I’m sure this question has been asked up here a billion times but I bought a boosted 96 civic with a b18 in it. It smokes pretty bad when getting into boost and after the car/turbo warms up but not when initially starting it. I took off the intake filter on the turbo and saw that it has quite a bit of shaft play as well as oil a nice film of oil all in the cold side. I just want to make sure there’s nothing else going besides the turbo being bad like bad piston rings/valve seals. There is noticeable oil in the downpipe/exhaust as well.

 

What about if you don't get into boost at all and just drive without boosting? Do you still see the cloud of oil smoke? You could try to clean the oil out of the turbo cold side and hot side, then just drive if for a little while without boosting to see if it has to do with boosting or just with the engine being warm...
Since there is oil in the cold side, I think it is the turbo. Plus you mentioned shaft play, which there should be almost none. It might just need a turbo rebuild, which isn't too much if it's not a ball bearing turbo. You could always start with a turbo rebuild, which costs a few hundred dollars. If it keeps making smoke after that, then you know it is the engine.
Usually if something is wrong with the engine, it will make smoke upon start up, or when driving a certain way.

 

Fix the turbo first... then you can see if you have other problems like rings.

 

Sweet , thanks for the advice guys. I’m working some long hours today and tomorrow so I probably won’t have time to get to the car till Wednesday so I’ll update with pics and stuff of my findings then. I also bought a compression tester yesterday as well just to check the cylinders after I yank the turbo off.

 

So guys I think it is the turbo , I did a compression test today and got 170 180 180 and 180 on a cold engine. (Forgot to warm it up). So I’m just going to send my turbo back to PTE to get rebuilt and hopefully that’ll solve the problem. I did notice a bit of oil on spark plug number 4. Would the turbo cause this also ?

 

Good on the turbo rebuild.
It could cause the oil on the spark plug if you notice oil in your intercooler piping, then oil is flowing past the turbo, into the intercooler piping, then into the engine. So it is possible. Look into the intake intercooler pipe for oil residue.
You might want to change the gaskets that go around the spark plug holes in between the valve cover. It is possible there is something wrong with the engine, but you should isolate where it is leaking from first.

 

I got up early this morning and separated the intake pipe from the intake manifold and looked in side and there’s a bit of oil in it. I also left my plugs out from the compression test yesterday since they all need to be replaced and anyway and I looked down into the plug holes and pistons 1-3 were all dry and 4 seems to have a small film of oil on top.I’ll go ahead change out my plug gaskets and see if that’ll help anything. I’m prayinggggg my rings/head isn’t toast haha.

 

Hopefully that's why there is oil in the cylinder, and its only from your turbo leaking. If oil is making it's way all the way through your charge pipes and intercooler, it's probably leaking quite a bit. Good luck with the turbo rebuild. If you bought the car used, a turbo rebuild is a good idea anyways. Who knows how they took care of the car before you had it, or how much use it had.
I remember on my turbo H22 I had a while ago leaked a little oil into the charge pipe near the hot side of the turbo charger before the intercooler. It had high mileage also. I wasn't seeing oil out of the exhaust on my old H22 though. I didn't have any shaft play in the turbo, and only saw oil near the turbo...

 

Don’t know if anyone’s keeping up with this post but I got a chance to run the car without turbo just straight open exhaust ports and no smoke ! I literally poured about a half cup of this nasty oil crap out of the intercooler when I broke the car down. I just decided to order a new turbonetics turbo and I’m going replace the intercooler/plumbing , new oil pan, valve cover gasket kit and new plugs and get a tune and hopefully she’ll be good to go.

 

That’s good you didn’t see smoke from the exhaust. Although you should at least put your stock exhaust manifold/header on to use the engine because it’s not good to have open exhaust ports only. But maybe you verified it already and you can put the new turbo on! Don’t drive it on open exhaust ports, but an open header is ok.

 

- Might want to check your oil feed line.
- Make sure the new turbo has an oil restrictor in place.
- Double check the oil return line. Any bad upwards angle will cause backup