Help Me I'm A Noob And My Turbo Is Dead

[ruthless_one3k]

Well, I'm a skyline noob. I just got a 95' r33 with a bad turbo. I thought the head gasket was blown till I pulled the intake off and it was full of oil. I traced it back to find out that the turbo was leaking from the compressor side. This is my first turbo car not to mention my first skyline. I want to use the car as a day to day driver. I dont want to sink a bunch of money into it yet. just want to get it back up and running. But as you already know the stock turbo can be a bit hard to find and pricey when you do. I've had several people tell me that if anyone can help me it's you guys. so, I guess my real question is. What is the most easiest/economical way to get this thing back on the road untill I decide which direction i want to go with building it? I will be doing all the work myself. I dont have a lot of resources but I have a lot of exp. wrenching on motors. As long as I dont have to fabricate an exhaust or do any custom tuning that would be best.

one of the biggest problems is I live in Germanyand speak very little German, not to mention not many skylines around here, and even fewer wrecked ones. I'm kinda stuck with buying parts online. Which is even more difficult since I wont have internet at my house till the end of next week. I have to go to a cafe to get internet for now, so I have a limited amount of time to search.

How much oil was in the intake you ask??? A lot! it was puddled up in the intake tube and the compressor side of the turbo. It was even puddled up clear up by the throttle body. It smoked very badly the entire time the motor was running. I didn't notice any noises but my hearing is very poor so it may have been making noise idk. before I bought it, I was trying to help the previous owner figure out what was going on. I ran it up to full throttle on a short drive (.5-1km) and it blew the oil dipstick clear out of its hole and emptied the contents of the oil pan under the hood. I think it must have been pushing the boost back through the drain line of the turbo and into the pan to blow the dipstick out. any other ideas?

probably a common question but what is the easiest turbo to fit to an otherwise stock(ish) motor if I cant find a stock replacement?

Sorry If I'm asking a bunch of repeat questions but like I said I dont have a lot of time to search around without having internet at home.

Thanks in advance, any information is greatly appriciated.

[R31Nismoid]

But as you already know the stock turbo can be a bit hard to find and pricey when you do.

Quite the opposite, not sure how you came to that conclusion.

Have a look in the For Sale section. On any given day there are probably 3-4 up for grabs for around $300 AUD (R33 item), $400 AUD (R34 item).

Add what, $100-$150 for O/S shipping and it's the cheapest solution you have available.

Someone will ship one for you id imagine.

[ruthless_one3k]

Quite the opposite, not sure how you came to that conclusion.

Have a look in the For Sale section. On any given day there are probably 3-4 up for grabs for around $300 AUD (R33 item), $400 AUD (R34 item).

Add what, $100-$150 for O/S shipping and it's the cheapest solution you have available.

Someone will ship one for you id imagine.

Thanks for the advice, I'll keep an eye out for one.

[Hanaldo]

Yeh +1 for stock replacement, I'm sure I saw one recently for $200. They aren't expensive or hard to find at all.

[ARTZ]

are you sure its the turbo stuffed...could it be too much oil coming from the breathers in the camcovers ?

[R##S@]

If you are removing the turbo just upgrade while you at it

are you sure its the turbo stuffed...could it be too much oil coming from the breathers in the camcovers ?

[karma_syke]

If you are removing the turbo just upgrade while you at it

not unless he's going to get a programmable ecu and tune with it.

[ARTZ]

Helloooo!!!

does anyone else realize the problem is not his turbo or is that just me..

oil in the intake tube, dipstick blown out doesn't that show that some sort of compression is going on in the sump or something forcing the oil out and the dipstick out..?????

What the hell does that have to do with the turbo..??

[Simon-S14]

yeah pushing oil out the dipstick hole sounds to me like some cracked ringlands...

[ruthless_one3k]

Helloooo!!!

does anyone else realize the problem is not his turbo or is that just me..

oil in the intake tube, dipstick blown out doesn't that show that some sort of compression is going on in the sump or something forcing the oil out and the dipstick out..?????

What the hell does that have to do with the turbo..??

I was thinking a blown headgasket at first and I do have one on order but when I took the intake tube off and the compressor side of the turbo was full of oil my assumption was that the seal in the turbo was bad since the oil would have had to make it all the way through the intercooler to the turbo and that didn't seem very likely. There was quite a bit of oil in there, more than I would think would come from the breather tubes. but maybe I'm wrong, like I said this is my first time working with a turbocharged car and I'm quickly learning that thing are a little different than NA engines. If you have another Idea of what it might be then let me know and I'll check it out. I'm open to any suggestions. My thought was that the oil was pushing through the seal into the compressor when boost was low and that the boost pressure was pushing through the seal and down the oil drain tube when boost was higher like at full throttle. but that was just a wild guess. I did block one side of the compressor and blow on the other and was able to hear air coming from the oil fittings but to be honest it was only a little bit, that could be normal idk. When I brought the car home I filled it up with oil and stayed off the boost and was able to drive it home (about 10min) without the dipstick blowing out. but it smoked badly any time I opened up the throttle more than barely above an idle. I will be doing a compression test as soon as my tools arrive but as for right now i have no idea what it is. I do know that it had a pretty bad misfire when i drove it home. I assumed it was oil on a spark plug (maybe 2 plugs) but really not sure till I get my sockets to pull it out.

Thanks for the input.

[GTSBoy]

I'm putting my money on broken piston(s) too. Has possibly had a lean out and detonated the top off a piston or two. Which is not good news.

All the blowby from damaged pistons blows oil out through the breathers and straight into the turbo inlet.

[Simon-S14]

I'm putting my money on broken piston(s) too. Has possibly had a lean out and detonated the top off a piston or two. Which is not good news.

All the blowby from damaged pistons blows oil out through the breathers and straight into the turbo inlet.

this...

the oil is then spread everywhere due to the turbo sucking it in and then into your engine.

[Don Dada]

Do a compression test....sounds like broken ring lands or similar

[StevenCJR31]

Do a compression test....sounds like broken ring lands or similar

+1 on the compression test, your engine could be borked and the turbo might be fine, check this first before you spend the $

[W0rp3D]

On the flip side, i had my dip stick blow out a couple of times a while back and spray the strut tower with oil, only did it a couple of times, recently i replaced the turbo with a 3540, the inlet, comp cover and all the ic piping and ic were coated in oil, cleaned then all and installed a catch can full of stainless steel wool, have had the inlet and one of the cooler pipes on since and there is not a drop of oil in there or the catch can and i now run 18psi!

[W0rp3D]

and as for turbo, have a look at the hypergear thread in this section, get a bolt on high flow from him and run low boost with the standard injectors, afm, fuel pump and ecu, if in the future you want more power then you just have to gather the other bolt ons needed, first off would be a fmic and exhaust then ecu, that will get you to around 180-230rwkw(around 200 safely) , afm, injectors and fuel pump next and with the right turbo choice you will hit 250.

[ARTZ]

so do you think a leaky turbo is pressurising the engine?

Is that the cheapy ebay turbo that lasted years?

[Tomr33gtst]

Rings for sure ur describing exactly what happened to my rb25. Check for movement in the turbo too