testing turbo seals

[helcat17]

ok im having a problem and trying to track down what my issue is. to start off ill explain my issue im getting a lot of smoke at idle none that i can see when im going down the road but if im sitting still and hold the rpm's at around 2500-3000 i get a lot then allsoo i dont see any coming out of the wastegate tube i have a stock b18b1 with a garrett m-11 turbo i know that its going to be one of three things "turbo oil seal,rings,valves"i dont have a compression tester untill this weekend then im going to test comp. but i want to eliminate the turbo as one of them now the way i was thinking to do it was take and remove the inteake pipe to the turbo remove the waste gate spring disconect and plug the oil line to the turbo take a wrench and hold the turbo from spining and run the car to 2500-3000 rpm's for a bout a min. the only issue i see is the heat factor because the oil cools the turbo if anyone has had an issue like this im all ears sorry about the spelling and please try not to flame me

[helcat17]

ok i did a comp. check and its avg. 180 psi. across the board soo im gona say that its not the rings any ideas?

[95alty]

Ever think about your valve seals??? if your getting smoke at idle and shifting... and its white smoke... then its your valve seals

[RiceBoy]

1. was your engine smoking before?
2. to find out if your turbo is smoking, remove the wastegate (if you have an external wastegate) and check. If there are smokes, that is from your engine.
3. you can remove the downpipe to check for oil residue

[helcat17]

Ever think about your valve seals??? if your getting smoke at idle and shifting... and its white smoke... then its your valve seals

it says that it was going to be one of three things turbo oil seals,rings or valves and valves meaning valve seals sorry about that and im pretty sure that its going to be valve seals however befor i go and start replacing them i want to make sure that is actualy my problem

[helcat17]

1. was your engine smoking before?
2. to find out if your turbo is smoking, remove the wastegate (if you have an external wastegate) and check. If there are smokes, that is from your engine.
3. you can remove the downpipe to check for oil residue

no my engine wasnt smoking before when you say remove my wastegate you mean remove it completely then run the car? and i havenot removed the downpipe yet only because its a pain in the a$$ and i wanted to check everything else i could befor i start disassembling it. let me know about the wastegate thing though and thanks for the tip hadent even thought about that one

[helcat17]

anyone else got any advice i could use?

[RandomGuy]

take the intake off of the inlet of the turbo... is there oil in there, is the compressor fan greasy and grimy (oily) as well as the walls of the intake? Is it oily? If so that means ur either getting a lot of blowby, or your turbo compressor seal is bad


if its clean, then pop off the downpipe ... is the turbine wheel oily? Is the inside of the downpipe oily? If so then ur turbine seal is bad.


good luck + repped ... dude no one is going to flame you for spelling ..

[helcat17]

randomguy thanx for the tips yea i have checked the charge pipe,intake mani. ,cant take the down pipe off yet but i just took the waste gate off and as soon as my son wakes up im going to go run the car and see if i get smoke through the wastegate flange and thanks for the reps man maybe one day ill get enough that i can sell some stuff on here lol

[RiceBoy]

Sorry, completely forgotten about this post. Yes, if you remove the wastegate (if it is an external) then you are bypassing the turbo. If the white exhaust coming out from the flange where the wastegate mounts, then it is from your engine because the wastegate is before your turbo.

[Rican219]

I have the same issue in my speed 6 and yes it is the turbo seals on my car. Mazda has a big issue with those on the Speed 6 so it sounds exactly like my issue.