Two bad turbos???

[justin the subie]

How's it going fellas? Well ive been working on a 82 brat for a long time now.
I installed a ej22turbo engine. It's all fairly new parts. Had been driving it around for a little while. Then all of the sudden it starts smoking on startup especially when it's cold. Once it's warm it runs really really well with no smoke. Was told and had figured that the turbo was starting to go out. So I swapped the turbo for another used one. Checked shaft play and had very little. Once again smoking on startup. The smoke smells like oil but its very thick and white. Once it's warm. No smoke no matter if im driving fast or just revving the motor.
But i keep finding oil in the intake. So maybe it's a stuck pcv?? Tried to search the fourm for anyone else having this issue. Please help so i can keep driving this extremely fun car

[ride_child]

thats the best emoji ive seen so far!! where is the smoke coming from? just out of your exhaust?

[justin the subie]

Yes. The Only smoke i get anywhere is straight out the tail pipe. Thick and white. Once warm it goes away completely

[ride_child]

hahaha! i could be wrong but isnt that if the exhaust is super white, that signifies coolant being burned somewhere?

[justin the subie]

Yes i too can imagine that. But smells like oil not the sweet smell of antifreeze. As well as it goes away completely after warm. Usually if its a coolant leak it gets worse as the car gets hotter. Hahahaha

[ride_child]

i think your pcv would be the first stop as its the cheapest. i like to move from cheapest to most expensive when im diagnosing haha

[Mister Anderson]

I have had 2 turbo failures over the past few years, and one VF11 semi-blown that had oil pushing through the compressor seal. I say semi-blown since it only did it on my new engine in my wagon (did it with the restriction banjo fitting installed). I had a ton of oil in the intake and would blow a lovely James Bond blue smoke screen. This turbo is currently on my 91 SS. The engine and turbo have 275K miles on them. One of the TD04's had the rear seal go causing a nice thick cloud of white smoke. The second TD04 turbo had a thrust bearing go.


You say you have oil in the intake, but experience with Subaru and other cars it typically burns blue. By no means I am not debating with you on finding oil in the intake. How is your brake master cylinder fluid level? My VW bus had a bad MC and the brake booster was pulling in brake fluid. Brake fluid is not combustible, and vaporizes white.

[mike-tracy]

You may have a couple different issues going on, but I think you should tackle the PCV system first. It is different from other Subaru turbo setups, and you can't route it like you would a WRX without having issues.

This link has a handy diagram on how the stock PCV and vacuum is routed.
viewtopic.php?t=15268

It is important that you are connecting the lines where they are shown, as opposed to where is convenient.

[justin the subie]

Alright guys. I really appreciate everyone's useful information. So I don't have two bad turbos. I don't even have one bad turbo lol.
I will try to make a long story short.
The 82 brat build has been a slow build due to not having a ton of cash. I had it running with a very base tune about a year ago. Had brackets and wiring to sort out along with cold start tune. Once it was warm it was drive able but still needed a good street tune done but i had little to no smoke when cold or warm.
Just before i sent it to my good friend mario @ the dub shop I installed 850cc yellow side feed injectors the only change that i had made. Everything else i had done was brackets wiring ect.
Sent it down to the shop and right away some serious oil burning smoke normally until warm for whatever reason. Got it tuned in real good. Dialed in launch control and made it run about 8-10 psi boost for now till she is broke in.
Get it home and figured the turbo must be going out. It's getting old and i had another one anyway. Swapped it out but found I still had a ton of smoke.
So thats when I contacted you guys.
YUP! PCV hose routing. Due to the td05 turbo i had read and decided to cap off the block vent below the turbo and reroute the AIC hose. Well I routed it into the valve cover hoses. Was obviously working fine when it had the stock injectors but i had added the bigger 850s. More fuel = more air! So the damn AIC was sucking oil out of my valve covers. Rerouted the AIC hose and all my smoke problems are gone.
So the moral of my story is learn from my mistakes so you don't have to do them yourself!

[justin the subie]

O yeah. Anyone have any idea how much horse power I might be running. I haven't dynotuned her yet. Thanks again for this awesome fourm!

[mike-tracy]

Remember that 9 psi on a vf11 is 160 chp, so to really rough guess it id say you now have 200chp. Maybe a lil higher. But stock heads are strangling the horsepower while making decent torque. And ill take that torque and be happy with it!

Glad sorting the PCV solved it for you.