Help! - Oil from BOV/intercooler pipes

While checking the subframe bolts this weekend I noticed some oil dripping down from the engine bay. 'Uh oh' I think... !!

 

There’s a Blitz BOV on a hardpipe just before the intake manifold; the point where the flexible pipe from the intercooler joins with the hard pipe there seems to be a lot of oil dribbling out. There also seems to be oil being spat out of the BOV! (Its an atmospheric one).

 

The oil appears to be engine oil; it’s fairly thin (i.e. like the Mobil 1 thats supposed to be in the engine!) though much blacker.

 

I've searched on this problem and from previous threads it seems to be an early sign of turbo failure. The difference with my problem to the other threads is that I have absolutely no smoke coming out of the exhaust! Got a mate to drive behind me today for a few miles and there was no sign of white, blue or black smoke. Also the other (standard) BOV isn't leaking and looks fine.

 

Apart from the leaking oil the car seems to be driving fine, 1.1-1.2bar and pulls like a train! The cars only done about 800 miles since the de-cat, though most of that is motorway cruising. Not sure if this is worth mentioning but the car has a number of leaks, the rear gearbox seal and front crank oil seals are both leaking. Theres also a couple of leaks from the gasket around the cam covers, though these are quite small.

 

Any ideas what I should do to diagnose this further? I really can't think what else this would be other than something nasty going on in the turbos...

 

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to provide as much info as possible.

 

Cheers

 

Darryl

Some oil residue in the induction pipes is perfectly normal isn't it? Besides, there can't be all that much if the car isn't smoking at all. I wouldn't worry about it.

As Jake says some oil is normal enough, you can reduce it with a catch can.

 

Keep an eye out for smoke on startup and idle etc, if you aren't getting any at all now just remove the pipes you can to clean them out and keep smiling

Thanks Fellas, thats reassuring to hear! If the weather clears up tomorrow I'll take a the hardpipe off and have look inside.

 

It only worried me becuase the last time I had a good look round the engine (about one week previous) there hadn't been any sign of oil on the pipe or BOV. On Sunday there was loads of it dipping out.

Luckily some good weather this evening so managed to get a better look at the pipes.

 

After taking out the BOV pipe there does seem to be a few drops of oil in it and also just inside the intake (the first butterfly valve was covered in it). Also there was oil all over the inside of the pipe, though it was spread quite thin. Most of the oil seemed to be in the pipe below the BOV that heads down under the car (see attached pic).

 

Also checked the turbo side of things but there was hardly any sign of oil there, just a thin coating on the inside of the pipes.

 

Not sure if this is normal but all the pipes had a fine grit stuck to them, you can see the grit in the picture too! Is that normal??!!

 

Finally, I've realised the car is putting out a puff of smoke when it starts but no sign of anything while idling/driving.

 

I've got bugger all experience with Supra mechanics so any advice would be great! The main thing that concerns me is the amount of oil shown in the picture.

Originally posted by Loid

Not sure if this is normal but all the pipes had a fine grit stuck to them, you can see the grit in the picture too! Is that normal??!!

I believe the answer might well be in your sig :

Black 93 TT 6spd J-Spec

GZ bodykit; Full CW decat; RSR Exhaust; RSR springs; TRL FCD; Blitz SSBOV; Walbro pump; ARC induction ; HKS Gauges; Denso IK24's; Blitz alloys

Yep, that grit should be filtered out, but only the stock intake+filter does a proper job at this. That is not good for your engine or turbos. Try and get yourself a stock intake, will probably give you a power gain too.

Does anyone else agree that Mobil1 should be in a Supra engine?

 

I have had bad experiences of it in the Supe and I have heard stories of it getting past various seals including the crank seal and cam seals. (GULP!)

 

From what I haev heard, Mobil1 being a 0 weight oil, is too thin for the temps that our engines work at.

 

Any comments?

 

You can get Mobil 1 Motorsport which is 15w40 IIRC...

Having had my intake system apart from filter to intake runners, I can say that the Apexi filter does a cracking job at filtering as there was no grit, dust, or anything in my intake system, only the smear of PCV oil The grit in that picture looks really scary...

 

A sudden appearance of oil may well be PCV oil blowing past a loose or slightly split hose. Clean it up and go for a hoon, then check for a recurrance of the oil.

 

-Ian

Thanks for the replies.

 

Its missing most of the plastic bits for the standard filter so putting it back in would mean buying quite a few parts. I was thinking about putting an Apexi anyway so will order one today.

 

Originally posted by Ian C

A sudden appearance of oil may well be PCV oil blowing past a loose or slightly split hose. Clean it up and go for a hoon, then check for a recurrance of the oil.

 

-Ian

 

I'll give this a try tonight

 

The oil is 0w Mobile 1 so possibly is a bit thin. If the problems continue I'll try putting a higher weight oil in.

 

Still no smoke on the way to work this morning so it doesn't look like anything serious (yet...)

Have a look at Silkolene Pro-S 10w50...

 

5w is as thin as you want to go - oil thinness only counts in the first few beats of the engine. If you do loads of cold starts and only run about town then maybe 0w or 5w is best but if you do extended runs upto and above the national speed limit then I would, now, err on the side of caution and stick to 10 or 15w. The second no. w40/50/60 etc is a *guide* as to how the oil performs once it's heated up. The higher it is the more consistant it should be. But there is much more to it than that.

 

FWIW - Ester based Synthetic Oils are the only TRUE synthetic oil and are the *best*. Mobil and Castrol both use the Hydrocracked Synthetics for their Motorsport and RS concoctions. These are very good oils but not the best.

 

*Disclaimer - This is all as far as I am aware at this point in time but the whole subject is very very confusing. I reserve the right to be wrong *

Just want resurrect this old post..

 

I've changed the Filter (to Apexi power intake) and stripped all the intake pipe workup to the Throttle body and cleaned them. The Amount of black sludge/grit stuck to the intake pipes was shocking! I used 2 entire rolls of 'Bounty' to clean the pipes!!!! It looks like the entire intake pipe work was coated with at least 0.1 - 0.3mm of black sludge/grit (and I mean from then filter back), getting worse as its heads back to the throttle body.

 

Is this normal, considering the car has around 55k miles?

 

Also there is a blue puff of smoke on start-up and more recently a bigger blue puff of smoke from the exhaust after being sat for a minute or two..

 

Any ideas what to check for? Presumably this is valve stems rather than turbo probs??

Know how you feel......mine smokes on deceleration.

 

Checked and cleaned all intercooler pipes (were lightly coated in oil).

 

Did a compression test yesterday and all cylinders fell between 183-187.

 

Mine seems to have a blue tinge when smoking on the move-white when revved to 4k at standstill.

 

The smoke appears only when revs fall under 2k on the move and almost idle when revved at standstill.....this lasts for a second then no smoke.

 

I'm guessing seals on the turbo's... will know more when its checked properly this week.

 

Been looking at prices for sorting turbo's and it ain't gonna be cheap (turbo technics etc) looks like i will be pestering Terry again for one of his singles if the seals are knackered ( sorry Tel ).

 

Hope you sort it out soon.

I hope its not turbo probs mate, but then again it does give you a reason to go single

 

Dude, I'd like to know your thoughts on the probs, you had this car for a bit so your thoughts would be appeciated (only your thoughts about the problem above, none of your other thoughts please )

 

Its going in for a full sevice and cambelt change in the next few weeks, but if this is terminal I may as well cancel that and give Terry a call

Your turbos may be fine for many miles yet. Chris Wilson refers to tired turbo oil seals. The seals need a little back pressure to stop oil blow by when they are worn, a decat will remove this back pressure, giving the symptoms you describe.

Mine does it, I have tried hard to destroy my JDM turbos running at 1.2 bar for two years, but they refuse to give in:D I even have a spare set (sub 30K) ready for the day they go bang. But it may be a single if they let go now.