Need help, oil dripping on bottom of turbo

[CBrabec]

Like it says, my bottom charger (ht3b) is leaking oil. I've talked to the guy who I bought my twins kit from and he said oil doesn't leak on the outside, only inside espically if a seal goes out, plus he said he's never seen this charger go bad. Now this charger is brand new and only has maybe 3500 miles on it and i'm getting oil dripping from the clamp that holds the exhaust housing to the turbo. The oil is only on the bottom of the chargers exterior, no where else. I checked for other leaks and everything else is tight and dry. I was told to take off the down pipe and look inside the back of the charger for oil. Havn't done that yet, just not looking forward to tearing everything apart. Has anyone else ever experienced this? Its really upsetting that a brand new charger might be bad. Funny thing is the truck runs great and no issues spooling up the twins. What could it be?



Chris

 

[Dodge5256]

same thing is happening to my small charger right now, i think it is the seal at the bottom of the charger between the turbo and the return line. i probably overtightened the bolts when i put it back on.

 

[CBrabec]

Is this something to be real concerned about? Everything runs fine, its just making a mess on the driveway at the end of a full days driving day.

 

[JJPage]

Like it says, my bottom charger (ht3b) is leaking oil. I've talked to the guy who I bought my twins kit from and he said oil doesn't leak on the outside, only inside espically if a seal goes out, plus he said he's never seen this charger go bad. Now this charger is brand new and only has maybe 3500 miles on it and i'm getting oil dripping from the clamp that holds the exhaust housing to the turbo. The oil is only on the bottom of the chargers exterior, no where else. I checked for other leaks and everything else is tight and dry. I was told to take off the down pipe and look inside the back of the charger for oil. Havn't done that yet, just not looking forward to tearing everything apart. Has anyone else ever experienced this? Its really upsetting that a brand new charger might be bad. Funny thing is the truck runs great and no issues spooling up the twins. What could it be?



Chris

You do not have to take the downpipe off to look inside for oil, if your turbine side thrust bushing is leaking, oil will enter the downpipe and exit as blue smoke, especially after idling at a stop and then excellerating.



I would bet your drain tube is leaking at the gasket or hose clamp on the drain tube. It could be the gasket is damaged, or the drain tube is restricted in some manner. The drain has to have a continuous downhill flow, no kinks.



I have experienced this(thrust bushing) on a single charger, on the compressor side. Not only did it put oil in my exhaust, it sent it through my entire intake system, which can be very dangerous.



Good Luck, I hope its your drain tube. Jess

 

[Scrappy]

MY B1-02 did the same thing BUT it wasn't from the drain tube. just like yours it looked to be coming from the joint between the turbine housing and the bearing housing. when the truck was cold it was like tar on the turbine housing and fluid like oil when hot. mine never dripped on the ground though. it seemed to do it when I did alot of short trips. I think it "might" have something to do with having synthetic in it from the time I bought and installed the turbo. towards the end i think it finally stopped altogether once I got some miles on the turbo. yours sounds a little more extreme than mine though. are you losing oil? mine never lost any that I can tell.

 

[CBrabec]

i took off the bottom drain tube and inspected it and all is good. i replaced it to be safe and and still same issue. i did have to replace my oil lines on my amsoil dual filter system cause they were leaking bad. even after that, oil is still present. I don't see any oil coming out of the tail pipe, no blue smoke and my oil levels aren't getting low. it really isn't making a big mess at the end of the day, just a spot about the size of a silver dollar. mostly because it drips onto the bypass oil filters.
Scrappy, why would synthetic oils possibly cause this problem? i have about 4000 miles on this turbo. shouldn't be leaking this early. Anyway, i'm on my way home from hawaii with the wife so i'll check in when i get home to see what ya'll think.

chris

 

[Scrappy]

I was told that with synthetic the seals don't break in and seal well right away. imperfections on the shaft surface that the seal rides on get polished away and seal up with normal oil. but synthetic due to its slipperyness it takes forever for the same thing to happen.

like I said mine leaked from day one and over time (2 yrs/ 20K+ miles) it stopped.

based on my experiences I would watch it and as long as you aren't losing oil or any other problems, keep running it.

 

[CBrabec]

Well guys, it ended up being the oil seal. I'm getting a new turbo shipped to me since this one was only 5 months old and not even 4K miles on it. Now i have to tear my whole twins kit off to replace it. Not looking forward to that. I've since parked the truck so that i don't take a change on hurting anything else. Thanks everyone for your input.