# Thoughts on oil consumption??



## klettn (Apr 22, 2004)

Loosing lots of oil when driving (~1 qt/250 mi). I've checked the compression (thought maybe rings) but that looks ok (b/w 110 & 125 psi). Another thought was that it was going through the turbo, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I got the turbo off last night and it looks as if it is not even getting oil (small amount of rust inside the lower oil line). Spins relatively freely, but there is some shaft play and the fins on the exhaust side are v. warn. Is it possible to get blockage somewhere? Any ideas would be great. 
One other thing, the pipe coming down from what I think is the BOV (attached to the exhaust man. and pipe that goes down to exhaust pipe) was covered in oil? 
Thanks in advance for any help.
Nate


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: Thoughts on oil consumption?? (klettn)*


_Quote, originally posted by *klettn* »_Loosing lots of oil when driving 

One other thing, the pipe coming down from what I think is the BOV (attached to the exhaust man. and pipe that goes down to exhaust pipe) was covered in oil? 
Thanks in advance for any help.
Nate

There you go! the answer was in the question.
You most likely have bad seals in your turbo. they will let oil by, and allow it to leak all down your output side of your turbo.
Sounds like you might need a rebuild.


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## klettn (Apr 22, 2004)

*Re: Thoughts on oil consumption?? (Sepp)*

I guess I'm not sure if I explained myself really clearly. The turbo itself was very dry (no oil on the input or output side). The part that was covered in oil is towards the back of the engine bay (pretty much in line with the distributor if you are looking at the engine from eith side of the car). I am not sure how, if the seals on the turbo were bad, oil would get to there. I'm not trying to question your advice at all (it is much appreciated).... just trying to fully understand what's going on before I replace something that isn't broken. 
On the other hand, there is some shaft play and the fins on the exhaust side look pretty ugly. So a rebuild is probably in order. An advice on where to have it done? or is it simple enough to do?
Thanks again for all of the help
Nate


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: Thoughts on oil consumption?? (klettn)*

Sorry I mis-read your post. I thought that you had oil in your hose from the output side of your turbo leading to the intercooler.
I can't personally reccomend a turbo rebuild company as I have been lucky enough to not have one rebuilt yet.
Can you verify if your valve cover gasket is in tact?
A stupid question to ask, but I can't see your car.
I had a problem with my urq leaking a good amount of oil from the filler cap!-only when the rpms were high enough.
I would take a real close look at the oil feed lines leading to the turbo, and where they connect to the engine.
Might be a bad sealing washer, and it might only occur when the car is hot, or over a certian rpm.
I'd personally degrease the whole engine, and the leak will be easier to trace.


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## klettn (Apr 22, 2004)

*Re: Thoughts on oil consumption?? (Sepp)*

Thanks for the advice. The engine is pretty dirty/oily so I've been trying to clean it off and hopefully it will be easier to see if there are any leaks. The valve cover gasket seemed ok (not much oil around the edges), but after a good cleaning it may tell a different story. 
Also, another reason that I thought it was the rings in the first place is that the bumper (around the exhaust pipe) is covered in black soot. And on hard acceleration I look like I'm driving a diesel (big black puff of smoke). I know that burning oil is usually more blue but???? 
Oh, Sepp, did you see the spark plugs that I posted a few weeks back? They might give you some ideas?
Thanks again
Nate


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## billzcat1 (Sep 10, 2001)

*Re: Thoughts on oil consumption?? (Sepp)*

Oil consumption: I would suspect valve stem seals if you are getting blue smoke or oily exhaust. Black smoke indicates a rich condition. Oil all over the motor and wastegate... probably valve cover gasket. They leak when they are new, so put 20 years on them and make them brittle and they don't exactly improve with age, ya know.
Your turbo is shot. If there's enough play that the turbine is hitting the housing, then the bearings are destroyed. KKK turbos don't benefit from the wide availability of parts like Garretts do. Just buy a good K26 off ebay or from Force 5. Your turbo is not rebuildable. Also, with that much play, leaking is inevitable. The seals are not designed for a shaft with an elliptical wobble.
Not getting oil to the turbo is why it failed. I would wager that your feed line is coked up. Just to clarify - you did remove the turbo to inspect the turbine? 
Sepp - oil leaking from the filler cap implies to me that your crankcase is being pressurized beyond the breather's ability to vent. This was the first warning sign we got on a recently destroyed NF (4 cracked pistons). I would do a compression test and leakdown test and also make sure the breather isn't clogged with crud (they commonly are)


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## klettn (Apr 22, 2004)

*Re: Thoughts on oil consumption?? (billzcat1)*

There is not so much play that the turbine is hitting the housing. In fact the turbine looks almost like the "fins" have begun to melt...not like they came into contact with anything. I pulled the turbo off because I suspected that it was bad and was trying to figure out were all of my oil was going. 
As for the black smoke ("rich condition") what can be done about that? Also, I'll repost the pictures of my spark plugs to see it that triggers any other thoughts. 

















Thanks for all of the advice....
Nate


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## Sepp (Dec 10, 2002)

*Re: Thoughts on oil consumption?? (billzcat1)*


_Quote, originally posted by *billzcat1* »_
Sepp - oil leaking from the filler cap implies to me that your crankcase is being pressurized beyond the breather's ability to vent. This was the first warning sign we got on a recently destroyed NF (4 cracked pistons). I would do a compression test and leakdown test and also make sure the breather isn't clogged with crud (they commonly are)


I failed to mention that it would only happen with the temprature outside was really cold. The filler cap gasket would shrink....A new gasket solved the problem nice, and easy.
Thanks for the info by the way!!!


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