Turbo Bad?

[240dreams]

Alright, after running my SR for about a week and around 400 miles, i took off the hot pipe. The pipe had some black oil on the insides walls. It is odd b/c the turbo spools and runs fine. Does this mean my turbo is leaking oil? BTW its a black top and im running 20w50 "break in" oil.

[Supafly]

if you have the stock valve cover breather setup connected (hose from valve cover to turbo inlet tube) then it's most likely just oil mist from that..... if not then you have a leaky seal.

[240dreams]

i do i have the stock catch tank think still connected. will a "leaky seal" mess up the way the turbo spools, runs, or sounds. my turbo sounded great when i ran it off the downpipe.

[SpeedRacer1]

Depends on your definition of "some" oil. Pools of oil after 400 miles is a bad thing. A thin layer along the tubes outer walls is not so bad. When seals on turbos go bad the turbo will run pretty much normal, the only thing is that you will burn oil and lose it quickly.

[240dreams]

im not losing oil. although i am about to switch my break in oil to 10w30 syn soon. there's just a small layer of oil in the walls of the turbo plumbing. i guess its good. thanks guys

[SpeedRacer1]

Yeah, that sounds normal. BTW SR's dont need a break in period for the engine itself. The parts should have been broken in already. Unless you installed a new clutch or something the break in period should be like 5 minutes of idling to see if you actually installed the engine properly. If it passes that test and there is nothing to break in (like a brand new part), then you can go just fine.

[240dreams]

i used break in oil to get all of that old gunk out. thanks for the info tho SpeedRacer1. this isn't the only time you,ve helped me.

[BaliLover]

I just got my SR on the road and I have a stupid question about boost. If I'm cruising at like 4000Rpm, but not accelerating at all, should I be producing boost? When I'm not accelerating, I seem to be pulling vaccume and I wasn't sure if this was normal or a sign that the turbo isn't maintining boost pressue. I'm also getting some smoke from the exhaust, but since the engine just got installed and hasn't been run much, I'm guessing its just crap burning away.

[slow s13]

bali....thats completely normal, when your cruising it takes very little power to keep the car going so your throttle is just barely cracked open and there isn't enough air flowing to spool up the turbo.