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STS rear mount boost kit spitting out oil!! HELP!!!!

14K views 27 replies 8 participants last post by  surfo 
#1 ·
Hey guys, i was wondering if anyone has an idea about this. i recently installed the sts rear mount turbo to my 03 z and ran it with the turboxs piggy pack unit which was tuned already for 8.5psi. i haven't done a tuneup yet but i drove the car and it drove fine with no issues but its spitting out a lot of oil from the exhaust and i noticed it became a bit foamy as well.i don't know if i was running lean or rich as i do not have the gauges installed yet.is this just the turbo that is installed in the back of my car's exhaust system or is it my motor?

also there was smoke coming out of the right side of the hood and smelled pretty bad of burning oil or something similar to oil. i personally don't know if this has something to do with the oil that showed up in the exhaust as someone looked at it quickly and said its the valve cover gasket leaking and the oil is getting on the manifold.

cars internals are stock and it has 160 k on it .the kit has no boost controller and is running 8.5 psi.

help appreciated
Thanks in advance
 

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#4 ·
i found out that my valve cover gasket is leaking and it is causing the smoke from hood.but still curious about the oil out of exhaust. any one has any suggestions? is there any relation between the valve cover leaking and the oil from the exhaust ?

thanks
 
#9 ·
There shouldn't be any "junk" anywhere in the kit. Just some carbon buildup. it sounds to me like your turbo has a bad seal and is leaking oil. BUT, that doesn't explain why it's milky so I'm not sure. I'd do what Westpak suggested and look at the exhaust upstream of the turbo.
 
#10 ·
Are the turbos cooled with oil or coolant? If there's coolant running through them I'd guess the seals on the turbine are shot and that oil/coolant slurry is escaping.

~Pat
 
#12 ·
All I found was a reference to STS using Garrett turbos; a search of Garrett's site shows come in water cooled versions. STS's website is a step above useless when it comes to technical details, which I find appalling (not restricted to them).

Milky oil suggests coolant infiltration (that's the description for a head gasket leak). Additionally, seals not used for a long period of time (the kit was sitting on a shelf) tend to dry out, and fail, which could result in this happening. I seriously doubt this is coming out of the engine. If it is, his cats (if still installed) should be burning off any oil. I'd expect to see soot, but not liquid oil. With the turbo so close, I'd look there first.

~Pat
 
#19 ·
Sorry i do have the cats installed. The stock ones. N i do believe that u make sense when u say if it was comming from the engine it would have gotten burnt when at least they reach the cats. And your assumption about the kit being sitting for a while was true as well cuz it was sitting for a bit before i got it.
 
#13 ·
Is the oil coming from both tailpipes, or just the one? If it's only coming from the passenger side (the one the turbo exhausts to) and not the driver's (wastegate) side, then it's almost definitely a blown oil seal in the turbo center housing. If you're seeing oil on the wastegate side, then it's coming from the engine.

But I can't imagine how so much unburned and aerated oil could be coming from your engine.

-Ronin Z
 
#17 ·
the oil is only comming out of the right side.the thing is i till dont underatand how is it getting mixed with coolant.the shop said the head gasket is fine and they said if the piston ring were gone it would smokeup alot because it would be burning alot of oil nd coolant.so im just confused at this point
 
#15 ·
Probably not, the exhaust and turbo are cool enough to not burn the oil if it is leaking at the turbo. Typically when smoke is a symptom of blown turbo seals, that's when the turbos are near the engine where the exhaust and turbo are very, very hot still.
 
#20 ·
Hmm, if there's no coolant running to the turbo, then that complicates things. If this stuff was coming through the cats I suspect you'd be getting constant check engine lights. Do what Ronin says, pull as much as possible off, get it really clean inside what exhaust parts you can without trapping liquid (don't do cats or mufflers), and see if comes back, and where it starts from.

I don't know for sure that you're getting coolant into your oil. We run these huge Edwards-Stokes vacuum pump stacks at work that blow their oil seals from time to time. And when the oil comes out of the pump manifold it's all milky and foamy from the aeration, and it looks very similar to the oil on your tailpipe, yet with no water or coolant being involved. If you let it sit long enough all the bubbles go away, and you're back to regular oil.

Anyway...
You can always unbolt the turbo and see if you accumulate any new oil with the turbo removed from the loop. Another thing you can do is simply drain some of the oil from the pan and see what it looks like. If it's a problem in the engine, you'll see the same soupy mess. But if it's clean oil... the finger continues to point at a blown oil seal in the turbo.


-Ronin Z
I agree that there are things that could make them milky, but there's clearly green fluid in the second photo. I can't imagine what else would cause it (other than maybe some really bizarre refractions screwing with the camera).

Any info on the vacuum stacks?

~Pat
 
#23 ·
Ah... "vacuum stack" is the loose term to describe the collection of pumps used with thermal vacuum chambers utilized in aerospace testing. The pumps are ran in both series and in parallel. To learn more about the individual pumps I use, you'd have to google:

rotary vane pump
scroll pump
cryopump
lobe pump
turbo molecular pump
diffusion pump
ion pump
titanium sublimation pump

-RZ
 
#25 ·
Well I still have more to go on your list, but it made for a good lunch hour. I always assumed that cryopump was a generic name for pumps for cryogenic fluids, really cool things.

~Pat
 
#26 ·
Yeah, they're definitely cool (no pun intended). My favorite are the diffusion pumps. Such a bizarrely elegant solution. No moving parts, and performs pumping action by way of high-speed heated oil jets. Who'd a thought?

-RZ
 
#27 ·
any ways guys thanks aloot for your help.It turns out that there was a puddle of water(from moisture) that was getting into the turbo as i had a custom exhaust before the turbo setup. the shop put a little drain system on the exhaust line and now there is no gunk or oil coming out and the car is running fine. I personally appreciate every ones help and suggestions.

Thank you once again
 
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