I had a smoke problem that got worse then turned into a huge oil leak coming from the exhaust-spring portion (there's a hole in it) right under the turbo/manifold area. I finally got around to taking it apart and on removing the Turbo, hoses and manifold I discovered that the it has been leaking oil. I also noticed that the cylinder head intake ports are wet with oil and the exhaust are dry.
Based on that and the condition of the Turbo can I rule out that the oil was coming from a worn ring or piston and in fact was coming from Turbo. Also it was a LOT of oil literal dripping from the bottom, had there been that much oil coming from the engine wouldn't it have burned up most of it?

And where do I get a rebuild kit for the turbo?

Thanks a lot.

 

if youve got oil sludge at the turbo inlet, its likely the engine. conversly, oil sludge at the turbo outlet or along the downpipe is typically the turbo.

sometimes the turbo will leak pretty bad on the cold side as well, which would clue you into it being a turbo seal issue.

did it smoke only on startup, or only on deceleration, or full throttle, etc
that may help narrow it down as well.


although now that youve got the turbo off you may as well go through it...

 

I am not sure if there is a kit that you can buy and if you will need special tools to rebuild and make sure it is balance when done.

 

you can reseal journal bearing turbos fairly easily at home and the kits are cheap (usually just some sort of retaining hardware and a couple of seals).
there are how-to vids on youtube...

 

It was/is the turbo, the oil was leaking on the intake side and being forced into the engine causing the smoke.
You either need to buy a new turbo or have yours rebuilt.

As for the rebuild kit, you will have to ask around locally or do a Google search.

 

Thanks everyone. I was leaning toward a Turbo leak and happy to pay for new one now that I am more certain.

One important fact I forgot to mention is that months ago I removed the hose coming from the cyclone to the air intake and left it dangling down. Would I be correct that this further dismisses oil from engine?


VlaveCoverGasket, it was smoking all the time and I mean huge clouds of smoke and smell of burning oil and oil dripping down like crazy. I was taking the car to a mechanic and stopped on the highway as the smoke was too much and people ran at me with fire extinguishers thinking the car was on fire. And then after driving it a few more minutes suddenly the smoke stopped. That was repeated a week later when I took the car home.

Thanks a lot.

 

One of these is good insurance for a diesel to prevent a runaway engine.
If your turbo seals had completely blown you could end up needing a new engine.

AMOT-Products-Butterfly Valves

 

And here is what Tom is talking about, the oil leaks past the turbo seals and into the intake.
Being a diesel it will run off of almost anything, including motor oil.
It will suck the oil out of the turbo and run on it as fuel until there is no more oil left in the engine and it seizes up.
There is no way to stop it other than clogging the air intake and choking out enough air so it cannot run.
As we all should know diesels do not use a throttle body like on a petrol engine, they use a injector pump, you push the throttle pedal and it pulls a rod on the injector pump which pumps in more fuel.
The air intake is always wide open.
Even with no diesel being delivered to the engine it will run on motor oil alone.
And it will rev as fast as the "fuel" can be delivered, so the worse the oil leak the faster the engine will rev.

 

In an odd way that looked funny. Thanks for all the help.

 

the controllers on most of those are pretty cheesy... and typically when you use one and you really need it, youll be doing some service to the motor afterwards. the amount of vacuum youll be creating behind the valve is incredible.
ive heard some stories from a couple of our shop guys about caved in oil pans after those shut off valves tripped...