Nearly a major problem...

On a road trip to go surfing, 80 miles in started smell a bit of oil so picked a service station on the A1 to pull over, saw a bit of smoke when I drew to a halt...

Popped the bonnet to see the turbo blanket had just caught alight. Could not put it out with the dry extinguisher I had (just sparked back to life like a comedy candle), so whipped it off and threw it on the grass.

Thankfully no more flame, no fingers alight, no damage, other than oil everywhere, so waited for it all to cool to find out what was going on.

On closer examination turns out that the armoured oil feed pipe to the turbo has sprung what I would call a catastrophic leak spraying oil all over the hot side of the engine. NO damage to the shielding, just failure of the internal pipe :-/

Had I not stopped it would have drained the oil in no time as well as giving me a good sized bonfire to keep me warm on a winters day. Cleaned off the pipe, bound it with 5 rolls of insulating tape, taped it as clear as I could from heat and limped home at the lowest rpm I could manage...

Be careful out there!

Glad that turned out okay!

Were the oil lines flexis? And what brand of turbo blanket was it?

Oil pipe was boost logic, around 35k old, not sure who they used as a supplier. Blanket was a recent replacement from eBay, but the blanket did not burn, just the oil it was soaked in :-(

Oil had not got as far as the dp and the wrap on it, as it was shielded for the most part by the blanket.

Took a fair amount of oil to top her up gain, and a big mess to clear up.:-/

This is the reason I'd never run heat wrap on a turbo car.

"just sparked back to life like a comedy candle" love it :L close call man!

Had you done anything around the pipe recently, the oil feeds tend to go brittle and if you move them crack , had something similar on my oil return after changing my manifold, glad that you caught it early and to be fair would have thought the turbo blanket would have stopped the oil going straight on the hot side so may have given you some time.

Close call, glad you managed to catch it and sort it, could of been a very differdnt thread

Had you done anything around the pipe recently

No, oddly, and I'd be very keen to know why it failed. The pipe was as old as the build (now maybe 6-7 years) and it's had a few different turbos on there over the years so it's been on and off a good few times.

I would have thought an armoured cable such as this would be as strong as they get, but the breach was so severe that at idle the oil was being fanned out through the shielding like a garden sprinkler. Not good!

I'll fit the replacement with great care, and may well to an autopsy on the failed hose once off the car.

It's why some fit hardpipes instead of flexis.

Yes, I am a great believer in running a hard pipe from the feed point to well away from the turbine housing, then transition to -4 hose. Same with the drain. hard pipe to well away from turbine housing and downpipe, obviously a lot bigger than -4 though The oil feed hard pipe needs clipping to the turbo somehow to stop it vibrating or being stressed and cracking. Ebay sourced onehunglo brand hose is a huge risk, buy branded from a UK reseller.

Yes, I am a great believer in running a hard pipe from the feed point to well away from the turbine housing, then transition to -4 hose. Same with the drain. hard pipe to well away from turbine housing and downpipe, obviously a lot bigger than -4 though The oil feed hard pipe needs clipping to the turbo somehow to stop it vibrating or being stressed and cracking. Ebay sourced onehunglo brand hose is a huge risk, buy branded from a UK reseller.

Out of interest have you got any photos you could show of this hardline setup

One is hard line all the way, there's something to be said to transitioning to -4 after the heat source is cleared, for expandability and flexibility, plus it need not be bent so accurately Lots of variations, Google for more, or just improvise to suit your particular routing needs.