Some times because of financial reasons or just been keen undertaking work on your zed yourself can be very rewarding or sometimes can be less than, been able to know you limitations of either knowledge, skill or tools available can be a difficult but a crucial one.

 

So case in point, this zed presented with a very smokey drivers side exhaust, in fact quickly filling the workshop so something was well wrong, the owner had recently ( 2 weeks previous ) removed the engine with the help of a couple of mates and fitted a pair of new turbo`s following the complete failure of the drivers side turbo.....erm yes same side again! Having spanked the best part of £1k on the turbo`s oil gaskets, ramp and tool hire , butties and beer for his mates this was a very unhappy owner, having covered just 10 miles before the smoke returned with avengeance.

 

So with the previous trouble been recent and ongoing the engine was whipped it for a looksey.

 

The new turbo`s were well.... obvious and seemed bolted up reasonable well, except for a few clips and bits ( the loose bolt in the pic is a bit of a slip up though)

 

The clearly damaged o/s turbo was removed and returned to the turbo supplier and we set about looking into what had happened at engine level whilst we waited for the report on the turbo unit.

 

We rotated the engine and performed leak down test on all cylinders, the results were not great but not looking in anyway responsible for the turbo damage.Oil lines were removed and blown out and all seemed clear, the sump was removed and the pick up checked, and all seemed clear.

 

The report came back from the turbo company and was very detailed, the unit had been stripped and all parts inspected and the part damage was detailed, the shaft bearing had been electro scanned (?) and the results were conclusive, the bearing damage was done at the original start up! the ownder had been adamant he turned the engine over with the fuel pump fuse out etc several times, so what was the cause? back to the engine, the suppy tubes were all ok but we looked at the feed from the block a little closer and by blowing back from the gallery could see little strands of orange......yep silicon sealant.

 

To be fair would this of been noticed by a garage doing the job, who to say, however just changing a failed part without knowing the cause is always a risk, investigating further the rocker covers had orange sealant showing....but the pick up was clear very strange, till later speaking with the owner and previously the shells had been changed after a slight knock had started, of course at that time the sump and pick up were cleared out! except some had already migrated into the oil galleries.

 

Now our dilema, what to do? with the readings from the leak down test and the possibility of more sealant on the loose the owner decided upon a good used engine which we fitted his passenger turbo and of course the now repaired drivers side turbo, we spoke to the the turbo company and with a little persuasion they took pity on the guy and did the repair for a 50% discount but all in all a heavy lesson learnt.

 

Jeff TT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a nightmare for him. Do you see that alot as a cause of engine/tub damage? Is it simply a case of people being to liberal when applying the sealant?

Dear dear dear good find. Everyone seems to be a master mechanic these days armed with a Haynes manual and google.

i'm pretty good with a set of tools but leave well alone and leave it to the experts when it comes to things like that

Another hard lesson learned - thanks again for the tech thread Jeff!!

 

Richard:cool3:

i'm pretty good with a set of tools but leave well alone and leave it to the experts when it comes to things like that

 

Your not going to get any better at it by not pushing yourself. You just have to accept if it goes wrong theres no one to fall back on but yourself.

Some times because of financial reasons or just been keen undertaking work on your zed yourself can be very rewarding or sometimes can be less than, been able to know you limitations of either knowledge, skill or tools available can be a difficult but a crucial one.

 

So case in point, this zed presented with a very smokey drivers side exhaust, in fact quickly filling the workshop so something was well wrong, the owner had recently ( 2 weeks previous ) removed the engine with the help of a couple of mates and fitted a pair of new turbo`s following the complete failure of the drivers side turbo.....erm yes same side again! Having spanked the best part of £1k on the turbo`s oil gaskets, ramp and tool hire , butties and beer for his mates this was a very unhappy owner, having covered just 10 miles before the smoke returned with avengeance.

 

So with the previous trouble been recent and ongoing the engine was whipped it for a looksey.

 

The new turbo`s were well.... obvious and seemed bolted up reasonable well, except for a few clips and bits ( the loose bolt in the pic is a bit of a slip up though)

 

The clearly damaged o/s turbo was removed and returned to the turbo supplier and we set about looking into what had happened at engine level whilst we waited for the report on the turbo unit.

 

We rotated the engine and performed leak down test on all cylinders, the results were not great but not looking in anyway responsible for the turbo damage.Oil lines were removed and blown out and all seemed clear, the sump was removed and the pick up checked, and all seemed clear.

 

The report came back from the turbo company and was very detailed, the unit had been stripped and all parts inspected and the part damage was detailed, the shaft bearing had been electro scanned (?) and the results were conclusive, the bearing damage was done at the original start up! the ownder had been adamant he turned the engine over with the fuel pump fuse out etc several times, so what was the cause? back to the engine, the suppy tubes were all ok but we looked at the feed from the block a little closer and by blowing back from the gallery could see little strands of orange......yep silicon sealant.

 

To be fair would this of been noticed by a garage doing the job, who to say, however just changing a failed part without knowing the cause is always a risk, investigating further the rocker covers had orange sealant showing....but the pick up was clear very strange, till later speaking with the owner and previously the shells had been changed after a slight knock had started, of course at that time the sump and pick up were cleared out! except some had already migrated into the oil galleries.

 

Now our dilema, what to do? with the readings from the leak down test and the possibility of more sealant on the loose the owner decided upon a good used engine which we fitted his passenger turbo and of course the now repaired drivers side turbo, we spoke to the the turbo company and with a little persuasion they took pity on the guy and did the repair for a 50% discount but all in all a heavy lesson learnt.

 

Jeff TT

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[ATTACH=CONFIG]69072[/ATTACH]

 

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Sorry to see this, how did the sealant get to the turbos? the pickup has a gauze on it does it not? that should stop any large items from being taken through the oil circulation system. Unless the oil tree or something post oil pickup has had sealant put on it? bit confusing that. I suppose the failed bearing caused excessive shaft play which was the cause of the impellor damage?

When I did mine, we popped the fuel fuse and primed the engine until oil could be seen in the head through the filler cap, then twice more for good luck, would you say that's satisfactory?