Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

Thats for all the help. I certainly appreciate it. I took off the oil feed and drain lines and poured some fresh oil in the cartridge and spun the impeller by hand a bit. I noticed the oil was leaking out of the exhaust side and at the flange as well as draining out the bottom. Is that normal? Does the turbo actually running keep the oil from seeping past the seals?

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

My ---- bleeds a bit of oil into the compressor from time to time, but it always makes boost. When I say a bit, I mean enough to completely coat the inside of the charge pipe. Only when it's really cold out, though. The turbine should stay pretty dry, if the seals are good. Mine aren't , but it still boosts like new since the bearings are still lubed. Smoke is the downside here.

If you think about it, even if it is leaking oil past the seals it should still be lubricating the bearings. As long as the bearings are lubed, it should spin well. And as long as you have both a sealed intake system and an oily turbo bearing boost is inevitable.

Since everyone else says "check yer intake pipes" I won't bother repeating. But it might be a good idea to check your oil pressure to the terdblo, just for the hell of it. Look closely at the oil return also. A blocked return can casue all sorts of bullshitz to show up.

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

hmm, do you have a restrictor in your oil feed line, and were you having problems with smoking when you first got the turbo installed? They really shouldnt leak oil, maybe you have more problems than your oil feed

Re: When a turbo goes bad...
 

The turbo was not leaking oil when it was running. I removed the oil inlet flange and restricted -4 an fitting, and poured fresh oil in with a funnel. It then not only leaked out of the drain line at the bottom of the cartridge, but out of the exhaust side too.