Hi all. Noob to forum, little bit of knowledge on diesels, real good at researching.

I cant find much help on this problem.

2004 E450 cube van
6.0L
180K
no mods

Buddies turbo let go on the highway and he drove it to the next gas station. Had it towed to me. When I got it, pulled the turbo and the exhaust side turbine had broke off and lodged itself into the exhaust pipe. Managed to get it out, bought a rebuilt turbo from a reputable shop local to me and installed. Still leaking oil thru the turbo into the exhaust. Pulled turbo and changed the drain pipe, cleaned egr, still have oil coming out of turbo. Ive spent two days on google with no luck. Hoping one of you pros has a little insight for me.

 

I guess your "reputable" shop isn't covering the turbo??

There is a passage that is leaking the oil. It's not supposed to if they fixed it correctly.

http://miketurboinc.com/products.php....0L-Repair-Kit

 

My understanding is that the seals in the turbo have nothing to do with stopping oil from entering. The issue seems to be that the rate of oil leaving the turbo thru the down tube into the crank case is too slow, letting it build up past the seals in the turbo and coming out. When I changed the down tube, the rate of oil coming thru definitely slowed down. Rather than a large puddle there is only a small trickle now. Cleaning the EGR valve didn't help much, and it wasn't that dirty anyway and there doesn't seem to be an excess of crank case pressure. I am sure the shop I got the turbo from would exchange it or replace the seals if they were at fault but from what I understand they are not the issue.

 

Guess you got a handle on it now. Good luck!

 

Well, not quite. And thats why I have joined this forum, wondering if anyone else has had this issue or has any advice for me as to what my next move is. I cant nail this thing down.

 

I don't recall the oil PSI going into the turbo to be all that high. IF there is leakage under low pressure it's pretty simple to solve.

Even if the drain tube was causing the initial issue, it ruptured or caused damage to the seals. Now the seals need to be replaced. It happens.

 

Ok here is the situation now. I had the turbo checked out at the shop where it came from yesterday. Everything checked out and it turns out that the vgt solenoid code was tripped due to having the key on when it was unplugged. Got the turbo back and installed it today and there is still oil coming out of the exhaust side, not as much but still enough to drip out, especially when taken off idle. Any advise as to what to look at next?

 

Nobody has seen this before?

 

Not stealing your thread, just inputting my experience so far...
My '03 is doing the same thing right now. Bought a rebuild kit from RiffRaff followed the directions on their website, and I'm still having issues. Now after a while, I get a lot of smoke out the tailpipe (smalls like oil) and going down the road it sounds like it's hunting for the right vane position. Like a rhythmic surge high low high low... Can't afford a new turbo, but don't want to take it to somebody I don't trust either... Good luck to you man! If you figure it out please let me know!

 

If it is leaking oil out the exhaust side, you have bad seals. A plugged drain tube might be the cause, but the seal is still bad.