Oil consumption and gray smoke on acceleration

After reading all the turbo explosion stories, I luckily noticed that my oil level is at the L mark and filled up with Castrol Syntec. In about 600~700 miles I went from Full to L again. I also asked a co-worker to follow me and tell me if there was smoke and acceleration, and sure enough, under hard acceleration the car would release some gray smoke. So is my turbo seal totally screwed and the oil is gushing out into the exhaust or the intercooler? I plan to check out the intercooler for oil this weekend. The car has 94.5K miles and I am not sure if the turbo is original or not, as I am not an original owner.

Learn to check and top off the oil every few day's.

 

Gray smoke could be just light carbon build up.

 

You may want to make sure the banjo filter on the back of the passenger side head is removed. Check the DIY forums here.

 

Learn to check and top off the oil every few days.

 

Listen for a whine from the turbo when it get's into boost. If the whine becomes loud it may be time for the turbo to be replaced.

 

My 05 has been using oil for a long time, I have learned to check and top it off every few day's.

 

I think my oil is going past the rings, I posted a video of my car on the dyno. You can see a little blue smoke as the engine comes back down from high RPM.

 

http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/dyno-video-168917.html

I plan to take it to the infamousperformance shop to install a gutted OEM down pipe, do a stage2 road tune, and replace the banjo bolt to use a filter-less one. When in boost, the turbo doesn't sound very loud at all and there is ample power, so I assume that the bearings are fine and that the turbo produces sufficient boost. However, I would like to fix the oil consumption issue as going through a $30 dollar jug of oil in less than 1K miles seems a bit ridiculous.

 

I noticed on your signature that your 05 has a new turbo that was installed last month. Did it affect the oil consumption at all, or the rings are the main culprit?

I'm thinking its the rings more then the turbo. I notice even with the old turbo, I would not use much oil for the first 1000 miles or so. Then I would start to use oil. I use whatever oil is on sale at Walmart.

 

I look at it as I'm helping the oil that is in there be better by adding fresh oil every few day's. Have to look at the positive side of things. It must be better then having the same old oil in there for 3500 miles.

 

Obviously I have done a compresson test, but I know we abused the cylinders years ago.

 

The bearings sound good, so I'm not to worried about the internals. The plan it do a STI short block next Spring.

 

For now it's my DD.

Get a compresson test done.

Have mike do a compression test before doing anything.

 

-mike

 

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Have mike do a compression test before doing anything.

Yeah, I asked him to see if he can do a diagnostic of the issue before doing any modding. A blown engine or a turbo would be most uncool.

Have mike do a compression test before doing anything.

 

-mike

Yeah, nothing makes a ringland leak worse than adding boost.

 

It is very possible to have blown ringlands and no symptoms beyond massive oil loss.

Somtime the rings will also hold the ringland in place and make compression and car will drive fine but under certain conditions it will get oil blow-by. Eventually that cracked ringland will fail. So if you are having excessive oil consumption, it's not normal, make sure to get to the root of the problem before compounding it by doing modifications to the car.

 

-mike

So if it is a cracked ringland, the piston needs to be pulled out and replaced, right?

Somtime the rings will also hold the ringland in place and make compression and car will drive fine but under certain conditions it will get oil blow-by. Eventually that cracked ringland will fail. So if you are having excessive oil consumption, it's not normal, make sure to get to the root of the problem before compounding it by doing modifications to the car.

 

-mike

 

^ Truth

 

I wouldn't replace just one piston. At least rebuild the longblock. While you’re at it I'd replace the timing belt, water pump, and clutch if you have one. Oil consumption in my car got worse over time and I finally took it in for a rebuild when it hit 1 qt every 200 miles.

http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p38/mrsalty75/Forum/IMG_5029.jpg

^ Truth

 

I wouldn't replace just one piston. At least rebuild the longblock. While you’re at it I'd replace the timing belt, water pump, and clutch if you have one. Oil consumption in my car got worse over time and I finally took it in for a rebuild when it hit 1 qt every 200 miles.

So what did you do for your rebuild? Did you just install a new piston kit, or were other things like machining required? As far as the timing belt goes, I figure if the guts will be out, might as well replace the belt as the belt parts are cheap compared to the labor.

 

Edit: Also, how much $$ did you spend on your rebuild? I just want to figure out how much $$ I am looking at.

100mm forged pistons (kit), rod bearings, polished stock crank, tested heads, t belt, water pump etcetera, etcetera. There was an issue with one or more valves sealing. I just had somone do the whole thing and it was over 5k.

You can get a new Oem STI short block for around $1900 on line. Then figure $1000 to have the heads checked, rebuilt. Plus clutch, fluids, gasket kit.

 

Labor to R&R the engine.

We charge around 3500-4500 for a rebuild with timing belt stuff and wiesco pistons.

 

Mike

I wonder if it would be cheaper to just get another 2.5GT engine out of some totaled car... I suppose, I will find out next week how bad things are after I take it to Mike.

I wouldn't go that route, pulling a motor from a wreck is just asking for trouble own the road. Timing belt, and install labor will still be there. Might as well redo it and be done with it. But let's hope it isn't that.

 

Mike

So you live in NJ ?

 

That's a good price.

 

A few month's back a few of us looked in the junk yards. These things are not cheap. For a few dollars more you can have a rebuilt engine.

So you live in NJ ?

 

That's a good price.

 

A few month's back a few of us looked in the junk yards. These things are not cheap. For a few dollars more you can have a rebuilt engine.

 

He is going to see the other mike aka infamous.

 

Mike

Oh, so he's on the other coast...

Somtime the rings will also hold the ringland in place and make compression and car will drive fine but under certain conditions it will get oil blow-by. Eventually that cracked ringland will fail. So if you are having excessive oil consumption, it's not normal, make sure to get to the root of the problem before compounding it by doing modifications to the car.

 

-mike

 

Yeah, that was my car on 2 of them. Did it for 60k mi until I blew up the transmission. Was burning like 1qt per 500mi but had no other symptoms.

I'd note that engine rebuilds can costs very widely. Up in norcal, quotes with forged pistons incl timing belt and heads were $6-7k (really). In socal, it was $4-5k for the same job. I went to socal for obvious reasons.

Labor, incl machine shop labor, is such a massive factor that regionality could make a used engine make more sense. Or a tow. I wouldn't put stock pistons in a car unless I was going to sell it. If you're keeping the car, do it right.

Good thing I am in SoCal then But I am really hoping there won't be a need for a rebuild... Although, after reading the forums, it does seem that a rebuild will be necessary.

My 2618 pistons were cheaper than OEM, but very noisy when cold on cold days even with .0025 PW clearance.

My 2618 pistons were cheaper than OEM, but very noisy when cold on cold days even with .0025 PW clearance.

I have JEs and get very little clatter on cold starts.

If you're in socal, I had mine done by AQ/Harman in Torrance and they did a great job.

I have JEs and get very little clatter on cold starts.

If you're in socal, I had mine done by AQ/Harman in Torrance and they did a great job.

I actually live in Torrance, so that might make it a whole lot easier than leaving the car two hours away. If you don't mind me asking, how much was your rebuild, how long did it take, and what did you upgrade besides the pistons?