Oil from BOV....wtf?

[Mister.E]

car is a redtop 180sx with stock T25 turbo

ok, so yesterday at the track after quite a few laps i went into the pits cuz my oil temp was getting up to about 110*C. i believe that i heard somewhere that this is the temperature where the viscosity of oil begins to breakdown so im not sure if that has anything to do with my problem.

anyways, upon pitting in, i popped the hood an noticed that there was oil spray on the hotpipe and some on the inside of the hood. it was quite a bit actually. aside from the obvious thing being that i definitely need an oil cooler, what do you think the problem could be. i am leaning towards the seals in the turbo have blown and to me that seems logical. it only seemed to do this when the oil got up to a really high temperature so im not sure if that had anything to do with it. i dont have an oil catch can but the hose i have running from the valve cover and back to the intake pipe appear to have any excess oil in it.

one question i do have is, if it was the turbo seals that were blown would it constantly blow oil out of the BOV or only at high temps? cuz if it should be constant then i will just get on it tomorrow on the way to work and see what happens.

[Helghast]

"i am leaning towards the seals in the turbo have blown"

Bingo.

[jr_ss]

Yep, time for a new turbo, unless you like oil being blown throughout the entire intake system...

[downshift_sideways]

Oil seals seemed to have crapped out.

or check your PCV valve.

[Mister.E]

damn thats weak sauce. i figured that was it but i just wanted some confirmation. thanks guys.

[godzillarb]

Have you popped your intercooler piping off and looked to see how much oil is in there? Take a look at the end takes of the fmic as well. Last time I blew the seals in a turbo the fmic has full of oil.

[Mister.E]

say it is full of oil...whats the best way to get it out?

[murda-c]

Probably a bunch of brake kleen or a similar solvent.

[dori_sil8t]

id go with break kleen. cheap way to do it. also clean it over a tray or something it will be messy.

[godzillarb]

I took my intercooler off and set it up so it'd drain into a bucket for a couple days... that did the trick.

[fliprayzin240sx]

Or pour gas in it, shake it all around and then dump...repeat if necessary.

But like I said in ZY, check that hose from the T into the intact tract. Alot of times, without any catch can in between there, and your head getting pressurized from a bad PCV, crappy valve seals or really bad blow by, oil gets pushed into the intake tract from that line.

[godzillarb]

^^^ this is another good reason to check the FMIC. If there's only a little oil, no sanding pools, but pipes coated with thin layer of oil chances are the turbo is still ok.

[nismo tuned s14]

i used about ten cans of brake cleaner for the intercooler and piping. i used another 4-6 cans of carb cleaner on the intake mani. (carb cleaner is more safe on rubber than the brake cleaner)

g/l with fixing this. if the turbo seals arent blown, invest in an oil-catch can. it will save you the headache of cleaning that stuff out all the time.

[UNISA JECS]

What works better for cleaning intercooler cores out is castro super clean at full strenght just wear gloves becasue that shit fucks your skin up and buy teh 1 gallon bottle. Also FYI oil in the combustion chamber reduces the octane of your gasoline so just another reason to fix a bad turbo which can contribute to this.

[Mister.E]

wow, thanks for all of the tips! hopefully its just a catch can problem.

[jspaeth]

I just had this same thing going on, oil everywhere!!! (intake piping, hot pipe, intercooler, etc.)

Turbo is fine, and under normal driving, I catch no oil, but under hard driving (high RPM and boost), I get a ton of oil in catch can.


Checked compression, which is excellent.

I am thinking that at high RPM, the cams may be spitting a good deal of oil over at the valve cover breather, leading to a lot of catchcan oil.

Just a theory of course

[Mister.E]

your theory sounds about right bro. under normal driving conditions my car performs like a champ. i am gonna change out my PCV valve and reinstall my catch can and go from there.

[S14DriftstaiN]

Turbo seal is starting to go or maybe a cracked ringland. They dont always show on comp test. Do a leakdown, change pcv and add catch can, stll oil turbo seal..Hey Jspaeth, where did your motor come from??

[jspaeth]

motor is from Jeff at Heavy Throttle....

Paid a pretty penny, but well worth it in my opinion. Never had any problems and motor is excellent.


I swapped out my PCV a few days ago for a new one, even though I then found out that the used one on the motor was perfectly fine.

[IRN]

had the same problem. seals in the turbo went out. i had a good amount of oil sitting in my inlet elbow of the turbo.

[Oo_Skyline_oO]

I have the "slight coat of oil on my cold pipes, and the outer lip of my greddy RS. I think catch can+cooler should solve my problem too, acording to all of this info. good luck on your oil problem.

[Mister.E]

well since i cant do anything right now id like to gather a little more info. since it's blatantly obvious that i need an oil cooler, im going to buy some lines and a core from Summit. what i need to know, though, is...what size are the lines that come with the Greddy S13 SR Oil Filter Relocation kit? im guessing that they are -10AN, but i really want to be sure cuz that will be my basis for the items i need to buy. i already have the relocation installed but i cant find any info on the net that just states what size the lines are.

[s14unimog]

I have this same issue, oil in my cold pipe and some on the rim of my Greddy RS. Since I don't have a catch can either I'm leaning towards that being the culprit. As for the blown turbo idea, usually when the T25 lets go the exhaust seals are first; so you would notice the cloud of white smoke out the back. If you really want to see if its the turbo, put a breather filter on your VC "T" and run the other side through a catch can and back to the block. This will eliminate the hose going to the intake and allow you to rule that out, or in...

[Mister.E]

well for anyone that was wondering. we took of my entire intercooler today, including the intake, and flushed out the entire thing with some brake cleaner and let it dry for a while. it turns out that all that crap was just caused by me not having a catch can. i ordered a bigger oil pan today and im in search of an oil cooler so i can try to keep my oil temps down to avoid this happening again. we also re-installed the catch can as another preventative measure.