A bit of an update since it's been a while.
Turbo, Headers, Clutch, Brakes, Engine mounts and a smattering of new
hoses and
gaskets went on last month at Got It Rex with tuning due to be completed on the 21st of October...
BUT, this wouldn't be a Lib if we didn't run into some sort of Issue...
VF52 came out,
GTX2867R went in... for about an hours worth of driving all whilst pushing blue smoke out of the exhaust under load, something the car hadn't done prior.
So I got to looking around with some much needed help and knowledge from
bigBADbenny trying to source the issue. Completed a couple of necessary tests before confirming what was pretty much
already known, that the Turbocharger was to blame.
First up was an inlet pressure test - only leak found was from between the compressor outlet into the intercooler and the cooler flange. Being an aluminium flange it was slightly warped and
so I machined it as flat as I could to better seal the join.
- cooler pipe.JPG (45.8 KiB) Viewed 2860 times
I also went through to check the crank case breather hose as well as cleaning the PCV valve and assessing the breather hoses and balancer pipe coming off of the heads. The crank breather and balancer pipe
were VERY gummed up with a bunch of gunk, and so I've purchased some new baffled catch cans to remedy this, my catch can setup was fairly dodgy anyways. The Crank Breather hose was also cracked.
- Crank Breather 1.JPG (32.24 KiB) Viewed 2860 times
- Crank Breather 2.JPG (22.51 KiB) Viewed 2860 times
NOW, onto the turbo.
It was supplied with a simple -4AN fitting for the oil feed, no restrictor...
I later purchased a drop-in restrictor pill for the feed from GCG which they claimed SHOULD have been included, however this did NOT solve my problem, the damage, I felt, had already been done.
- AN oil feed adapter.JPG (22.69 KiB) Viewed 2860 times
- restrictor pill.JPG (16.8 KiB) Viewed 2860 times
I would imagine the turbo was receiving way too much oil pressure and pushing oil past the seals. I'm unsure if this could permanently damage the seals or whether the issue
would go away with time, assuming the seals are piston-like in nature which would allow for oil to pass when pressure builds up.
I took the turbo off of the car a couple of days ago and it has since been sent to GCG for assessment. As you can see, no leaks from the compressor inlet, which could
mean the turbo just had a faulty seal.
- Turbo removed.JPG (41.58 KiB) Viewed 2860 times
For a quick comparison which pretty much answered my questions and solved the mystery, here is a photo of the turbine housing on the
VF52 that came off of the car with 100,000+km on it;
- VF52.JPG (57.17 KiB) Viewed 2860 times
Here is the
GCG GTX2867R that was barely used for 50km of driving...
- oily turbine housing.JPG (72.21 KiB) Viewed 2860 times
Pretty well coated in oil with it visibly trickling down past the turbine. Thankfully the majority was being burnt in the housing and so my downpipe was fine.
I will also have to flash the ECU with the stock tune, which Matt has agreed to help me with, as his tune is not editable or readable.
Tuning is now re-booked for the end of this month. Lets hope and pray that I get everything sorted by then, otherwise...I'll be quite pissed...