Turbo Oil Seal Starting to go?

Well, others with more experience might be able to contradict me, but I've never taken an air intake hose off either of my turbo engines (300TDi and a turbo petrol) without seeing a light coating of oil on the insides. If there's oil collecting so it can drip out then I might worry but a light film seems fine.

Hard to tell with certainty from your pics but it doesn't look too bad, did any significant drips of oil come out?

Nope

No Drips, just grime

Well, I'd be looking elsewhere for the black smoke issue.

Im not that worried about the smoke... Its only a bit.

I was more worried about the oil... Ill clean it all out and check again in a week.

Thanks Ian :)

It doesn't look too bad.

Clean it out especially the intercooler.

While you've got it exposed, check for radial play in the turbocharger bearings. There will be some but it should not be a rattler as someone else discovered not long back. There should be little axial play. Check the turbo blades both inlet and exhaust for damage and for contact with the casings. Once contact is made you're on the way out!

Do check the air cleaner element and the plumbing from the air cleaner to the turbo inlet. Anthing that causes high vacuum here will cause oil to be drawn past the turbo bearings/seals (they're not rubber, incidentally) and end up where you see it.

Upon further investgation, it seems that oil has gone from the the oil cooler part breather pipe, down into the big pipe from the back of the air filter and though the turbo and intercooler that way.

Any Ideas?

C*ck

Not the oil cooler, but the breather on top of the engine.

On or around Sat, 05 Apr 2008 13:20:03 +0100, Mark Solesbury enlightened us thusly:

sounds normal to me. Black smoke under load is normally a fuelling issue, could be anything from a clogged air filter to adjustments to injectors to iffy injection pump, in roughly that order.

If it was burning oil you'd be getting blue smoke.

And making a smokescreen of unreal proportions ;)

Just in case, might not help at all.. I had an unusual experience with black smoke on a 110 TD I bought, and to cut a long story short it was a leak on the connection between the turbo and the manifold which was leaking away the boost pressure. So the fuel was there but the air had escaped, even though the turbo was working hard.

Steve

On or around Sat, 5 Apr 2008 14:59:43 -0700 (PDT), Cheshire Steve enlightened us thusly:

good thought, worth a check.

there's a connection between fuelling and boost pressure, so if the pump is getting a boost signal but some of the pressure is not getting to the cylinders, it'd do that.