legacycentral bbs

Hi my name is Aaron,

I just bought a 93 turbo legacy a couple weeks ago and I love the car. Anyways while I was stopped at a traffic light today I smelt what I thought was burning oil and noticed some white smoke coming out of the hoodscoop and the seams of the hood. I pulled into the closest parking lot and popped the hood and I noticed that the smoke was comes from the rear passenger region of the compartment but there was no specific source that I could see. It is worth noting that the smoke only appears after the turbo has been spooled up (I tried shifting early on the way home and no smoke at the traffic lights).

As far as I can tell there are no leaks and there is no smoke coming out of the muffler. The car has about 193,000 miles on it. The engine was refreshed about 80 miles ago. The Turbo boosts strong with no scrapes or wierd sounds. and if it matters the clutch was replaced about 120 miles ago. No CEL's have appeared at all.

Does anyone know what might cause this? I think it could be the turbo but I am not sure.

Thanks

It sure sounds like oil leaking onto the exhaust. If it's all burning off, you won't see any drops on the ground. Maybe a valve cover or the turbo oil feed line leaking?

EDIT: Oh yeah, welcome to the forum!

Just fixed a similar leak on mine, although not quiet that bad. The rocker cover seal and washers were worn out so much I could move the cover by hand! Anyways, oil was leaking out the bottom of it right onto the hot uppipe...

hmmm I'll dig around the engine bay this morning and see if i can see anything. I guess i'll just look for oil leaking onto the exhaust or a bad seal in that region. Thanks for your help

mine does the same thing. my seals on the turbo were gone and it was buring off in the cat.

Update: I poked around in the engine compartment this morning and I couldn't see any leaks. I took it for a spin around the block and now there is no smoke. I don't know what is going on with it. I might pull the turbo out this weekend just to make sure everything cool with it.

Did you lubricate anything lately? I had PB blaster burning off my turbo the other day and had white smoke coming out the scoop like crazy.

Also, check your CV boot. It may be flinging grease onto the downpipe.

When I had a problem sort of like yours. My turbo drain hose was leaking all the oil out. But of course the previous owner had a 1" heater hose zip tied on to the block and turbo. With all the PCV system blocked off. So when the block build pressure it shot all the oil out of the turbo drain hose.

Check you camshaft seal on the passanger side, I had mine leaking onto the header but it would only do it under wot.

Well I sort of figured it out, there was a lot of oil residue around the turbo. I guess after the turbo got hot enough it would start to burn off and create the smoke. After cleaning it off I haven't smelt burning oil or seen any smoke. I'll have to keep an eye on it though because I have no Idea how all the residue got there in the first place. Hopefully it was just dirty Thanks for all the Help!

If you can find somewhere to steam clean the engine bay. It might help you find where the leak is that is causing the oil vapor to get on the turbo.

+1 check all of your oil fittings, It maight be a good time replaace some seals, I.e banjo oil supply crush washers

welcome!!, im not gonna repeat what every1 else just said but ya, listen to these guys

Well I its been a few days and about 80+ miles since I cleaned off the turbo and still no smoke or smells. I might just replace the seals this weekend as a preventative maintenance rather than wait for something to go wrong.

Thanks for all the greetings too!