speedfreak

iTrader: (1)

First off, I finally got my first Impreza :banana: last week(02 WRX). I'm loving every minute I drive it and I'm looking forward to doing the autocross this weekend. It'll definitely be a big change since I always have been racing in a civic. But moving on to the original subject...

I ordered the GPMoto intercooler hose kit and some other things and got it today. I just took off the intercooler and noticed a little bit of oil residue on the Y hose as it just leaves the turbo. I found that alittle odd, so I felt inside the compressor side and found even more oil residue. Being that this is my first turbo car, I'm still kinda new to turbos, but I've ton of research and my buddies have turboed civics so I'm still around them. From my knowledge of engines, this can't be good. The previous owner said he'd had no problems with the car whatsoever. He WAS using regular oil (dino oil) instead of synthetic. I was thinking that synthetic was almost required for the WRX except for the first couple thousand miles when you break it in. Might be wrong on that, but seems like what I've learned from browsing the forums. I changed the oil pretty much the next day after I got the car to Mobil 1 10w30 and put a new filter on. He had just changed the oil not too long ago so I couldn't really tell if there was any metal shavings when I drained it. The car has 24,400 miles on it. He is the original owner and put about 20k miles on it the first year while he lived in Virginia, then when he came down to Florida, he's only put about 3000 miles on it in about 10 months time. That's because he works at home.

During the oil change, I did notice quite a bit of oil all around the driver side of the exhaust manifold. Seemed to be coming out of the turbo return line as it went into the oil pan (or atleast thats what the line it seems to be coming from when I followed it, would have thought it would have been on the other side close to the turbo). Anyways, that striked me kinda odd also. However with that oil all in that area, I don't get any drips on the garage floor. My guess is it gets burned up (would explain the oil burnt smell) on the manifold before it gets to the ground and only leaks when the car is running and the oil is flowing.

I dunno, but the oil in the compressor side of the turbo definitely strikes me as something that should not be there. Has this been an issue with anyone else? I'm curious to see what might have gone wrong here. Any ideas or suggestions would be great!

Thanks

Blake

speedfreak

iTrader: (1)

I think I'm just over reacting since I just got the car . Now that I think about it, it would be expected for oil residue to be built up from the turbo compressor to the intercooler since the venting from the crankcase comes in right before the air goes into the turbo. I guess I just didn't expect it to be that much at only 24k miles.

But it still doesn't explain the oil leaking from down by the oil pan on the driver side.

mmboost

iTrader: (2)

Sounds like blow-by. If you had an oil leak in the turbo itself you'd prolly be losing oil like any other leak because the oil would be under pressure. But this sounds like more of an oil residue than an oil flow, which makes me think blow-by. I'd suggest getting a catch-can.

The problem is now we have the Pandora's Box of "Where do you put the catch can?" because you get oil vapors from the valve cover and from the crankcase and each have a different hose into the intake. I have a can on the valve cover line right now. For a simple project I made another can from a camping fuel can and I'll prolly end up putting that on the crankcase hose. On NASIOC there's a few good threads about catch cans. I've sorta summed it up for you. I really think that's what you are seeing. In my old car I found a lot of deposits on the the silicone intake tube. Of course this isn't a good thing: it means you've got gases getting by your pistons... but still better than an oil leak in the turbo

jason