Blue Smoke Out Exhaust at Idle

[cdub]

I am getting a ton of blue smoke out the exhaust a idle. Doesn't happen right away, takes 5-10 to warm up first. Don’t really notice it while driving or even after coming to idle after driving. There is a small oil leak/buildup coming from the mating surface of the turbo to the down pipe. Still running the stock turbo, 84k miles. Completely rebuild engine has less that 5k on it so I'm thinking its not the rings. Is this a seal in the turbo? Can this be rebuilt/fixed? I'm planning upgrading the turbo/headers/DP anyway so should i just suck it up and drop the loot for it now rather that trying to fix the existing one?

/chris

[Bruce]

I am getting a ton of blue smoke out the exhaust a idle. Doesn't happen right away, takes 5-10 to warm up first. Don’t really notice it while driving or even after coming to idle after driving. There is a small oil leak/buildup coming from the mating surface of the turbo to the down pipe. Still running the stock turbo, 84k miles. Completely rebuild engine has less that 5k on it so I'm thinking its not the rings. Is this a seal in the turbo? Can this be rebuilt/fixed? I'm planning upgrading the turbo/headers/DP anyway so should i just suck it up and drop the loot for it now rather that trying to fix the existing one?


Pull the turbo's discharge hose off, and see if it's abnormally oily in there. If you not sure, clean it, and then drive for a few hundred miles and see how wet it is in there. If it *immediately* oil that area down again, the turbo seal is leaking into the intake tract.

If that's OK, then you'll want to pull the turbo off. If the header side of it dry, and the discharge side wet, then the seal is gone. If both sides are wet, then the oil is coming from the engine.

If you plan to update, anyway, then by all means do it now. But, be sure you diagnose the problem, so that you know what the problem is, and that you'll be curing it. Swapping turbos to only find out the engine has a problem, can be a real bummer.

[turbo nasty]

The stockers usaully leak as stated on the compressor side. Clean up the discharge and drive it for a day then check it(of course assuming u have the crank vent capped off) and if it has oil on it again then walla bad seals on the compressor side.
On the hot side check before the turbine...at the header exit/entrance to the turbo and if there is oil residue in there, then it is the engine, if the oil is on the exit of the turbine/DP connection then it is the seal on the turbine side.

Good luck