Hello, we recently purchased a aftermarket center section and turbine housing to rebuild a greddy t517z turbo that comes with their turbo kit for the 03 civic si. The aftermarket center section comes with a .075" restrictor built into the banjo bolt. The problem we are having is that when the oil temp comes up it starts to pass oil into the charge piping and exhaust. When the coolant temp is up and the oil temp isn't that high it doesn't smoke or pass oil at all. But after about 3-4 miles of normal driving, upon decel we'll see smoke and a little under boost. Anybody have similar experiences and fixes? Oil we're using is synthetic 10-30w. Weird how it takes about 4 miles for it to start smoking.

 

The correlation between oil temperature and driving distance doesn't really make sense. The important question is what the oil pressure is when you're driving the car. Since you're using a distance measurement, we can only assume that this smoke occurs when your under boost pressure load. Please elaborate on the following things.

1) what aftermarket centersection and "rebuild kit" did you use on the Greddy T517Z?
2) What oil pressure levels are you experiencing under boost pressure? at Idle?

 

he doesnt have a oil pressure or oil temp gauge. It smokes a little when it is under boost, But it will also smoke on a drive with no boost once you decel. If the car is hasn't been driven for awhile, but is "warm" you can boost it and it won't smoke at all. Only after the oil temp reaches a certain temp I assume, since he doesn't have a temp or pressure gauge at all. Sorry if I couldn't give more specifics. The aftermarket center section is a "Kinegawa"

 

tomorrow, I'll put my oil pressure gauge on it and get some more info about what pressures we are experiencing. Also I don't know if the "Kinagawa" center section and turbine housing are of ok quality. Greddy wanted $2200 dollars for a new journal bearing turbo, so that was too ridiculous, So this was our option.

 

I've never heard of kinagawa, however when googled it pops up an awful lot of "kinugawa" with links leading to "ebay". So the question of being "ok" quality? More than likely not. I have only heard of stories of people using ebay turbos and them being good, never have I seen someone use one and have a good experience. I don't use or recommend buying anything from ebay. Sometimes its better to spend the big bucks. U almost always get wat you pay for. I put money on it that the kina whatever is the problem if it didn't do the same before it was rebuilt.

 

yeah, $2200 for a 16g sized journal bearing turbo is unreasonable. you can get a bb t4 framed turbo for that. So the only replacement parts we could find were aftermarket.

 

Umm. yeah. Similar sized and flanged turbos are half that. You have to rebuild that with true Mitsubishi Heavy Industries internal parts. No "kinegawa" at all. looks like the rebuild was a bust based upon the symptoms, but lets see those pressure readings to be sure.

 

What does your return line look like?

 

^^ oil return is straight and clean, had it off and blew compressed air through it, no kinks.
Shodan, cold oil temp is as follows, idle- 68psi, cruise- 70psi, higher rpm- 85psi.
when warm, idle- 20psi, cruise- 64psi, high rpm- 70psi. Doesn't seem to smoke warm cruise, just when decel is probibly the worst, and some when high rpm boost. seems to start smoking when cruise psi got to around 64psi if that matters. I could cruise at 64psi with no boost and decel and it would start to smoke. then that is when boosting it, it will smoke also.

 

Sounds like a restriction issue first, then a thrust bearing issue second. Try a .060" restrictor first. Make sure on Deceleration, that's just not black rich smoke. If it doesn't work with the restrictor, (provided the return line is proper), then the internal rebuild was a bust. gotta do it again properly by sending it to a proper facility. No more e-bay for you..