I'm swapping turbos on an Audi S4 and when prelubing the new ones the oil is coming out of the exhaust inlet and outlet, did they forget a seal or is this normal?
I'm swapping turbos on an Audi S4 and when prelubing the new ones the oil is coming out of the exhaust inlet and outlet, did they forget a seal or is this normal?
No, that doesn't seem normal to me at all.
Not normal.
Check for shaft play. In and out in particular.
Are they actually NEW turbos? Or just swapping used ones?
Sounds like worn out bearings letting oil pass through.
New ones from an ebay parts seller, I just got off the phone with them and they want to warranty it now instead of after all the labor of putting it in. They are having me check the other one first to see if both need to be returned or just one. It's prelubed and sitting outlet side down on a blue shop towel for a bit to see if any spots appear.
It's definitely a bad turbo. Either they forgot something when building it, or it was a bad core. See if there's shaft movement in/out.
No in and out shaft movement 
One thing to remember- if the shaft isn't spinning, the "seal" isn't working. On the exhaust side of the turbo housing, there isn't an actual oil seal, it's an oil flinger, which attempts to keep the oil out of the exhaust stream.
The other thing- turbos don't need much oil to run.
It's important that you use the proper lubrication at the right rate when doing in and out shaft movement. 
Swank Force One wrote: Check for shaft play. In and out in particular.
I find that I'm always looking for some shaft play. In and out in particular.
Sorry. Someone has to pick the low hanging fruit no matter how badly they want not to. Those are the rules.
In and out, out and in, round and round again.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:Swank Force One wrote: Check for shaft play. In and out in particular.I find that I'm always looking for some shaft play. In and out in particular. Sorry. Someone has to pick the low hanging fruit no matter how badly they want not to. Those are the rules.
I seem to have excessive shaft play
Lies. I know you're a married man.
It's self inflicted shaft play :(
Spoolpigeon wrote: I seem to have excessive shaft play
It's not excessive until the shaft or bushings are worn to uncomfortable levels.
16vCorey wrote:Spoolpigeon wrote: I seem to have excessive shaft playIt's not excessive until the shaft or bushings are worn to uncomfortable levels.
There's a bushing available for that. 
Curmudgeon wrote:16vCorey wrote:There's a bushing available for that.Spoolpigeon wrote: I seem to have excessive shaft playIt's not excessive until the shaft or bushings are worn to uncomfortable levels.
Or more appropriate lubrications....
When you say "prelubing", what does that entail? Are you pumping the oil in with significant pressure? Some turbos need a restrictor in the feed line or they will leak oil past the bearing seals if you run full engine oil pressure into it.
codrus wrote: When you say "prelubing", what does that entail? Are you pumping the oil in with significant pressure? Some turbos need a restrictor in the feed line or they will leak oil past the bearing seals if you run full engine oil pressure into it.
this takes a whole different meaning based on the direction the thread took.
codrus wrote: When you say "prelubing", what does that entail? Are you pumping the oil in with significant pressure? Some turbos need a restrictor in the feed line or they will leak oil past the bearing seals if you run full engine oil pressure into it.
Just poured some in the oil feed line from a bottle and spun the shaft to move it around.
The bigger problem is now that I have installed my replacement turbos and fried up the car. I heat cycled the engine a few times to work any air bubbles out of the cooling system and let the car idle up to operating temperature. It ran great with no smoke from the exhaust even revving in the driveway, but a couple miles into my test drive I checked all my gauges again got into the throttle a bit. I was rewarded with great acceleration followed by a short screechy sound and then huge clouds of smoke from the exhaust. I'm now blowing oil out the exhaust again and I'm assuming at least one of my turbos is blown. These are stock K03 turbos on a 2001 S4, any ideas beyond chinese turbos as to what is happening? Is the oil pressure spiking way too high due to a bad regulator or something? I had just changed the oil to 0W40 Mobil 1 after the turbo swap with winter coming soon.
Wait, you had bad stock turbos and replaced them with stock ones?
Obviously your turbos are way too small and need to be upgraded
Junkyard_Dog wrote: Wait, you had bad stock turbos and replaced them with stock ones? Obviously your turbos are way too small and need to be upgraded
Seems legit. I'd suggest either some Stupid Chinese Turbos, or maybe some name brand Yeah these are Chinese Too but More Expensive turbos.
psychic_mechanic wrote: These are stock K03 turbos on a 2001 S4, any ideas beyond chinese turbos as to what is happening? Is the oil pressure spiking way too high due to a bad regulator or something? I had just changed the oil to 0W40 Mobil 1 after the turbo swap with winter coming soon.
I don't know if the B5 S4 needs a restricter in the oil feed or not.
To me it sounds like you spent a bunch of time swapping out bad turbos for more bad turbos. :(
If you are putting stock or stock frame turbos on, the stock lines are used as-is. The BW oems are often from the far east now and hold up. Might have had a knockoff of the ok offshore stuff.
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