New Turbo

I got the turbo charger back from Turbo Technics.  While it is classed as repaired, it is essentially new – there was hardly anything reusable from the original.  They’re not a lot of fun to fit, with securing nuts in difficult to reach places, but it eventually went on.  The instructions have a few steps to protect the new unit – a full oil and filter change, followed by cranking the engine with the fuel solenoid disconnected to pump oil through the feed line, prior to its fitting tot he turbo to clear out the dirty oil and prime the system, followed by more cranking with the oil feed fitted to prime the bearings.  Only then  can the solenoid be reconnected for engine running.  Obvious when you think about it, but easy to miss.

I’ve only done 380 miles so far, so time will tell if the engine’s long standing oil consumption is fully cured, and the oil spilled from the pipe work onto the manifolds has yet to be cooked off, so it’s a little pungent at the moment, but it seems to work.  I can certainly hear the turbo spin up and performance is better, though I don’t get any black smoke at all under acceleration , suggesting that there may be either a slight timing maladjustement (retarded) or that the fuel pump may need adjustment to its boost plunger (or that it is stuck like the Range Rover’s).  I’m not worried – it will be putting less strain on the transmission like this.

The dipstick level has gone down over those miles from a little overfull to the max mark (the min mark is roughly level with the joint between the sump and the frame under the block, so I think it is under-reading and the oil level is normally very high, perhaps causing the big ends to whip up the oil and cause some burning in the cylinders or increase breathing of oil vapour into the intake system), but the consumption rate seems less than it used to be and I’ll be monitoring it to see if the level drops any more over the next few hundred miles.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed, but the fact that the engine’s oil pressure is now about 10psi higher than it used to be once the oil is fully warmed up, maintaining 50psi or so at high revs, just shy of the 55 maximum, is encouraging.