i have a 2002 civic turbo.

everything boost wise was good until yesterday. i had to take a long drive somewhere so i drove 45 mins straight @ 4000-5000rpm, constantly between 5 - 10lbs of boost. when i reach my destination, i turned off the car. started it back up 20 mins later and now i get this loud whining//whirring sound once i start hitting boost. and when im not in boost, i can tell it sounds like there is an ever so small exhaust leak.

what could it be??

my turbo isnt puffing, and i have no oil in my intercooler pipes. it still boosts, but it seems a bit laggier (or maybe its just in my head)

and just before i went to screw around with it and noticed, once i start beating the car (ie - boosting for a bit) the sound will go away. and if i dont boost for like 5 mins and go to boost again the whirring comes back

and i doubt i have a boost leak from my intercooler pipes because i re-tightened everything

 

So you boosted on a small-frame turbo for 45 minutes w/o any cooling period, got to your destination, and turned it off w/o any idling time to help cool it off.

The chance is very high that you 'coked' the inside of your turbo. To do that, you heat the entire turbo far more than it should be heated, then kill the oil circulation, which then burns all the oil in the center section of the turbo into a sticky tar-like mess. Oil circulation will then be reduced or cut off entirely. Your turbo may not leak becuase its getting no lube - and will overheat/lockup soon.

Another side effect of doing that is warping the shaft, and possibly even the housings. A bent/warped shaft or warped chra can cause the turbo to 'scream', which is a high-frequency version of what tires do when they're very out of balance.

The exhaust leak is probably from some sealing surface's gasket or flange getting burned away or warped, actually creating a boost leak. Passenger car turbo kits were never designed for extended abuse such as you put it through. Have a turbo rebuilder look over the turbo, or enjoy a possible future failure.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HiProfile &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So you boosted on a small-frame turbo for 45 minutes w/o any cooling period, got to your destination, and turned it off w/o any idling time to help cool it off.
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my thoughts exactly, OP can you please confirm is this what you did? did you allow the car to cool down before shutting it off?

 

ya i let the turbo cool down. i set my turbo timer to 3:30 mins. it boosted fine when i reach the parking lot, let the tubro time count down its 3:30 while i went inside a restuarant to take a ****. cmae back outside, started my car 15 mins later, let it idle for about 5 mins, then when i took off, the sound started


and if the turbo insides r cooked. how come when i drive it hard for a bit, the sound will go away (well, 90% of it)

 

sounds like a possible boost leak, turbo is working overtime to make the boost??

 

You said it yourself, you have an exhaust leak.

 

well, check for exaust leaks "before" the turbo, that can make some entertaining noises, and sometimes when it heats up the noises will go away, metal expanding clamping the gasket.

check for play in the impellor shaft, a little is ok, but the less the better. i have had the turbo munch a hard object, throw the impellor out of balence, and start whirling around grinding on the housing, making some funky noises.


thats all i can think of
JP

 

also look for a cracked mani. my buddies car did this, he had a pin hole in his turbo manifold

 

my setup made the same noises and it ended up being a hole in the vacuum line to the BOV

 

general consensus looks like a hole in something

 

wow, my freind had a DSM that did this. he blew the seal in between the manifold and turbo. Don't know if that's the case but take a look at everything.