I finally got my fresh JDM 1.8 BP to start the other day, only to be welcomed by a lot of white smoke.

I know before every comes running saying im burning coolant im not. I checked the dip stick, all the oil is clean, and i have checked the radiator for any oil bubbles none to be found.

I did a compression test on a cold engine and these were my results.
1. 137 2. 145 3. 130 4. 135

After all the smoked cleared, i looked under the car to find oil everywhere under the car by the downpipe.

The oil looked fresh, but burn so im guessing its coming from the Turbo, which is a Godspeed GT2870. It has a 4AN SS oil feed coming from the back of the block, 2 6an SS water lines, and a 10 AN SS drain. Along with a restrictor feed on the top of the turbo

I was reading that either my seals are blown which im not convinced since this is a brand new turbo. OR my oil return is constricting flow and the oil is backing up into the turbo and being blown out. The fins on the cold side are dry and oil free.

Here are some pictures of the oil return lines.







Now questions, since im leaking so much does that mean the seals are bad and need to be replaced even if i make a new drain line?

 

highly doubt your blowing oil externally out of the turbo. when the seals go out generally its ingested into the exhaust or compressor side.

does it smell like burnt oil? the pics look pretty dry to me.

 

What size restrictor did you use in the oil feed line to the turbo?

 

Yeah I dont see any oil leaking from those pics? Your compression numbers seem low to me though.

 

JDM motors blow oil; that's why they are so cheap and abundant.

also, gunk and filth burn...

 

It smells like burnt oil all right. The turbo isnt leaking externally. Just straight out of the exhaust downpipe

1.5 mm restrictor

The compression are on a cold engine that was started once since september...

Once i take the turbo off ima check if the oil is coming from the exhaust manifold but i highy doubt that.



What i was thinking is that the oil isnt draining properly and blowing out of the exhaust. Or my turbo seals are blown. I have a rebuild kit for the turbo so its not a real big issue.

 

https://www.miataturbo.net/diy-turbo...ild-kit-73912/

It may be from a failing turbo, it may be from the fact that you just started it after sitting for a long time?

Try out this little test like in the video from the linked thread and make a video of the smoking or better pics of the leak.

 

Well i thought it would be from sitting for so long but when i looked under the car where the downpipe ends (my mid pipe is not on yet) there is oil everywhere that was sprayed out.

Im doing some research and im starting to think more and more that my drain line is the cause of this. I highly doubt a brand new turbo seals would be bad.

 

its not your drain.

if anything it's the poor oil rings in your cheap motor.

 

1.5mm=.060 so that should be fine

 

I dont understand how its a cheap motor? It came out of a stock miata...

 

was the stock miata in japan?

 

Yes, but the amount of oil coming out is not likely to be caused by leaking oil rings. This is a **** load of oil. I mean the entire garage was up in smoke.

 

That's like exactly the thing I'd expect from a motor from Japan that came shipped with bad rings. JDM motors are just bad bad bad. it's a gamble that typically doesn't pay off. They are abused to hell and then pulled and sold here for cheap.

I would have strongly suggested to get a motor from a better source...

 

In Japan they have all these motors for sale because government mandates inspections so stringent that nobody can pass after a certain mileage. Owners who know from the start that they are not going to pay for a full rebuild at that point do ZERO maintenance on the engine while they own it. Why bother? Oil change? What's that? You just (at most) dump more cheap as you can find oil into it if the level gets low.

Keith

 

This is 100% correct. The JCI runs around $1,000 pass or fail. And if you fail, you don't get any credit. You have to pay for it all over again to get re-inspected. I found out the hard way on that. After paying it the first time, it just became a game of get rid of the car every 3 years. **** maintenance. No one can afford that ****.

 

Oh wow not what I wanted to hear! Well I'll pull off the turbo and then we will know for sure if it's the engine or the turbo.

 

 

I would be OK with a 2 year old Japanese car. A car with synthetic oil can handle 2 years and 20,000 miles without an oil change. Many cars come from the factory with synthetic now. Anything older than that avoid like the plague. Strange as it seems, the car most likely to have regular engine maintenance is one used by someone who street races, tracks their car, or drifts.

Keith

 

Alls dandy. Found a problem with the drain guess a kink. Car runs fine no burning oil.