[Phuree]

Hello all,

TLDR: Swapped in new rebuilt turbo from reputable dealer, smokes under load. Pulled DP and coolant is in the wastegate side. Something I am missing?

Long version: Picked up a new project 05 FXT a month ago and have been slowly going through it with a fine tooth comb. I purchased it knowing it has smoking issue but I have tackled these projects before without issue.

First things first, did a compression test and spark plug check. Spark plugs were dry and did not indicate ring blowout, comp test revealed 120 psi cold across the board. YAY!

Changed the oil with rotella T6, no coolant present in oil.. check check

Pull the DP off and the turbo had a massive failure. Coolant and oil were mixing in the DP and the turbine shaft was on another planet. No big deal, new turbo for me!

Drained exhaust of junk by hanging it up for a couple of days to make sure everything drains out, no cats so there is no place for the stuff to collect other than the hi-tech bucket system I rigged up.

New turbo came in, swapped everything up, found out that the previous owner decided to use a worm drive on the oil outlet which was not visible and made it impossible to remove the turbo until I loosened that bad boy.

Checked the banjos, no filter present , moving on with life.

New turbo installed, let it idle for a while to let everything warm up and burp coolant lines. Drove around below boost threshold to ensure all the old junk burns out, car stops smoking. Let the vehicle idle for another 30 minutes.

Second go around and start to build boost and immediately the car starts to smoke again but clears up when I drive under boost RPM. Smoke coming from hot side of turbo cannot figure it out.

Today I pull the DP again and........ coolant on the wastegate side? Compressor side of turbo is bone dry.


Is the new turbo bad? Is there something I am missing? Should I pre-emptively reach out to vendor for RMA under their warranty?

 

[Nasarog]

I think this "new" turbo isn't very good.

 

[x05]

Did you just replace the factory turbo with the same type/model?

This is very similar to what happened with my ‘05 FXT; the turbine wheel literally sheared off from the shaft on a 500-mile trip right after I bought it.

I took the opportunity to put in a PnP’d and ceramic-coated VF48. Once the oil was flushed several times to ensure no engine damage and it was stable, since then I’ve been slowly adding more mods and am now self-tuning it.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is this is a great opportunity to put a better factory location turbo in! The VF48 IMO is the best OEM turbo to upgrade to. There are other aftermarket factory location turbos as well.

 

[Phuree]

Replaced with factory td04. Others are suggesting a headgasket issue but I am not too sure given that I am not having cooling issues. No smoke until I hit boost, then it burns off and back to no smoke.

Later down the line I will be upgrading the supporting mods (fuel pump, IC, sil turbo hose, Accessport) before i swap to a vf39.

 

[GuusV]

I had just replaced the Turbo on my 09 FXT with a new cartridge. Smoked like crazy under load. But each time, the smoke got less.

With the turbo having a massive failure, oil got sprayed into the INTAKE side of things as well. The intercooler was soaked in oil as was the throttle body, intake and ducting.

Is it possible that there's just a bunch of oil in the system that needs to work its way out?

After taking it on the highway and giving it loads of throttle a few timed, the smoke became less and less. Now, after about an hour of hard driving: No more smoke...

It's amazing how much smoke one drop of oil creates!

(My 2 cents. I had a similar experience when I replaced a turbo on a 04 TX, of which the owner was told it needed $8K of work, but only had a bad turbo )