OK Jr. detectives, I wrote last week that my turbo (car) was smoking badly. The day I saw the smoke start I checked my turbo manifold and found that it was cracked. I checked the manifold because I could see smoke coming from around the turbo and wanted to find out where it was coming from. Well, I pulled the manifold and re-welded it. Now, the smoke has all but gone away. It left as quickly as it came and all I can come up with was that somehow my cracked manifold was causing the turbo to burn oil. Anyone have a rational reason why this could be the cause of the smoke?

FWIW, the car was not smoking before I put it on the lift to build my new exhaust. Once the exhaust was built (which I am sure caused the manifold to crack) the smoke started.

 

Nope

 

All the gunk just got burnt off

 

elfin magic?

 

+1 for the vote on elfing magic.

They make hella good cookies and now can even stop turbos from burning oil

elfin magic

 

Were you running 15psi with a cracked manifold?

Maybe, because of the crack, your turbo needed to spin more than normal to build up the boost. Maybe it overspun the seals allowing blowby, hence excessive oil consumption. maybe...

 

Hmmm, I don't know how much of that is complete BS but you got me thinking!

The one time I took the car out for a power run it had the best boost control I have ever seen it have. So, when it smoked the boost was great. When it didn't, the boost was all over (actually maybe a 1.5psi range but you could definitely see the difference). Your theory may hold true!

(I'm currently running 13 psi right now)+



EDIT:

After thinking about it, I first noticed the smoke when I backed the car out of the garage and let it idle to warm up a bit. I walked inside to get my laptop for tuning and when I came out it looked like the car was on fire. I was not building boost at the time. Hmmm....

 

When I first installed my kit I had to let it sit for about 30 minutes in the driveway to burn off everytime. My neighbor even came over running to tell me my car was on fire. And again when I replaced my manifold it smoked right away. Could have just been the new exhaust.

My cracked manifold still boosted strong, even on the dyno i pulled 170hp at 6psi or so.