valve cover vents. Long story short, I noticed that there was an awful lot of smoke. Looked at the engine bay and oil was pouring out from behind the timing cover. Blew out an already (slow) leaking valve cover. Then I took my turbo back off to fix the seals. Intake pipes were coated with oil. Exhaust had oil dripping out of it. Apparently having PCV is necessary for these (non carbon seal) turbos to drain properly. So, I'm hoping once I have everything back together the seals aren't "toast". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoneStarS30Z Posted January 5, 2013 Author Share Posted January 5, 2013 So resurrecting this once again as my curiosity has sparked from bordem. What would be the 'correct' way to vent the crankcase? After doing some Google searching, seems like most people either have the tiny air filter on it, or it's routed to the stock air filter area. Also what does PCV stand for again? I haven't touched my Z in years, so my knowledge might've been slightly replaced by FD3S knowledge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldAndyAndTheSea Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 So resurrecting this once again as my curiosity has sparked from bordem. What would be the 'correct' way to vent the crankcase? After doing some Google searching, seems like most people either have the tiny air filter on it, or it's routed to the stock air filter area. Also what does PCV stand for again? I haven't touched my Z in years, so my knowledge might've been slightly replaced by FD3S knowledge PCV stands for Positive Crankcase Ventilation If you have the stock FI and you remove your PCV stuff you may run into tuning issues. That being said, I'm going to be running standalone FI and I still intend on keeping the stock(ish) PCV Here's how I modified my non egr n42 to accept the PCV valve on my turbocharged application. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoneStarS30Z Posted January 5, 2013 Author Share Posted January 5, 2013 (edited) I should note I'm not using the stock intake manifold, here's a pic, notice the little air filter thing. The engine already had that intake mani set up when I bought it so I haven't had any hand in changing the PCV set up, but if I can do something to reduce blow by I'm all ears. Edited January 5, 2013 by LoneStarS30Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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