LARGE amounts of oil in intake tract; new turbo didn't fix it; help

dislexicmofo

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2008
Location
Atlanta, GA
TDI
2003 VW Golf TDI GLS
LARGE amounts of oil leaking through intake tract; new turbo didn't fix it; help

I have an ALH golf (2003) with a little over 200k. It is moderately modified (VNT17, plumbing, SMIC, injectors, tune). There was a large oil slick developing every time I parked. It consumed (leaked, no oil in exhaust) around a half quart over the course of 500-1000 miles. Slick would be the size of medium to large dinner plate every time I parked. You could tell it was collecting in the skid plate and then draining out behind the right front wheel.

I had several small leaks I decided to handle and a little deferred maintenance. I replaced all the CCV components. I replaced all of the easy seals: vacuum pump seal, new valve cover and sealed the corners, oil supply and return line and gaskets, oil cooler gaskets, main seal was done in the last 1k miles and did not appear to be the source. While doing this I noted that the majority of the oil appeared to be coming from the turbo outlet. There was a VERY slight leak from the crank seal. I cleaned all the oil residue up so I could better confirm the source.

The brake booster vacuum line is new. Vacuum hoses look good (car has had an easy life in the south.) N75 has been replaced previously (in the last 100k).

The leak continued, through noted source, after the other small leaks were eliminated. Confirmed through turbo outlet.

I replaced the turbocharger. The sheer volume of oil led me to believe that the oil seal was letting go. Couldn't think of anything else that would dump THAT much oil into the intake tract. Upon inspection of o-ring on the aluminum adapter it was shot (didn't have major boost issues but was enough to let the oil through). Hard and very compressed. I replaced it with a new one. Cleaned the intercooler out. Cleaned out all the piping and the intake manifold.

The oil is still leaking out. In similar volumes. I haven't had time to get under it again to confirm the location of the leak. Power output after new turbo are good (great actually).

Im at a loss at this point. What can cause that much oil in the intake tract? I have ordered a new n75 and vacuum lines in hopes that it is a horrible vacuum leak drawing that much oil in due to crankcase pressure? I'm not holding my breath.
 
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KyleMillione

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Joined
Jan 27, 2017
Location
Yaphank, New York
TDI
02 Jetta, 03 Jetta
How’s the blowby in the engine? It shouldn’t be bad at that mileage unless it was ran on WVO. Check the outlet fitting on the vaccum pump, if it jiggles it’s leaking, hit it with some jbweld steelstik and check blowby again.
 

dislexicmofo

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2008
Location
Atlanta, GA
TDI
2003 VW Golf TDI GLS
How’s the blowby in the engine? It shouldn’t be bad at that mileage unless it was ran on WVO. Check the outlet fitting on the vaccum pump, if it jiggles it’s leaking, hit it with some jbweld steelstik and check blowby again.


How would I establish what the blow by level is? At this point, with a new turbo, one could almost assume all the oil in the intake is from blowby right?


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BobnOH

not-a-mechanic
Joined
May 29, 2004
Location
central Ohio
TDI
New Beetle 2003 manual
Seems odd to lose a lot of ol from that location. Have you checked above the area for a different leak? And of course the 2 turbo oil lines.
 

oilhammer

Certified Volkswagen Nut & Vendor
Joined
Dec 11, 2001
Location
outside St Louis, MO
TDI
There are just too many to list....
A vacuum leak can cause more oil to be scavenged through the breather system than normal. Of course, I'd think that if it were THAT bad, you'd have some other symptom like no power due to no VNT source vacuum and no brake assist.

There really should never be an oil LEAK in the charge air tract... so are you CERTAIN that the oil leaking you are seeing is indeed coming out of some breach in the boost system, or is it actually just a leak from the engine proper somewhere? You said you have not yet been able to get under there and confirm the source of the leak. I'd do this first, and report back. You replaced the front crank seal... lots of people install these wrong (try to do it without the tool) and create a MASSIVE leak that was never there prior.
 
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KyleMillione

Veteran Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2017
Location
Yaphank, New York
TDI
02 Jetta, 03 Jetta
How would I establish what the blow by level is? At this point, with a new turbo, one could almost assume all the oil in the intake is from blowby right?


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Loosen the oil cap at warm idle. See if it dances or blows off. If it blows off you have issues with blowby or a vacuum leak. I’m with oilhammer on checking on other leaks though.

For reference I consider this acceptable. It’s about what mine looks like at 260k. I just drove from NY to NC and back without any oil consumption, and I have a leaking RMS
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2LGbS81dYtM
 
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dislexicmofo

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2008
Location
Atlanta, GA
TDI
2003 VW Golf TDI GLS
For those interested I was able to trace the issue to the valve cover. While stamped a VW part, and sold as such, it lacked a windage tray. With the boost I was running that appears to have the the cause. I’m not sure why I didn’t notice it when I swapped it, but there you have it. Got a new cover with a tray and all is right with the world.


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Mongler98

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Location
COLORADO (SE of Denver)
TDI
98 Jetta TDI AHU 1.9L (944 TDI swap in progress) I moved so now i got nothing but an AHU in a garage on a pallet.
blow by, Do a compression test, cold and hot, then a leak down test cold and hot.

If you have bad blow by, you will find out then

what turbo did you get?
Is the turbo properly orifice for the oil input? some turbos require less or more oil pressure to operate properly. They sell orifices to correct high oil PSI into the turbo.

If the turbo is good and all else fails, slap a scavenge pump on the turbo.
 

dislexicmofo

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2008
Location
Atlanta, GA
TDI
2003 VW Golf TDI GLS
blow by, Do a compression test, cold and hot, then a leak down test cold and hot.

If you have bad blow by, you will find out then

what turbo did you get?
Is the turbo properly orifice for the oil input? some turbos require less or more oil pressure to operate properly. They sell orifices to correct high oil PSI into the turbo.

If the turbo is good and all else fails, slap a scavenge pump on the turbo.


I bought a snap on diesel gauge and an otc gauge with extensions and accessories to do a test. Damn gauge would only for one cylinder. What do people use to get the right fit?


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