sanity check: new turbo… oil in intercooler

[Gifu]

Draining is not enough. It should probably be hot tanked.

really? Hmmmmm… I’ve got a few factory turbo diesel land cruisers (four at the moment). They constantly have a film of oil in the intercooler. The breather hose from the valve cover sends the vapors into the air cleaner hose right before the turbo. the dodge is (now) drier than what I see in the Toyotas.

 

[BigPapa]

The Toyota’s won’t run on oil, your truck will. If you don’t want to do it, don’t. What do we know? Good luck.

 

[Gifu]

Oh! I didn’t realize that.
What’s the difference? Compression?

 

[Tuesdak]

All diesels can run away on engine oil. @BigPapa may have overlooked you have a rare Toyota Diesel. (Gasoline turbo intercooled engines would just smoke.)

The oil "from the breather hose from the valve cover" generally goes all the way through without leaving enough oil to be a problem. The breather system doesn't put out a lot of oil and any of concern is blown all the way through hot, but, not all at once. I have sent extreme blowby diesel engines out for a rebuild out of concern they may run away from oil carryover and crankcase pressure causing the turbo compressor seal to start leaking oil.

A blown turbo seal adds way more oil to things that do not drain off well. For example an engine will still be dripping oil a month after being pulled out and put on a stand for a rebuild. Same with just adding oil to your engine from the oil jugs. Ever set a jug on it's side or upside down for an afternoon and then see how much more oil you get out of it? This is the concern for the intercooler.

So you add a working turbo to an internally oil coated intercooler. Wind the turbo up and the oil gets hit with high speed compressed hot air that thins it out and blows it out... The oil that didn't drain out is now blown off the internal surfaces all at once. Your gamble: is it enough oil to run the engine away?

We are not there looking at your truck and it's parts so the safe recommendation is to have it hot tanked. Some other messy ways to do it, but, don't use flammable stuff as a diesel can snort the residue and off it goes (if the grid heater doesn't make a fireball out of things first.)

 

[Darkbloodmon]

At the bare minimum use some Dawn platinum. Slosh, sit, repeat several times and flush. Cheap insurance for an expensive truck. At the end of the day its just information and advice. Take it or don't; no pressure.

 

[Gifu]

Copy that. Thank you.

Yes I do have somewhat rare diesel Toyotas. They are pretty sweet little motors; direct injection overhead cam 24-valve 4.2 inline six. Smooooooth and quiet. Powerful but not a 6BT haha.
Problem with Toyotas is that they are so reliable people abuse them and by the time I get my hands on them they are a little long in the tooth.

 

[BigPapa]

@BigPapa may have overlooked you have a rare Toyota Diesel.

Yes, I must have overlooked that point.

My apologies.

 

[bcbender]

I used almost boiling hot water with a mixture of simple green and dawn dish soap... filled, sloshed, and dumped until clean but in hindsight tanking it wouldve been way faster... Mine was not that oily either...

 

[Tuesdak]

Copy that. Thank you.

Yes I do have somewhat rare diesel Toyotas. They are pretty sweet little motors; direct injection overhead cam 24-valve 4.2 inline six. Smooooooth and quiet. Powerful but not a 6BT haha.
Problem with Toyotas is that they are so reliable people abuse them and by the time I get my hands on them they are a little long in the tooth.

View attachment 129821

You might post up a thread on these. Some of us have a soft spot for all Diesels ... and some like me have seen too much Diesel carnage.

 

[Gifu]

Here’s my thinking… when I was driving it… it was eating aprox 1 GALLON per 160 miles. Yes you read that right. And it wasn’t running away. I got home shut it down, took it apart. I drained what little oil was in the intercooler and lines sitting upside down for two weeks … nothing worse than what I see on a tired 1HDFT Toyota diesel.
The first 5 miles on the freeway will blow out the rest of the residue. Based on my experience with oily old Toyotas… There just is not enough in there to worry about.

 

[bcbender]

Your choice, but if its out of the truck, dish soap and hot water is not too hard or expensive.. give you a chance to turn some cans upside down..
FWIW, my TDI Jetta used to fill the intercooler and Id drain it once a year.. but that entire car wasn't worth as much as the cyl head costs for a Cummins