Bearings in Oil Pan. Few questions.

[daftphunk]

Sup guys. Background info: S13 SR20DET with S15 Turbo.

My car has been acting funny lately, turbo hasn't been kicking in when it should. It kicks in sometimes but not really. It's extremely laggy.

So I decided to do an oil change yesterday to see what everything looked like. I felt oil pressure might have been pretty low as well.

When I was changing my oil, my magnetic drain plug picked up two small bearings. I'm assuming that these are from my Turbo. What I want to know is what may have really caused this? And how to prevent it from happening in the future. And I am assuming since the bearings are there, my turbo is done for.

Oil looked fine but I was really low on Oil. So my second question is where is my oil going? The only time I ever smell burning oil is after going up a STEEP hill in like 3rd/4th going home. After getting up to the top and then turning into my neighborhood I can typically smell burning oil. That is really the only time though. I never see any exiting my exhaust, no oil in my coolant, no coolant in the oil, etc.

And I just hooked up my Innovate wide band yesterday. I know I have an exhaust leak so that could def. throw it all off. At Idle it's not very steady but it stays around 14. Getting on the throttle a bit it starts running rich? 15, 16 but more on the throttle it wil get to like 13, 12. Shifting through gears it will drop to 22.5 or whatever. Where can I start to diagnose this? Will I just have to run the software?

[nieko]

Gosh that sounds horrible...

And for the wideband, the higher the number the leaner.

Sorry I couldn't help you with anything else. lol

[Om1kron]

oil probably is peeing out of your rear main seal.

[daftphunk]

Just slowly? Wouldnt it end up accumulating somewhere that I could see?

Took off the intake arm and turbo has no shaft play. Drove it around it seems okay. One guy at a local shop proposed they couldve been from an older blown turbo from previous owners.

I'm still concerned tho. I found two bearings in my oil and turbo has no shaft play. What's going on

[clay9110]

pics of said bearings?

[daftphunk]

http://tapatalk.com/mu/a6cd8ff5-4311-5b1f.jpg

Third oil change since my swap was completed n

[towlie]

I saw this on NWN and was going to comment but I'm banned lol.

I would not drive it until I Source/repair the problem, even one of those bearings could take out your motor, in fact your probably lucky it already hasnt

[Sileighty_85]

I saw this on NWN and was going to comment but I'm banned lol.

I would not drive it until I Source/repair the problem, even one of those bearings could take out your motor, in fact your probably lucky it already hasnt

Oil Pick ups have a mesh screen to avoid large items from entering the Pump.

turbo's can loose a bearing or two and still give the illusion that they are all there.

Maybe you can remove the turbo and use a bore scope through the oil return to look and see if all the bearings are there.

yeah as mentioned the higher the number on the WB the leaner the AFR's.

idle is 14.7ish. Stoch is 12.5ish under WOT, which is good

[towlie]

^That is true, Ive seen plenty of KA timing guides in oil pans lol. I was thinking more along the lines of how the bearings actually got in the oil pan

[Om1kron]

those are definitely turbo bearings, they may not be from the turbo on your car now, but I'm pretty sure a previous one blew. There are no bearings like that as far as my knowledge on any other component of the sr20's internals.

[daftphunk]

Alright I'll go ahead and take the turbo off tonight and check it out. I don't have a bore scope but I'll try and find something.

As you said, it could lose a bearing or two and still give off the impression that all are there. Obviously the best thing to do is replace it, but with what sort of urgency in mind? How long could my car last at this rate?

Curious about all of this I did take my car for a drive, lol. And it does run fine. Honestly if I never found those bearings I probably would have never thought that anything was wrong.

[Rut Ro]

Considering the turbo is a minuimum of nine years old (unless it has been rebuilt), a couple bearings could have fallen out. What Sil was saying would be your best bet. With Turbo removed of course. Those bearings weren't there with your last couple old changes so it had to have happened since then. If the symptoms of your car have been coming up since your last oil change then it had to have been recent.

[Sileighty_85]

As you said, it could lose a bearing or two and still give off the impression that all are there. Obviously the best thing to do is replace it, but with what sort of urgency in mind? How long could my car last at this rate?


I think you could DD it just fine just wouldnt do an High RPM, full boost driving. until after you verify its fine.

Maybe find a turbo shop and have them look at it?

[Om1kron]

Yeah, can never find a solid answer on the rebuildability of a ball bearing turbo so worst come to worst just have 700 dollars ready to drop on another bb or hopefully a used one comes along, if 2 bearings fell out that's only the beginning more will follow and eventually it could get a lot worse than the car being able to run.

[daftphunk]

^ yeh I'm honestly just about ready to go and buy another s15 turbo, but then I thought about getting a gt2871r. But then I'd have to do all the supporting mods for it.

Still deciding but I might just get the s15 one tomorrow

[Sileighty_85]

give me ur old one I'll pay for shipping

Ive always wanted to take one apart lol

or ill rock that bitch on my SR AE86 lol