Oil on intercooler piping?
 

So i was changing my couplers and found oil on my intercooler piping, is that normal? or my turbo seal's are fucked up? I've put less than 5k on that snail and only doing 5psi.

Do you have any vacuum lines hooked up ahead of that? Like the breather line that goes to your oil filler tube? IF so do you have a catch can in that line?

yes sir i do have a catch can right there and it goes to the intake pipe

if it's in the intercooler piping, most likely your turbo is on it's way out
that's how mine started

damn it, well im about to deploy soon so whenever i get back i'll and upgraded snail

If it's on the piping and not in the piping. Don't forget about our oil coolers and lines that run across the front.

5 year old thread revival !

I was told it was normal to see some oil in the intercooler piping? Is this wrong?

It depends what some is but if it is leaking thru the coupler then I would say it's turbo rebuild time. But a tiny amount is considered to be normal on most applications. Do you have a catch can?

I have a small amount inside piping, I've noticed it when I've taken things off to work on stuff. No leaks anywhere and no catch can installed at the moment. Similar sounding to the OP's situation. The turbo was installed this year and has around 2k on it now.

I do want to install a catch can tho, for the fact there is a small amount in there.

A catch can is a must on a boosted application due to the increased cranksase pressure. The pressure has to go somewhere.

I wasn't overly concerned with oil and "blow by" cause I have a '06 model, with lines routed to rear maintenance ports.. I didn't think about relieving excess crankcase pressure, i'll have to look into that.

Thanks for the info.

You need to identify whether the oil is coming from your turbo compressor casing or another source. If it's from your turbo casing it's likely you're not restricting the oil flow into the turbo enough. At high rpm the oil pressure increases, and if it's not restricted on the turbo oil feed line it can get high enough to leak through the oil seals into the hot or cold side turbo casings. Best to do your own research on suitable size for the restrictor, but from memory I think I used a 1mm unit...or you could go all 9krpm on your turbo and install a complete oil pressure regulator system if you've got too much money, time or OCD (most of us envy his car secretly :yumyum: )

Adding restrictors is not recommended by any turbo manufacturer.

It could be from excess oil pressure but I doubt it if it is only a slight amount of oil. If it is a Greddy kit then it is fairly normal for the T618Z to fail fairly often, many of us go thru a rebuild every year or so depending on use and mileage. That is why I created the regulator setup, and so far so good, I have the max set to about 60psi.

Some good points above. I went with a fixed restrictor because everyone here (same engine, same max rpm, therefore same max oil pressure) seemed to be getting too much oil pressure to the greddy turbo, and oil restrictors have been used on rx8 greddy setups to resolve the issue of blowing seals. Granted that the less than ideal oil drain could be the major contributor, but a fixed restrictor does seem to do the job.

More reading:
https://www.turbobygarrett.com/turbo...oil_restrictor

9krpm, did you notice any difference in spool/lag when you reduced the oil pressure? Would be interesting for you to bring it down to 45psi (per above article) and see if you notice any difference from what you're currently running.

It is an upgraded Greddy kit. Sounds like excessive crankcase pressure could very well be he culprit for me.

I didn't really notice a difference, it spools damn quick already. I am still fine tuning the setup, my goal is to tweak it down to 50psi at full load but finding info is a bit sketchy because different turbo manufacturers specs vary so do your homework on your turbo.

For me, I went with the Mitusbishi specs on my upgraded Greddy and Mitsubishi recommends a max pressure at full load of 71psi and a minimum at full load of 28psi. That is a lot higher max than most turbo manufactures recommend.

https://www.forcedperformance.net/me..._Oil_Specs.pdf

Yeah man, get a good catch can. Check out the one I have. I have an extra silver one if you can't find it online. But I added the AN fittings and braided hose.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...5d422b1cf9.jpg

Beautiful engine bay!

To be honest, I'm a bit confused with the catch can set up. I know it's a simple idea, but with having '06 vac lines and now being FI, mixed with a SHIT TON of catch can threads, info and mis-info, it's a bit overwhelming! lol

If we need to relieve crankcase pressure (with being FI) does the catch can need to be vented? Yours appears to go from filler neck, to catch can to intake. I don't see a vent unless the can itself has a builtin vent/Breather? Or does your can solely catch oil and vapors, and the regulator controls pressure to the turbo. Or am I just confusing the meaning of your statement about the pressure needs to go somewhere, with thinking that a vent/breather relieves crankcase pressure?

I guess what I need to wrap my brain around is if I use the below thread info for my '06 model and install a vented catch can, will it be effective in both capturing oil and helping crankcase pressure?

Thanks for all your info and help!

https://www.rx8club.com/series-i-tec...7/#post3969345

It doesn't need to be vented, it just needs to flow enough to work properly. Ideally venting back to the intake is the best. On your 06's it's no different, you just cap the service port and the port on the filler neck like I did or you could use an oil cap adapter like I did and even leave the stock setup in place if you wish.

This is what I used with some -8 AN hose:


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.rx8...1202e450dd.jpg

a 100+ psi fitting for a vent line might be a tad bit of overkill ...

It is indeed.

You are confusing his statement. The pressure from the crank case IS venting in his setup; it is just relieving/venting back into the intake.

^^except during boost ...

^ Even during boost?.... it is recirculating pre-turbo, post maf...

Thought you were referring to the intake manifold, never mind ...