Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

My friends and I just finished installing my friend's turbo kit on his stock 2000 Civic Si.

He primed the turbo, and then started the car. Oil now leaks out of the exhaust housing of the turbo (no downpipe on yet, he towed it today to get one fabbed). He has a t fitting, and a stainless feed line coming from the back of the block. I made him a hose nipple for the return line, and that was welded less than 1/2" away from the top of the oil pan. It's a brand new Turbonetics turbocharger, it claims it has a 1 Year warrenty (has paperwork and such).

I am wondering, what caused the seals to blow out? Excess oil pressure? If so, how should he regulate/restrict it?

I don't know if this matters, in his excitement apprently he started the car with the rubber covers on the compressor intake side and outlet.

Thanks!

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

I would make sure the return line is of ample size and no 90deg bends or kinks. The turbo should be able to handle the oil pressure.

~John

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

Yep, its a rather large silicone hose, I could fit my thumb into it I'd say. I made a return fitting on a lathe for him, if I remember right it was about .645" or maybe it was .545" diameter inlet. The fitting was welded on as high as possible to get a wire feed in there, which is just short of 1/2" below there the pan mounts to the block. There were no kinks in the hose, we had to cut it to fit and its a nice gentle curve. Could the turbo just been shit? He got an EBAY turbo kit. Not XS Power, not Bullseye, none of that shit. It was good quality, the company makes Mustang turbo kits mostly. The turbo came in a brand new turbonetics box, and it was tagged for being balanced.

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

I'd check over on Tuners and read about all the troubles people have been having with AGP turbos as I believe they have Turbonetics components.

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

Yes, I had thought I had read about some people having troubles with turbonetics turbos, I shall look into it more! Thanks.

I'd still like more input into this subject! I definately feel I'd get better answers here than anywhere else locally.

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

How big is the oil line feeding the turbo?

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

That is what I was wondering too. I have read about people running -4 line and that blowing seals, but then when the go down to a -3 it works just fine.

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

but if the seals are borked already, -3 line won't fix it. just thought i'd state some obvious.

did the turbo leak immediately after starting the car up? and did you check the wheels in the turbo for front-to-back or side-to-side play?

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

Ya know before we put the turbo on I felt up the compressor side of the shaft, and there was movement. I thought that was "normal" though because i had taken my 20g to QPR and there was a bit of play and mike said it was normal for that type of bearing turbo.

I was not there to witness the car starting or leaking. I do not know the size of the oil feed line.

I'll get more info.

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

I read more about it on tuners, and to my surprise I read about many people's complaints with Turbonetics products. Wtf I thought that was supposed to be a reputable company?

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

They are, but when you buy something used, you can't expect it to be perfect.

if their products cost $350 for an Ultra T79 400trim, you might be able to say they didn't make good stuff. basically, they should have good products.

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

The turbo was brand new. Thats why I find this hard to believe! My friend started the car with the downpipe off, I could see wetness forming in the exhuast housing. At first I thought maybe he was seeing excess fuel being blown out, because he has DSM injectors (yes, we put in resistors) that were not adjusted (meaning on his vafc he didnt have anything set.) He told me when he started it, black "oil" was coming out of the turbine exhaust housing. Could this have been excess fuel, combined with dirty soot of being super rich?? This was at idle, on a cold car, so if excess fuel made it past the combustion chamber, the exhaust wouldn't be hot enough to ignite it.

Also, Honda-Tech seems to be filled with COMPLETE morons.

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

Check out Homemadeturbo.com

A lot of ghetto rigging, but the forum is pretty much dedicated to building home made turbo kits for hondas. There's a good amount of people on there who know a lot, don't get thrown off by their ghetto looking welds and what not. They're strictly all go, and no show. Oh and if you're at work, don't go into their FAB/PORN thread area!!!

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

Did you touch/smell the mystery fluid.

Gas isn't nearly as slippery as oil, and oil doesn't smell like gas, so that should help you narrow it down.

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

I tried, maybe my nose was stuffy :)

Re: Turbo Honda: Blown turbo seal ?
 

its funny that this thread came up because i have a acura integra in my garage right now with a blown 18g greddy turbo. He just got a new motor (b16 turbo with vtec) He was complaining that oil was leaking at the turbo and his exhaust was having white smoke. but he was still hitting boost (only boosting 5 psi hahahaha silly honduhs) So i take a look at it and see that there is oil around the oil feed nipple, yeah, the nipple was loose as fuck. and so im like, well lets take the turbo off and see what we can do to tighten that nipple. i take off all of the bolts etc, and take off the oil drain hose and its completely dry, no oil comes out... so im like WTF??? finally get to take off the oil feed line thinking that there might be a little oil in the line and its completely dry as well. take the turbo out and check for shaft play and OMFG its moving up down left right and a complete circle its bad. im sure the bearings are shot. so hes gonna send the turbo out to turbonetics and see if they can rebuild it. Its crazy because theres a shit load of things that im seeing that just doesnt look right with the setup that this shop did. And he took it to a couple places like Dynamic Motorsports and a local honda shop and they have both been saying that the shop that did this has no idea what they were doing. Ill take pics tomarrow of some of the more questionable items and see if you guys can shed some light on this.
tom