burnin' oil like a midnight lamp

[jtt220]

My sr20det is burning oil at a rate of 1 quart every other tank of gas. I am fairly inexperienced with forced induction engines but i know i could be loseing this oil at the turbo. How do I diagnois if the turbo is the oil burning culprit? Is their any tell-tale sign of a blown turbo? Thanks in advance for the help.....

[uiuc240]

Originally Posted by jtt220

My sr20det is burning oil at a rate of 1 quart every other tank of gas. I am fairly inexperienced with forced induction engines but i know i could be loseing this oil at the turbo. How do I diagnois if the turbo is the oil burning culprit? Is their any tell-tale sign of a blown turbo? Thanks in advance for the help.....

You will have lots of smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe.

When does it happen? Idle? On boost? Near redline? When cold? When hot?

Eric

[jtt220]

It smokes when on boost, a very blue oily smoke. Definantly more smoke as I near the redline. Their doesn't seem to be much of a bias to temperature, it smokes all the time. I have a film in my tailpipe that when I wipe it off it looks like burnt oil. It's definatly not just carbon. Now that I think of it, it smokes when in vacuum and atmospheric pressure conditions as well, it's just not as noticeable. I'm smokein all the damn time!!

[TeckniX]

Piston rings done?.. although could be like you said leak at the turbo itself...maybe unbolt the downpipe.. and see hwo nasty that mother is.. or check the lines going in/out the turbo

[plucky]

u can try to compression test your car and see where the cylinders are at....

[uiuc240]

Here's the thing...Nissan motors don't usually have problems with piston rings or valve guides. 9 times out of 10, on an SR, the problem is that the turbo is toast. I'm even more inclined to believe this, since you say it happens all the time, especially under boost.

Easy way to check? Take off the hotpipe from the outlet of the compressor and look and see if there's a LOT of filmy oil in your intake. Now, a little bit is totally normal and not a problem, but if it's like gooey and getting all over the place, your turbo is toast.

Oh, and then take the intake pipe off and check the turbo for shaft play. A little is normal...a lot means the journal bearings are toast.

I'd bet that your problem is turbo related.

Eric

[jtt220]

I'm going to check that out tonight as soon as I leave work. I really appreciate the help. I have been an active forum contributer in several BMW rings as all of my previous cars have been from the Bavarian company. The people there are great, and even though the following is apparently younger and less experienced here, I can see I will enjoy the people and topics just as much. Thanks a ton guys!

[jtt220]

uiuc240-
I checked the hotpipe at the compresser outlet and their was definatly oil in there, I just don't know if it is excessive. I stuck my finger in the hotpipe, wiped around 180 degrees and pulled it out. My finger was about 75% covered with oil, wet oil not caked oil, and it was not dripping off. It was covered, however, meaning that 75% was covered by an opaque oil film. I haven't had the opportunity yet to check the shaft play. Could you define "a little play" (ie how far should it move side to side)? One more thing: I have more of a oily film in the tail pipe than in the hotpipe. I don't know if that means anything or not. Thanks again!!
-James

[uiuc240]

Originally Posted by jtt220

uiuc240-
I checked the hotpipe at the compresser outlet and their was definatly oil in there, I just don't know if it is excessive. I stuck my finger in the hotpipe, wiped around 180 degrees and pulled it out. My finger was about 75% covered with oil, wet oil not caked oil, and it was not dripping off. It was covered, however, meaning that 75% was covered by an opaque oil film. I haven't had the opportunity yet to check the shaft play. Could you define "a little play" (ie how far should it move side to side)? One more thing: I have more of a oily film in the tail pipe than in the hotpipe. I don't know if that means anything or not. Thanks again!!
-James

Hmmm...that's a good bit of oil in the hotpipe. It would lead me to suspect the turbo, that's for sure.

However, the fact that you have all this oil coming out of the tailpipe makes me wonder what's going on in there. I would say you might have to do a compression test. If your compression is good (can't remember the numbers off the top of my head)...meaning that it's level across all 4 cylinders, that's a good thing. However, you could still have valve guide issues...

I'd still suspect the turbo, though. I'm not so sure how much shaft play is "OK"...you can probably find more about this on Google or something. That's where I would be checking. I've only messed with my turbo, and the play was minimal. But I didn't measure it or anything, so I can't give you quantifiable data.

Good luck!

Eric

[plucky]

i just recently did a compression test on mine and i got 150s all across. I was worried for a little bit cause when i oiled the cylinders it jumped to 170s...but a couple good peeps from FA says that 150 is normal for a mid age sr motor. another guy even mention that his car is in the 150s and doing 12s all day.