saab 93 vector sport 2ltr turbo clouds of blue smoke

[scott9951]

right my mates got a 2003 saab 93 vector sport 2 ltr turbo.
he's a nice guy 2 nice infact. he lent his nephew the car for about a year.
1 day he gets a call saying the car is smoking.
picks the car up smoking was an understatement.
long story short.
cars covered about 50k
blue smoke bellowing out & pretty much 0 oil in car.
did a compression test wet & dry pretty much all the same.
tried a new turbo hoping that wud be ok.
smoke still billowing & wudnt clear.
not step was rebuilding the engine.
complete rebuild top & bottom.
bores etc had no marks, crank was perfect
so all shells etc renewed
turbo rechecked by place of purchase.

now car is back together and still smoking badly.

on startup it throws clouds of blue smoke out, same as when the turbo seals are shot.
after around 5 mins of holding revs at around 2k it clears.
car drives perfect boost's as it should sounds perfect.
you can drive around no smoke then stop at lights & huge clouds of blue smoke again.
once u start driving smoke will clear altho not everytime.
on boost no smoke at all.
coming off boost no smoke at all.
turn engine off restart & huge clouds of smoke again.
half the symptoms sound like valve seals and the other half like turbo seals.
also the car is eating oil big time.
any ideas?
sorry about the essay

[Steve_D]

We've sat and discussed this over lunch and the only answer we have is

Good luck.

Keep thinking of possibilities then shoot them down between us.

Sorry
Steve

[scott9951]

took the turbo back again to be tested as im sure it has to be that altho they say its fine.

[Fire99]

Turbo Oil Seals is the first thing that rung my bell so perhaps the replacement turbo is questionable.

Was the old Turbo inspected. Should be fairly easy to see if it's letting oil get past the seals.

[scott9951]

turbo has been back to where it was refurbed.he says yet again that its fine but has replaced the seals.
there is oil all thru the intercooler etc
turbo place say its the engines fault

[DaveL485]

Is the oil breather from the rocker cover full of oil?

[stevieturbo]

It really shouldnt be difficult to tell where its coming from.


Are the breathers ok ? can the engine breathe ?

Are any of the plugs oily ?

Check exhaust manifold and exhaust system

Which has signs of oil ?

If you add 1 + 1 together, you will get the answer.

And who carried out the rebuild work ? Did they know what they were doing ? Surely they would have spotted the signs of where the oil was coming from during stripdown ?

[smoking ron]

Yes ditto to last post Saab turbos are terrible for oil loss but after five mins of revving and smokr stopping would think turbo faulty maybe worth cutting losses and getting turbo from another outlet

[autopium]

Give the intake system a proper clean (intercooler, boost pipes, breathers etc), run it for 5 mins & inspect for evidence of oil. Bear in mind the exhaust will also be full of oil.

[scott9951]

ok today got the turbo back again with new seals (he says)
fitted it and same as b4 if not worse.
breathers are fine.
oil pretty much all thru the boost pipes again.
got to be a dodgy turbo.
tomorrow ill compresion test the engine again

[Tony427]

Sounds almost as if the turbo is pressurising the crakcase causing oil to be forced where it shouldn't be.

Have you checked the oil breathers , they've not been connected up wrongly have they, or are they blocked?

Any evidence of oil being forced through gaskets and seals like on the camshaft, rocker gasket etc.....

hth,

Cheers,

Tony

( mind you I'd be looking at the turbo also.....check if it needs the oil feed restricted to reduce oil volume/pressure into its bearings)

Edited by Tony427 on Monday 31st May 22:05

[scott9951]

fitted the turbo that had new seals again & just the same. bought a 2nd hand turbo & perfect.
so £500 for a refurb & doesnt work

[dan19evans]

have u checked for any oil left in the intercooler? if the seals were mullered on the old turbo it could've sent oil throught the intercooler which is still there

[odyssey2200]

when the turbo went the car pumped oil into the down pipe of the exhaust.

You have changed the turbo but when the exhaust gets hot you will be burning the oi in the pipe.

I was Service manager in as Saab garage for 2 years and we often had this problem.

Options are

remove the exhaust and try to clean it out

Park the car in an isolated area and leave it running for an hour or two.

[dan19evans]

what he said ^

[scott9951]

all pipes etc were cleaned out.
once we fitted 2nd hand turbo was better straight away.
now its been left running its cleared up but running abit rich.
just ordered some lambda sensors which will hopefully sort it.
thanx for the reply's