Turbo or Engine blown. Best guesses.

[Jim96SC2]

Well I got my install done, worked everything out for the most part. Just waiting on a FPR but I decided to go and take the car out for some heavier duty then I was normally doing (drove ~300 miles at 4500RPM or below).

Took it down the track, worked great. I didn't powershift, didn't lauch hard (3500rpm, let the clutch out moderately) and it was fine. I got back to the start, ran agin. ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE! I was shifting about 7,000-7,300 and by the end all there is is oodles of white/blue smoke... I swear I almost puked and cried.

Shut her down, start her back up. Idle fairly normal (running rich normal that is) but it was spewing enormous amounts of smoke. Still revved up fairly quick though. No oil was seen in the coolant, no lines were loose, no leaks evident, still had oil in it, it was smoking out the oil cop a bit.

So we had to tow it home, inorder to do that we needed to remove the FMIC. Tore that up and found oil in the bottom. Then I noticed some shards that appear to be aluminium. Looked underneath the car and found oil coming out of the DP (which is where my exhaust ends btw).

We need to do a compression test, I know. But untill then whats everyones opinion on what happened? Boost didn't go above .7BAR, BOV (HKS SSQV) was working fine. Aside from the rich condition it ran fine. I had driven it around without incident. Temp gauge read right in the middle or cooler (yeah Koyo!).

Right now judging by what happened, it's normal idle characteristic, and the oil out the tailpipe we're thinking turbo. Anyone agree/disagree?

[boosteds14]

definitly the turbo,

especially finding oil in the intercooler just says that the seals in the turbo let go.

[Jim96SC2]

OK, if it was the turbo, what could have caused it, just a seal? Any way to prevent this in the future?

My friend said that the shards may have made it to the cylinder, any chances of that?

Too bad. It felt about mid-13ish driving fairly easy on in. VERY ANNOYED! I AM NOT A HAPPY CAMPER.

[240 2NR]

Jim, this is Eric (uiuc240). I second the "fried turbo" idea. I would imagine that the turbo was ragged on pretty good before you got the motor, and it just decided that after sitting in a yard for a few years, and then you beating on it today, that it had had enough. Time to turn lemons into lemonade and use this opportunity to upgrade. I found a T28BB turbo from an S14 for about $500...I'm sure you can too (mine is super clean and super nice if you think that price is too high ;))

Anyway, sorry to hear about the bad news. I know you JUST got it running. :( At least it's not the motor....

Eric

[DarkRaptor42]

I also agree that its the turbo. Oil in intake, need I say more.

[Jim96SC2]

Well the replay on the tape (I'll post as soon as possible) shows that the smoke starts and alomst immediately the turbo stops whining. Unfortunatly the weather in NY is rain (AGAIN!) so I can't toy with it. Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll get some pics of the blown (hopefully not the engine) turbo.

[drift freaq]

sounds like the turbo to me as well. I have seen several 40 thousand mile engines come with through with thrashed turbo's . Rule number one on the install is always check out the turbo before putting the engine in by spinning it up with a air compressor.. even then sometimes it will slip by and give out shortly after being run. Comes with the territory folks. Thats one of the reasons when a shop does your install they take care of that stuff(if they are good) before the car goes out the door. I.E. find a bad turbo on the engine replace it for free. When your doing stuff on your own your kinda *** out in that department unless the people you bought the clip from are willing to replace the turbo for free based on what you tell them.
As far as the metal pieces go it sounds like the impellers started to come apart due to failure. Seen this happen as well and no problems were caused other than that. The main good thing you did was turn it off and stop running it after it happened. Less chance of getting metal pieces all over the place.Remember ,the turbo is on the exhuast side so the likelyhood of loosing metal into the engine is small at best. There is a constant outflow from the engine when its running which means that small metal pieces will be blown forward or sucked away from the exhaust ports. hence you might see pieces in your down pipe or towards your intercooler.