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Oil on turbo and turbo blades is this bad??

Question: 
7K views 34 replies 10 participants last post by  vstech 
#1 ·
OK the first three pictures are of a "thing" that is pretty oily. What is that?? Is it bad that there is so much oil there and any issues with me cleaning that up. Not going to pressure wash it, but wipe the area and lightly spray with degreaser to make sure I don't spray any electronics.


Next set of pictures is off the turbo. There was a lot of oil caked on the underside and some inside of the inlet of the turbo.

The outside cleaned up really good and I wiped up the inlet area. I decided to wait on trying clean up the blades themselves until asking if that is ok or how to best go about doing it.

My plan would be to spray a rag, then wipe, vice spraying anything inside the turbo. That seemed like bad idea to me, but I don't have any experience working inside a turbo.

Thoughts??

Can you help me identify the first part I asked about??
 

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#2 · (Edited)
oil doesn't mean at all that it is bad.... the CDR (tuna can looking thing) takes excess vapor and things and puts it back in the intake to be "re-burned" and the oil on the turbo is normal, that's from the oil for re-burn and the oil from the engine that re-lubes the turbo bearings. the oil all over the engine and valve cover is from the rubber seal around the valve cover and the CDR. just clean all the oil up and stuff and you will be good to go!
 
#3 ·
Hey, check if your turbo got any play while you're already there. Oh, and the screw clamps tends to loosen over time, just re-thighten them again everywhere.
 
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#4 ·
What does that mean...to grab the blades and see if there is any wiggle??

I'm guessing it will be ok to wipe off the blades while I'm in there as well.

At the moment everything has been put back together. Just want to be ready for next time I get in there.

Thanks for the help on this.

I'm also guessing there should NOT be any play
 
#5 ·
Yep. Just grab'em and see if they move in any direction, there should be no movement.

Also spin it around to hear any bearing issues, maybe you will get lucky and hear it before it snaps off and drizzles into the heads. :D
 
#6 ·
As Crazy stated that is normal. Just change out the CDR if you have not. They should be changed out, roughly every 50,000 miles.. and can allow excessive oil vapors through.

And as Sirleitet stated, check for play in the wheel. should be no side to side or up and down movement of the wheel and no scoring of metal in the sides of the housing where the wheel spins..
 
#7 ·
New here but this has been really helpful and I have the same problem and I have another problem since I got my truck back in February it starts really hard when cold blows wite smoke the hole time I put new glow plugs in and still no Improvement any ideals what to do

Sent from my SM-G920R4 using Tapatalk
 
#8 ·
Hey...thanks for all the replies. On the CDR, does anyone have a favorite or a best one to put on there.

I have never changed it. How bad is that?? I've had the vehicle since 2006 at around 100k miles. We are at 180kish miles now.

Below is one I found with a google search.

Crankcase Depression Regulator Valve :: SSDiesel Supply :: GM 6.5 TD Specialists

When I change it out, I'll make sure that the entire area is good and clean.

Note: Looks like we have settled in on a decision to keep this vehicle for a long time. So I want to try to keep up the mechanical stuff really good, especially leaks and things like that.
 
#9 ·
#10 ·
Last question....for now.

I need to find a good forum to work through some issues on a 1989 silverado k2500 with a 350 engine.

It's doing the "stalling thing" that seems to be common with GM TBI motors.

Before throwing random parts at it, I need to find a place to help me trace out the issue.

Thanks

Navyhoosier
 
#12 ·
the TBI motor loves to stall when the filter is dirty. of course that often means the fuel pump (in the gas tank...) is failing. you can get a fuel pressure kit, and verify you are getting pressure... I think it operates at 45psi... not sure exactly. there should be a hose with a cap on it, with a 1/4" flare fitting with a schrader valve in it, like an a/c hose...
 
#11 ·
Your vehicle is due to explode any second! I freaked out the same when I saw it too. lol.

Mine looked like that too... And I haven't changed out the CDR. It will start to consume oil when the air filter gets dirty. I just change the air filter every year and it hasn't gotten bad like that again after cleaning it up.
 
#13 ·
also, I see wear in the turbine blades in your photo... I bet you have a bit of play in your turbine shaft...
 
#15 ·
Today or tomorrow I will try to pull out the air cleaner while chasing that low coolant light.

I'll jiggle the blades and finish cleaning them off.

How long should a turbo last??
 
#14 ·
Yep...I thought about that...fuel pressure. This is a 250kish mile plow truck..farm truck. Looks rough but up until a few months ago ran like a top.

I was plowing snow the first time it stalled.

Some compound problems showed up around same time.

I was going to FFA auction to try and sell it when it started and then died...not to start again (for long time). Cussing (nor starter fluid) didn't work either...

Well, I did all sorts of what I thought was fancy troubleshooting and verified no spark and with noid lights that the injectors weren't firing.

Also changed the fuel filter (air filter is pristine). Fuel was a touch dirty when I changed it. You can hear the fuel pump running and I flushed the line some with the filter out.

Anyway, I was convinced it was the ICM and when I pulled off the almost new distributor cap...a bunch of metal parts fell out (all rusted up).

So a new distributor was put in. It fired up right away. I adjusted timing some and it ran a bit better at idle but still dies when turning wheel or coming to a stop (if you don't keep foot on accelerator)

So, I read a bunch more. Took out idle air control valve and it was gunked up. Clean it and the port it goes in and got no change. Bad on me, I sprayed "up into" the idle air control valve to clean it out. I've read that is bad.

It doesn't appear to move at all when starting or applying power. So a new Wells idle air controller is on the way.

I hope it fixes it, but my guess is it will make a little difference but still leave some running issues.

I did disconnect battery after cleaning IAC to try to reset the computer.

I also found a test procedure to put a test light to each of the 4 wires going to IAC to verify computer is sending some sort of command. I haven't done that yet.

Thoughts?? Is there a good 350 forum around here?? Or I can just keep posting here.

Got too many cars and trucks to keep up with, but have fun doing it.

Navyhoosier
 
#17 ·
oh, I wasn't saying yours is shot... I've seen a LOT worse than that still going... just something to check. how much play is yours seeing? the pic seems to show a large gap at the top, and zero gap at the bottom, and wear marks on the volute... if it moves up and down a lot, enough to touch the sides, it should be changed...
 
#18 ·
I do not see anything excessive as far as wear, on that turbo pic..
 
#19 ·
I've read that a little play in the non-ball-bearing turbos (solid bushings) is OK as long as it doesn't contact the housing. They said that the shaft rides on a film of oil. I replaced my bushings and I still have a little radial play but it doesn't touch the housing. I didn't see any undercut/wear on the shaft when I had it out.
 
#21 ·
that link isnt working, but there is a guy on ebay that sells the CRD's for around 50... I think he has them listed for 60, but accepts best offers around 45 or so.
 
#22 ·
#23 · (Edited)
Idle air control on a TBI 350 isnt goinna do squat for cleaning it for it keeping the engine running. if it stalls out, your losing fuel pressure, the in-tank pump handles from 36-45psi and supposed to hold it while running. the plastic turbine inside the pump wears and wont hold a pressure up constantly, causes air pockets and runs up to the 2 injectors on the TBI, will sound like a multi missfire then just die. ALSO check the fuel filter along the frame rail on the driver side, they plug up pretty good. crap will kill the pump then run up and clog the filter.... i have had many trucks with the 350 TBI. I still have one sitting around that i use for misc crap. when u get the new Idle air control valve, take the truck out and drive it at about 45mph for a couple minutes, it set the valve and adjusts the pressure cone of the IAC valve accordingly. while there, make sure your temp sensor on the front of the intake (black and yellow wires) are clipped decent and prongs are good, that causes odd idling, just throwing that in there.
 
#24 ·
Good stuff..thanks for the input. I'll go get one of the "loan a tool" pressure testers today and give the system a test.

I have put a new fuel filter on it and if I have pressure issues, I might put another one it it just to be sure, in case I dislodged a bunch of crap in the tank or something. I did clean out the tank good about 5 or 6 years ago when I had the bed off. But, it's been a farm/plow truck in dusty environment.

Oh..back to the kicking myself in the rear about my maintenance. I had done a tune up this past fall. New rotor and rotor button, plug wires and plugs. If I had been smart enough to realize the distributor was about to go (it was really rusty then) I would have been money ahead and likely wouldn't have had it die on me that day.

Getting to that distributor hold down bolt was a pain in the rear...what's up with that.

Navyhoosier
 
#25 ·
I have a new distributer needing only a module if ya want it.
 
#26 ·
I've seen PLENTY of coils fail and modules too... make sure ya have spark!
 
#27 ·
since it is a tbi, u have the separate coil, check the coil also and see if it moves and rattles, if too much, it will lose conductivity and stall the engine also. the coils arent expensive either.
 
#28 ·
When I changed the distributor I was kicking myself for not replacing obviously bad things already, since I knew the distributor was rusty and original.

Coil was original so I went ahead and put a new one on it. Nothing fancy, just a new one.

So, yes I still need to verify spark at every cylinder, but it doesn't "Feel" like to me that it is missing a cylinder. But..smart to check.

So, on the spark side, I have new distributor, coil, wires, plugs.

I did adjust timing but my marks are old and nasty...it sounded like it ran better when I moved it but I need to verify where I set it.

Basically...I can't see the numbers on where you set timing, but I could see the mark move as I rotated the distributor.
 
#29 ·
Oh..and thanks to the link to ebay for the "tuna can".

My offer of $25 was accepted. Should have it in a few days.

Got busy and didn't get called to order the good oil lines to the oil cooler, I will get those ordered tomorrow.

Navyhoosier
 
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#32 ·
Just for grins I went over to parts store websites and it looks like new chains are around 9-12 buck for oem replacement. I'm sure there would be some gaskets that I need as well. Also saw that you can get new timing tabs so the numbers show up better.

Might be an interesting project to do with the boys one day..."just because".

I would still like to make sure I have fixed the stall issue before then.

Trying to wrap my head around how much better the truck might run with a timing chain. I thought ran really good until sometime in January when it started stalling while I was pushing snow.

Thoughts??
 
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