White smoke on turbo car.

[Kalatrax]

So I finished my turbo build a few months ago. Single 67mm comp journal bearing turbo. After getting my tune for 9 psi I started noticing a lot of smoke under boost. It will also smoke a little out of the tips for a few minutes after. At first I thought it might be oil seeping out of a seal. Checked the cold side, no oil. I'm running 10w30 synthetic oil, 10 an drain line straight to pan with no flat spots, 4 an feed line coming off of a sandwich adapter on my filter relocation kit. I had the car tuned with the passenger side venting through a breather and the driver side going back to the intake with a catch can in line. I then put a breather on the driver side and the oil cap. It made it worse. Like the title says, it's white smoke and doesnt have much odor, a little like fuel. The a/f is at 11.8 at WOT though. Any ideas?

 

[chandlern]

http://www.s197forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123487&highlight=smoke

 

[Kalatrax]

http://www.s197forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123487&highlight=smoke

I've gone through the majority of the old posts. His didn't smoke under boost. That's when mine does.

 

[JeremyH]

There is an oil seal on the compressor and turbine side, you say you checked the cold side but what about the turbine and down pipe. Likely have a leak there. What oil pressure do you see? May need a restrictor no smaller than .065 for journal bearing. Line size and 3 breathers looks good there, where on the pan are returning to?

 

[Kalatrax]

I thought about that and I'm waiting on the 4 an adapter for an .065 restrictor I got in Friday. Hopefully it will help. The only thing that throws me off is that it's white and doesn't smell like oil. At least the remnants after I stop and it's idling dont. I do need to pull the down pipe and check it though. I'm draining to the drivers side front of the pan using a fuel cell fitting I put in with the pan off.

 

[JeffS197]

if it is not the restrictor than is there any chance you have head gasket issues?

white smoke can also be coolant. think of the old 3.8 v6s.. I cleared a city block with white smoke when my head gasket started going.

 

[JeremyH]

Does it smell sweet?

 

[Kalatrax]

if it is not the restrictor than is there any chance you have head gasket issues?

white smoke can also be coolant. think of the old 3.8 v6s.. I cleared a city block with white smoke when my head gasket started going.

Does it smell sweet?

When I saw white smoke, first thing I thought of was a head gasket. Oil shows no sign of coolant, coolant shows no sign of oil. No coolant loss from overflow tank. It also doesn't smell sweet at all. It honestly barely smells which is odd in itself.

 

[retfr8flyr]

How and where does your drain line enter the pan? I haven't seen any oil fed turbo that didn't need a restrictor on our cars. The oil pressure and flow on our 3vs' is just too much and goes past the seals and out the exhaust. Most journal bearing use .065 and BB turbos need even smaller restrictors. When I was running my Garrett BB turbos I had to go down to .035 restrictors, which Garrett said was as low as I could go, and still occasionally had oil smoke problems. With my current Comp turbos, when I had them converted back to oil fed, they sent me .005 restrictors with the turbos, which I thought was crazy but they seem to work fine.

 

[Kalatrax]

How and where does your drain line enter the pan? I haven't seen any oil fed turbo that didn't need a restrictor on our cars. The oil pressure and flow on our 3vs' is just too much and goes past the seals and out the exhaust. Most journal bearing use .065 and BB turbos need even smaller restrictors. When I was running my Garrett BB turbos I had to go down to .035 restrictors, which Garrett said was as low as I could go, and still occasionally had oil smoke problems. With my current Comp turbos, when I had them converted back to oil fed, they sent me .005 restrictors with the turbos, which I thought was crazy but they seem to work fine.

10 an fitting coming straight down from the turbo to about 10 inches of braided line into a 45 degree fitting into the pan 3 inches from the front and as high as possible on the pan. The restrictor adapter should be here tomorrow and we will see if it will help.

 

[Kalatrax]

Just an update. Installed the .065 restrictor. Problem resolved. Thanks for the input guys.