My turbo is leaking oil from the exhaust part of the turbo and a little from the return oil line. my question is how can i tell if my seals are toast?? ive read that if there is shaft play in the turbo than the turbo seals are gone, but with my turbo there is no shaft play, so im assuming my seals are fine, and its just that im getting too much oil into my turbo... is that correct or are my seals gone, if so where i can get some?? will a oil pressure regulator help at all? thanks

 

I had the same problem. My shaftplay was fine but my seals were blown. Mine needed a rebuild, maybe you're still ok. You burning any oil? Check your IC pipes for it. Get an oil restrictor valve from http://www.stealthmodeperformance.com I have been using one since my rebuild and I haven't had problems since.

 

Your seals MIGHT not be toast, but they probably are. Seals have nothing to do with shaft play; that's bearings.

The most common error when installing an aftermarket turbo is feeding the turbo with too much oil pressure. You want almost zero pressure in the cartridge itself, meaning that the oil drain line should flow well enough that the cartridge never completely fills with oil. Those bearings just have to get oil on them, they don't need to be submerged.

The point is that the only thing stopping oil from passing the seals is the positive pressure in the exhaust and charge pipes. If you are getting oil in there, you obviously have too much oil pressure. It is impossible to tell if the seals are bad until you at least correct that problem.

Most commonly, the turbo cartridge sees oil pressure when:

1) The oil feed line is too large and does not have a proper restrictor.

-solution: 1/8" NPT allen-head pipe plugs are your friend. There is bound to be a 1/8" NPT port somewhere in your oil feed system. Take a plug, drill a 1mm hole in it, then thread it into the port before you install the NPT-AN adapter on top of it. There is a restrictor for you.

2) The drain line is too restrictive.

-solution: The bigger the better. You can buy flanges for most turbos up to -08AN, but I think that is just too costly. Some 3/4" rubber hose (rated for use with oil) works the best IMO, since there should be no pressure in the drain line. You just install a flange with a 3/4" pipe on the turbo and the pan.

3) The drain line enters the pan below the oil level.

-solution: Nothing you can do but relocate it higher in the pan.