lejams

Just curious - how much boost are you running?

gregeast

Does the pipe pop off an acceleration on when you lift? Just wondering if your BOV is working, speculating that if it's not then you're getting a big pressure increase when the throttle plate closes. Just thinking out loud here...

fast951

Before taking things apart, you need to do some more checking. You might have other issues, I would check the cause of the high oil temps. A high crankcase pressure will cause a turbo oil drain restriction, causing the turbo to flood. May not be the case, but something to check.

Are you still using the oil restrictor as installed by the previous owner, or did you remove it?

PorscheDude1

docwyte

I believe the oil restrictor is still in there, but I'm not sure. I got very minimal information from Cervilli about what he did to my car.

The KISS oil cooler has been on the car for years, it goes back 3 owners, so I'm not sure what was done with the initial install.

I've checked the bypass valve and it is operating correctly and I could hear it vent boost in between shifts.

Temps were mid 90's, low humidity, 6000 feet above sea level. The track temps weren't really bothering me too much, it was the temps on the drive back home. Based on my limited time in this particular car, I shouldn't have been seeing 210F while cruising at 80mph on the freeway. They should've been around 180 or less.

Right now I'm running 13-14 psi, ran a 50/50 mix of 100 octane and 91 octane on the track. Once I got the thinner hose clamp on, I didn't have any more problems blowing off the connection, so at least that's addressed.

Joel, you think I could go though 4 quarts of oil and be blowing bluish/white smoke out the back from those things you mention?

Jfrahm

Well the oil went somewhere. The two questions are where did it go and why?

So... you lost a quart of oil getting to the track, and another on the track, and more on the way home? How many quarts burnt on the trip home? And on the way home you were blowing smoke? Does that mean the problem got worse? I assume if you were fogging the track someone would have noticed.

I would also assume it was not blowing oil before you left or you would have stayed home.

The turbo seals is a possible place for the oil to go, if the turbo is not draining the oil pressure in the center section will cause serious problems, restrictor or no. The restrictor will not work if there is a bigger restriction at the oil outlet.

I would also check the compression and leakdown again. If you were burning tons of oil at the track you could have scuffed a bore from detonation.

Naturally the thing to do is check the plugs and the IC plumbing and look for oil. Sure it could be the turbo seals but if so there is a reason why those seals are leaking and I doubt it's due to age and mileage so that cause needs to be determined before you feed the problem another turbo.

-Joel.

docwyte

The oil went out the tail pipe. It's been blowing smoke ever since it got put together, but I was told that was to be expected. I haven't had the car home very long, so I haven't been able to chart the oil loss until yesterday and it's definitely not good.

Also the car isn't pulling the way it should be, boost is being made, but not delivered if you know what I mean. Going up the hill at HPR the car wasn't accelerating at all and this was in 3rd gear.

I put in 3 quarts of oil yesterday and it's over a quart low now, so really 4 quarts. No oil in the coolant, intercooler pipes are clean, no oil to speak of in them.

Compression and leakdown test were done about a week ago, leakdowns were 2% all cylinders and compression was 150 across the board I believe.

Renn 951

Josh, that turbo only has 1500 miles on it; I can't imagine the seals are bad.

If it's been blowing oil since you got the car put together I would guess they didn't leave the oil restrictor in. I know that turbo is not supposed to require a restrictor, but my experience was that without the restrictor it blew oil big time and with the restrictor it did not. And I don't know where you are measuring the oil temps, but 210 F doesn't seem all that high to me - especially if the sensor is tapped into the oil drain plug.

As for the power seeming off, that might just be a tuning issue. Have you done any data logs with the SMT-6? It may take some trial and error to get the tuning optimized. And at 90+ F ambient temps, you're going to lose some power because the intercooler can do only so much. As John mentioned, other things need to be ruled out before pulling everything apart. A post-track leakdown test might be a good idea. Sorry to hear about the continued frustration, and I hope it turns out being something simple.

docwyte

Thanks for the info John. I've owned lots of turbocharged cars and never had one where the turbo literally ate 4 quarts of oil. If the turbo is doing that, there's something wrong with it. I'm ok with it using some oil during a track day, but otherwise it shouldn't be burning any appreciable amount.

If it was doing it for you, then maybe there was a problem with the turbo right out of the box. Vitesse says no restrictor for the turbo and this oil use is excessive to say the least! I can't believe that a turbo that uses this kind of oil is in good shape.

I pulled the intake, no end to end play on the shaft, some side play. I can move the shaft enough that the wheel hits the housing. Wheel looks fine, no damage to the blades, spins freely.

Does the SMT6 automatically datalog, or do I need to go in and hook up the laptop and hit "start"?

I understand I'm going to lose some power due to heat soak, but the car literally wasn't accelerating up a hill at WOT in 3rd gear. The car doesn't weigh that much, has an S2 tranny and a lightened flywheel. It should rev like nobody's business and pull like a ****.

The oil temp sensor is in the pan. That 210 reading was on the freeway. I've been seeing readings no higher than 180 on the freeway and mostly 160-170. So seeing 210 was worrisome. On the track it was around 240, that last session it went up to 270-275 before I lifted and cooled things off.

I hope it's something simple as well and I don't need to remove the turbo and send it off. I've already missed 3 track events because of the saga with this car and it looks like I'm going to miss my next one in 2 weeks.

I'm getting extremely tired of dealing with this. It's taking a lot of time, money and effort that I should be putting in other areas. In all likelihood I'm going to have the car flatbedded to my old shop 1.5 hours away and have them go through this car. They worked on my last 951 and also recently finished Dana's 951. The shop that just worked on the car are very nice, but I think this car is too old school for them. They're not that familiar with it and at this point I need to send it to someone who knows them very well.

My wife asked me if I could just sell it and get something else. I would if I wouldn't take such a bath on the car. I regret not spending the uber dollars and getting the 996 GT3 I was looking at. If this turns into a large deal to fix, I'm yanking the motor after doing another leakdown/compression test to insure it's healthy, selling everything I can and dropping in an LS1.

Renn 951

Josh:

I don't know that 4 qts would blow thru the turbo, so its worth checking out other things as well. But with the oil line restrictor in place that turbo was putting out gobs of power and zero smoke. Keep in mind that John also recommends dino oil, not synthetic which I was using. I don't know which oil you are using, but if that restrictor was still in place the car should not have been smoking like that when it was delivered to you from the shop.

With the SMT-6 you have to hook up the laptop and manually do the data logging. That could give you some clues on what is going on with the engine.

I think it's important with these cars to use a shop that knows them well, and when the turbo and engine management systems are changed that they have the expertise to set them up and tune them correctly. I think taking it back to your old shop sounds like a great idea - that's what I had to do with mine to get it sorted out last year.

Good luck!!

Jfrahm

After 20 minutes if it's still blowing oil then the rings are in upside down or something. Something bad.

I don't know what's up with your car but I suggest forgetting all your preconceived notions of what has been done and done correctly and start over checking everything you can. Compression, leakdown, borescope, the works. Something is not right on a fundamental level. It could be as simple as a turbo oil restrictor but I'd want to be sure.

-Joel.

docwyte

The motor wasn't opened up that way. The head didn't come off the block, only the rod bearings were done recently.

So the work done was rod bearings, oil pan gasket, timing belt and tensioner, motor mounts, clutch, installation of the used Vitesse stage 2 turbo kit and some other small things.

Compression & leak down were done 1 week ago, engine has been back in the car and running for over a month. Couldn't see the smoke that well as it had a cat on it for awhile, which was trapping it. Once the test pipe went on the car, smoke was very apparent.

I agree with you though and will have everything done again, compression, leakdown, etc. I'm having a hard time believing an oil restrictor will stop a 4 quart leak, particularly when Vitesse says a restrictor isn't needed at all. Something's going on...

ehall

+1

Trucho-951

Might want to check that some of valve stem seals have not popped off. Will have to remove the valve springs to check, however, this can be done without removing the head from the motor.

docwyte

That'll show up in a compression and leakdown test.