I removed my intercooler today, to find oil inside it, and inside the throttle body.
What could be cauusing this?
I do have to keep toping my oil up every other week.
MY 99 WRX STI Type-R
Mods:- 3" exhaust & Decat, Green cotton Pannel filter
Not maped, but running on 99 V power.

 

any oil in the turbo or surrounding it? and not to be rude when you top it up are you over filling it?

 

Too much oil? Gets into the intake via the breather returns for the crankcase etc...

your oil level should be in the middle of empty and full, when sitting on level ground, with a cold engine. it shouldnt be at the MAX level of the dipstick

 

i had the same on my car, with abit of oil coming out of the bov. fitted a oil catch can and this fixed this.

 

I have allways filled it to the max mark,
BUT it goes down very quick, past the min mark after a good 500 miles of driving some of it hard driving
On start up, i get 1 puff of bluey white smoke, but thn its clear as a whistle, and no smoke on boost.

 

Rocker body gaskets leaking? If it's drinking oil and blue smoke out of the exhaust, turbo could be on its way out

 

Surly it would smoke all the time? not just 1 puff of smoke on cold start up?

 

could be the pcv valve on inlet manifold knackered causing crankcase to pressurise when boosting and forcing oil in to the turbo inlet pipe.

if i were you i would fit a catch can and blank off the pcv and see what happens then.

 

When that happened to mine 2 weeks ago, I'd blown the Turbo!!

(VF28)

Have you had any loss of power??

Hope it's not your Turbo.

Good luck.

Alan MaC

 

How much oil is there? I was slightly concerned when I took mine off and saw this...



However, I think this was a caused by a combination of me having Shell 0W-40 oil in there and the standard Impreza recirculating engine breather system. I had planned on fitting an oil catch can, but having cleaned the intercooler and changed the oil to 10W-50 the next time I took it off it was completely clean.

 

There was quite a bit of oil in there,
I now think my turbo may be on its way out.

My mate told me that on boost i smoke a bit.
Whats the price of a new turbo?

 

Pretty much 4 figures.

 

Are these oil catch cans standard? I mean, the prices vary quite a bit from one place to another.

£20-£75.

 

That's barely anything to worry about. IMO. If its smoking all the time or your pouring a load of it out the intercooler, or using a litre of oil every 3000miles of normal commuting type driving is when one need to start worrying.

All engines with or without turbo put a fine oil mist out of the oil breathers. Especially if the car is used at high revs alot.

Its why dry sump lubrication, fancy windage trays and oil catch cans are preferred on race engines, so they use can thin oil and lossy piston/ring designs without it all going out the breathers.

Turbos themselves can be slightly lossy in terms of oil seals, as can piston rings, again not an issue unless it putting out smoke all the time or the inlet tracts pours out with oil.

A bit of smoke on start up doesn't really mean anything, however smoke when driving with a warm engine is what needs to be noted (and by that I do not mean white clouds of steam which is what most Imprezas put out this time of year ).

 

if you have got oil in the intercooler then you will have some smoke on boost.
the problem you have is finding out why there is oil in the cooler,first off i would either fit a catch can or route the breathers to atmosphere and give the intercooler a clean out.
then use the car as normal for a few weeks and see if the smoke and oil in cooler stops,that way you will be certain the turbo is knackered before shelling out some hard earned.

 

Right, i got down and dirty today

Took all the plugs, done a compression test on all cylinders, it was 150 psi give or take 1-2 psi on each cylinder
So the rings are ok

took the pipes off the turbo, no play on the propeller, also started it up still disconnected from the IC reved it hard, and on boost, a light mist of oil came out.

Am i right in thinking i have nothing to worry about?

The smoke my mate saw was just some on my gear change (Going through the gears hard and fast)

 

You sound better off than me!
Remember I said I had a VF 28 blow a couple of weeks ago & the intercooler was absolutely filed with black oil?

Well last night same thing, no power AM Dump Valve not working!!

Limping into the Garage today, I think I've got an oli feed problem hope FF sakes it's not another Turbo, just can't afford it.

Good luck with your search for the answer.

Regards


Alan MaC

 

small amount of oil is normal

 

I was told by somebody that the VF series turbos are relaible as hell and very robust, so i doubt your turbo would of gone again, at least i hope not for your sake.

 

I'm gonna invest in an oil catch tank, and clean out my intercooler and all pipes with petrol.

Would this catch tank do the job? or is there a certain one recomended for our impreza's? ...
Find ~BLACK~ OIL CATCH TANK ~ 9mm & 15mm fittings (UK Stock on eBay within, Performance Tuning Parts, Car Tuning Styling, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 24-Oct-07 17:12:00 BST)

 

That was what mine looked like when i took it off to put the Samco kit on. Normal to have a little oil apparently. Just topped it up this morning though as it was at the low level and last night the engine management light came on as i was going up a slip road. Car sounds and drives fine though so i'm trusting it was a temporary bubble.

New turbo is about £500 (exchange) i believe so does that mean another £500 to fit it??

5t

 

Fit it yourself if your handy with a spanner, they are easy to get at.

 

Twas Bits off the Cat in the up pipe that knckere it!!

New Up pipe fitted today goes great!!

Same wity the VF28 apparently hence all the oil!!

VF's are bomb proof!



Kind
regards



Alan MaC

 

The oil in the intercooler is perfectly normal.

 

Thanks for the re-assurance guys!
Puts my mind to rest

 

I know this is an old thread. But Noticed some oil has leaked from Y pipe, although none in inlet manifold.