A friend of mine gave me a an already tapped oil pan for my motor so it's been installed and as soon as I mounted the turbo I could tell there would be some clearance issues with the downpipe once it was installed. Here are some pics of how it looks and I need to know if the line touching the downpipe is going to be an issue and there is also an ever so slight dip in the line. If need be I have another pan I can tap in a different spot, and if that needs to be done I need recommendations on where to tap it.

 

i think that the heat will radiate through and melt the oil line. its its rubber. then oil will leak everywhere

 

def. a no no

 

mines the same way and i've never had a problem. my downpipe is heat wrapped also. even after a 7 hour drive at 35 C it didn't even show any burns of any kind.

 

the heat will radiate and affect your oil return for sure but fore sure it will take lot more than a year causing damage if you can keep it for a year without having probleme ( is this a real problem )?
for sure you must keep the wraping in place

 

i had my oil return touching my downpipe at the start. I heatwrapped the downpipe and then put a 500* sleeve over the return line. My oil return was fine, but i wasn't comfortable with it so i had my downpipe redone. I'd be more concerned with the loop your oil has to make. Just buy a sleeve for the return line as a temporary, and then try to have a new downpipe made or something. You're biggest concern with this is your oil temperature. The stainless steel braids are pretty durable

 

Why dont you flip the turbo, and get a new downpipe made? Then the return line melting wont be an issue.

 

money sucks

 

I was hoping to keep the AC and I just notched out the block to make the turbo fit. I think it will be easier and cheaper to just tap the other oil pan. Where should I tap the oil pan so that this won't be a problem? There's not a whole lot of room to the left of where it is now. I guess is I have to I could abandon the AC and sell this downpipe and buy another one...

 

well if you can't pick another place on the pan that's going to be any easier to work with the way the downpipe is set now. If you plan on selling this downpipe, then clock your turbo, retap the other pan, and then have a shop weld a dp for you. The only reason i say have a shop weld one for you is because idk how well a premade downpipe will fit your turbo/manifold setup since it's not meant for it, if you know what i mean

 

mine has been like the way it has for 5 months. the car is now parked due to winter, but i am planning on making a new downpipe. current downpipe is only 2 inch and i need 2.5 inch. when i make the new downpipe i will just make sure there's a good 6 inches of space between the oil return and downpipe.

 

In my opinion, wether it will take 3 months or 3 years to fall out I would either tap the oil pan in a different location and move the return line away from the down pipe or try a shorter return line to run on top of the down pipe and between the turbo as long it doesn't affect the oil flow.

 

my return line touches a runner on my manifold (which is hotter) and its fine.. Its wrapped

 

my AC hose didnt even touch my downpipe and it blew from heat, and both were wrapped. Oil line, being one of the most critical hoses on the car, I wouldnt want to play any betting games with it.
Oil and heat will quickly harden and crack the hose... play it safe, thats what my mom always told me when it came to women, works on cars too

 

the heat wrap will help immensly but I wouldnt let an oil line (or any other line for that matter) touch the downpipe.....and the dip is an absolute no-no...the turbo drain is gravity powered and gravity doesnt like to push oil up a hose

 

I had a braided oil return run down through my topmount and the line never melted or anything. If you can, get some heat wrap for that oil line. I used the metally looking wrap stuff...idk how to explain it better than that

 

I think I ran for a while like this a few years back. w/o problems. Heat wrap the oil line as well. It's not the best, solution, but you should be okay. It's hard to tell how close it is, but maybe use some wire to pull the return line away from the DP.

On a side note, that seems like a really weird place for oil to be exiting the turbo, but i'll take your word for it (i'm not an expert -- I just know about my setup).

 

What he said.

If you look closely it's going to get worse when the downpipe bolts are tightened.

 

I guess I'll be flipping the turbo around and getting a new downpipe and abandoning the AC. The AC compressor I have doesn't fit that mount anyway.

 

what i would do is just get a new downpipe made so it comes out farther before it bends down. have a little more stuff to do underneath to get it to hook up to the exhaust but atleast it's no where near the oil return then.

 

I tapped my other oil pan a lot further over than where the one in the picture is. I will probably fab up a brace to space it off the downpipe.

 

my new downpipe i just got fabbed up comes down about 6 inches from the oil return. just as a precaution i used a couple zipties and pulled it another inch away from the downpipe. the downpipe is eventually gonna be heat wrapped also. should work great, i hope.