Redslaya Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Hey all Other day driving home I noticed a burning oil smell coming through the HVAC system of my 06 LGT. Stopped as soon as I could and avoided boost the rest of the way home.when I opened the hood and immediately saw white(bluish?) Smoke come up by my turbo. Took a look and saw a lot of gunk by my inlet to the turbo as well as some residue by the intercooler connection. From what I could see it looked like the oil was dripping onto my uppipe, as it was stained, however I cannot locate an open leak. From the reading I have done so far, likely culprits are PCV, valve cover gasket, or blown turbo seals. A friend of mine who is a Mercedes tech took a very quick look st it in low light and said it was turbo seals, however I don't want to jump to worst case right away. I have checked my oil and coolant levels, they are both still full, no significant amount of oil has burned. Obviously if it is the turbo seals it is not a good idea to drive the car, however if it is a leaky valve cover or PVC is it okay to drive until those can be fixed or should the car stay parked? Car is a 06lgt with 120k on it. Modifications include catless uppipe+downpipe, cat back, ots stg 2 tune, lwcp. Here are some pictures http://i.imgur.com/sdMKZ4O.jpg http://i.imgur.com/lNnkiP9.jpg http://i.imgur.com/5uxvnrt.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max Capacity Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 Get under the passenger side of the car with a bright light and see the leak at the back corner of the valve cover. All these cars do it. I can't view your picture here at work. While your under there look at the CV boot. 305,600miles 5/2012 ej257 short block, 8/2011 installed VF52 turbo, @20.8psi, 280whp, 300ftlbs. (SOLD). CHECK your oil, these cars use it. Engine Build - Click Here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redslaya Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 small update: when coming down from a rev after being warmed up (not fully warm but outside the cold range) some white smoke can be some coming out the exhaust. not a lot, but a noticable little puff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTEASER Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 white smoke is water, and if the car isn't fully warmed up, it's probably condensation evaporating from the inside of the exhaust system if the car sat outside overnight. not likely anything to worry about. GTEASER's 2012 Legacy GT - Sold GTEASER's 2009 XTeaser - Sold GTEASER's 1992 Legacy SS - Sold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redslaya Posted May 26, 2015 Author Share Posted May 26, 2015 Checked the intercooler today by removing the bov, no oil found in the intercooler, can see the valve cover leaking, I'll have to get that repaired this week. Hopefully that fixes my oil troubles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FJuan Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 When was the PCV valve replaced? Those need to be replaced about every 40k miles. They feed into the turbo inlet hose, and by the site of it, you may need to replace the inlet hose too. The connection from the inlet hose to turbo looks bad and you may have some cracks/tears at the connection. Very common on these motors. My wife's balls are delicious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyF Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 I bought my LGT with 153000 miles a couple months ago. I soon noticed I had small puffs of white smoke under the hood toward the right, smelled awful coming in the HVAC, had some seepage like in your pics but mostly I noticed dripping from the pass side valve cover gasket onto the exhaust and onto the under engine cover thing. So this weekend's project was empty oil for sample and oil change, swap plugs and all 6 genuine subaru seals around the valve covers. I did jack the engine one side at a time, I did use permatex ultra black where I was supposed to and let it cure all night before filling with oil. No longer have the puffs and smell. When I was in there I saw pretty much uniform wear, surprised at how good it looked. I even cleaned off some of the sludge before slapping it back together and torquing it up. Piece of cake. Rotated the tires, replaced clutch and brake fluids for good measure. Having a pressure brake bleeder and water content test probe makes it all so easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redslaya Posted May 27, 2015 Author Share Posted May 27, 2015 Thanks for all the help guys. Unfortunately i dont have the time or tools to do the repair myself, so this is one of the few things im going to bring it in for. Luckily i personally know some of the techs at my local dealer so i trust it will be in good hands. Going to call around first to see whos got the best price. Looks like im up for valve cover seal and a PCV If i have any more questions, ill put them here. thank you all for helping my diagnose the problems occurring. quick question, if the turbo inlet hose does need to be replaced, wouls a OEM size aftermarket one work in its place with no tuning required? i know messing with the intake track is a touchy part of the engine when it comes to needed a tune or not Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FJuan Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 Up to stage 2 the oem inlet will work fine. No need to up grade unless you plan on more modding. Then you may want to look at Perrin inlet. My wife's balls are delicious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlton603 Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Curious if you ever determined where the leak is coming from? Today I noticed some oily buildup where the turbo inlet meets the compressor. I don't see any smoke while the car is driving, wondering if this is similar to the issue you had. Your first picture in post #1 looks exactly how mine is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gimpydingo Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Curious if you ever determined where the leak is coming from? Today I noticed some oily buildup where the turbo inlet meets the compressor. I don't see any smoke while the car is driving, wondering if this is similar to the issue you had. Your first picture in post #1 looks exactly how mine is. Mine was oily and grimy as well when I replaced it around 70k miles or so. I had a gaping hole yeah yeah No oil leaks, but my radiator turbo reservoir small hose was dripping, which causes some green and grime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlton603 Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Interesting, thanks for that info. Now my OCD is kicking in so I will be taking a close look this weekend to see whats up with mine. Hoping there isn't a leak from the inlet side of the turbo... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gimpydingo Posted January 27, 2016 Share Posted January 27, 2016 Interesting, thanks for that info. Now my OCD is kicking in so I will be taking a close look this weekend to see whats up with mine. Hoping there isn't a leak from the inlet side of the turbo... Learning view and a boost test should tell you. That inlet is pretty common to be replaced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlton603 Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Learning view and a boost test should tell you. I actually just had the car tuned this week, and the shop mentioned the only issue they found was the A/F ratio was a little rich. I just got off the phone with them a few minutes ago and confirmed there were no indicators of other issues. Ill check my inlet hose this weekend to see what may be going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gimpydingo Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 I actually just had the car tuned this week, and the shop mentioned the only issue they found was the A/F ratio was a little rich. I just got off the phone with them a few minutes ago and confirmed there were no indicators of other issues. Ill check my inlet hose this weekend to see what may be going on. How rich is a little rich? Subaru says a/f correct of +/-10, the tuners/members say +/- 5, with 0 being ideal. Do you have a cable to check this information on your own? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlton603 Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 They tuned it to around 14:1 from boost onset and then tapering down to 12ish:1 into WOT. The tuner mentioned they always tune Subaru's more conservatively to avoid long term issues. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GTEASER Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 I believe you wanna be between 11.1 and 11.4 at WOT and full boost. GTEASER's 2012 Legacy GT - Sold GTEASER's 2009 XTeaser - Sold GTEASER's 1992 Legacy SS - Sold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlton603 Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 GTeaser good call, my mistake. The dyno results show a little over 11 at WOT (see attached picture in previous post. I can say it seems to boost more evenly and acceleration from 60mph is noticeably smoother as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.