turbonetics single turbo questions

[imtweakinit]

first off hi evry1 i have a 2003 g35 coupe 6mt with a turbonetics turbo kit on it.the kit comes complete inj.,pump,bo,wg,etc. its a t4 60 1 and its blowing white smoke after boost. i checked the lines and there all in order.my guess is its the seals in the turbo which seems to happen alot with the tn turbos,no offense to them ,there nice turbos but they dont seem to last.is there a replacement turbo other than a tn that can be used in place of the tn turbo or a tn turbo that would last longer.do i buy a different turbo or send the 1 i have back to tn [only tn can rebuild]. any help would be appreciated

[joe603]

Welcome to NICO!

White smoke usually means that the car is burning water...it could be a head gasket leak.

Make sure that there isn't any water in your oil...a rise in oil level is a good indication of this.

[imtweakinit]

no water in oil and car doesnt smoke at idle or at all. car temp. stays the same and runs great besides the smoke after the boost and it only does it when going from 2nd to 3rd 1st to 2nd no smoke and on the highway in 6th will only throw a cloud for a sec after boost

[C-Kwik]

Welcome to NICO.

First off, please attempt proper grammar. While you don't need to write us an "A" paper, lack of any proper grammar makes your posts difficult to read. Considering your issue is likely quite technical in nature, it helps immensely in assisting you to diagnose a problem when we can clearly understand what you mean to say.

Now, as far as your issue, the first step would be to figure out what the smoke is comprised of. To make sure I understand you correctly, the problem is occuring only when shifting from second to third and when boosting in 6th? This obviously presents a problem in trying to figure out what the smoke is made of as you can't smell it while sitting in idle. You may need help from a friend, perhaps one who is familiar with certain smells from cars. But basically, your friend needs to smell the smoke after your car emits it to determine what it is. It's likely to be coolant or oil. Coolant pretty much smells like coolant and will have a humid feel to the smell. Oil is quite a bit more noxious. I have a hard time describing it, but it is quite distinct and recognizable if you've smelled it before. Determining the type of smoke you are dealing with helps to narrow down your focus to the oil system or the cooling system. Both oil and coolant can produce a very white smoke.

Also, make sure you are not mistaking a light greyish particulate looking smoke with white. Many turbo equipped vehicles will produce a spot of greyish smoke under load (sometimes longer depending on how rich the tune is), or the transition to high loads. And given that the Turbonetics kit deletes the catalytic converter, it may be much easier to see the effects of a rich condition.

That said, I have some questions. How long have you had the kit on the car? How long has it been smoking? Do you have a turbo timer installed? Can you visibly see the smoke while driving or did someone else point it out to you?

Its quite possible its an oil related problem, but if it is and it is occurring at the turbo, then you need to determine the specific cause as well. Oil seal failures in a turbo can and do occur, but if you have too much oil pressure at the turbo (turbos need very little oil pressure), the drain is clogged or kinked, it can easily cause oil to leak passed the seals. This is a problem for every turbo regardless of who makes it. If there is an actual bearing failure, you can check for shaft play. But outside of oil starvation, oil coking in the bearings or severe turbo surge, it would be unlikely that a ball bearing turbo would experience a bearing failure.

As for swapping to another Turbo brand for a replacement 60-1, outside of sourcing one from Garrett, there aren't going to be much better options as Turbonetics turbos are generally pretty good. And even if you do go to Garrett, you might run into some fitment issues as Turbonetics turbine housing dimensions can differ slightly. Particularly in the offset from the center of the turbine exit to the turbine inlet. This could cause problems with fitting the turbo to the existing plumbing. Double check this one though as it has been a long time since I checked the specs and can't recall if the issue is limited to a specific turbine housing configuration or not.

[imtweakinit]

hi to answer the ?s you have asked i purchased the car with the kit on it and was told around 5000 miles on kit car has 56,000 on it.it started smoking a week ago and it is pure white and has a sweet smell to it.and when i say smoke, i mean unable to even see behind me .when i let off the gas from full boost.drive it normal and it dont smoke. the second i add boost it smokes. oh and sorry it smokes after boost in 3,4,5,and 6th. i talked to turbonetics and they said that it was probably a seal but want me to send it in 100.00 to look at it ,then 290.00 labor ,and then what ever it cost for parts.
Modified by imtweakinit at 8:27 PM 5/4/2009

[C-Kwik]

It sounds like it would be coolant. Coolant tends to have a sweet smell and dissapates quickly. Smoke from oil tends to linger.

That said, unless the turbo is water-cooled (I don't think the Turbonetics kit includes a water-cooled turbo), its likely a headgasket failure. Perhaps run a compression or leak-down test on each cylinder. A leakdown test is ideal as it provides visual clues of a problem as air bubbles will make its way out of the radiator during the test. If it confirms the problem, it will also tell you which cylinder it is confined to, which can help if you end up only replacing the head gasket on the affected bank of cylinders.

You might be able to see contaminated coolant in this type of case as a break in the gasket to the water jacket might cause some fuel to get into the coolant. The smoke you see could be the result of an overpressurized cooling system (due to air and fuel being pushed into the coolant) and/or the high vacuum that occurs as soon as you let off the gas drawing coolant into the cylinder. This is at least my initial impression. But you'll have to do a bit of testing to confirm...

[imtweakinit]

i wanna say the turbo is water cooled

[pfarmer]

first off hi evry1 i have a 2003 g35 coupe 6mt with a turbonetics turbo kit on it.the kit comes complete inj.,pump,bo,wg,etc. its a t4 60 1 and its blowing white smoke after boost. i checked the lines and there all in order.my guess is its the seals in the turbo which seems to happen alot with the tn turbos,no offense to them ,there nice turbos but they dont seem to last.is there a replacement turbo other than a tn that can be used in place of the tn turbo or a tn turbo that would last longer.do i buy a different turbo or send the 1 i have back to tn [only tn can rebuild]. any help would be appreciated

Fairly soon after you have the smoking sensation smell the coolant for an exhaust smell. Be careful not to desensitize your nose first as it may not be that strong. Keep track of coolant level, if you are burning it then the level should drop when cold. You may or may not see it in the oil.

Assuming the smoke is oil then if it is a turbine seal you will often be able to get smoke in a non-boosted situation. Run the engine rpm up somewhat in 1st gear and hold it. Smoke under boost will often be valve seals.

Perry

[imtweakinit]

with the car running in neutral i can rev it to the rev limiter and it wont smoke at all it does it only after load with boost

[pfarmer]

with the car running in neutral i can rev it to the rev limiter and it wont smoke at all it does it only after load with boost

Try it in first gear, take it up to a safe speed in that gear and hold it for awhile. Does it smoke? Under this situation you should not be under boost but the higher rpm while under load should allow a high enough turbine rpm with a decent amount of oil flow to bring out a turbine seal leak.

I am not sure taking it up without load to a high rpm will give you the conditions for this test and in fact may cause you some damage if you have something non-turbo related going on.

Perry

[joe603]

Any updates?

[airaptor]

pull off the intake from the motor to see if you have oil in it, if you do then you know its the turbo, if not then its the car. I had a turbo stang that would sit for long periods of time and when i started it the turbo would blow oil into the inter cooler, then at full boost the oil would get oushed up into the intake and smoke when i let off.

[badintentions]

all turbo cars have a small puff of smoke when you get out of the boost its just what thay do when you hit it hard i mean a small poff something big is not right ask for the turbo the seals are bad when it smokes at idle

[da mayor]

I never really had much smoke come out from my turbonetics g35 sedan but again I only had 8k miles of turbo install w/ 5psi on a conservative tune

'all work was installed and tuned by vinny ten racing. sold the car and the turbo kit is on my cousin's G35 coupe with 6 1lbs of boost conservative tune 359whp.