Well I just spent the last 9 hours or so trying to finish up the tib and it's putting up a fight. mad.gif

Story
This all started... last winter. You can read more about the start there. After that it started smoking more and more and was burning coolant like crazy. About a gallon per fill up. So I decided to put the tib in the garage and rebuild it. I've done new everything that I was planning. New headgasket, new hoses/belts, had the head pressure tested, plus a lot more unrelated stuff. But the smoking is still there. Not nearly as bad as before but still there. And now the brakes won't work!

Symptoms
Just Idling and pumping up the brakes you get a firm pedal, but if you wait for a minute then it'll go to the floor again. I'm thinking vacuum leak, but can't find it. Not including tb and head how many connections are on the intake? I'm counting 5. fpr, brake booster, heater controls, some small one to the left of the IAC, and the IAC. I haven't touched the brakes since the last time I drove it and they were fine then, so I haven't bothered to bleed them yet. The fluid level has remained high.

As far as the smoking I've tried it with and without the fpr hooked up (ericy321's suggestion from 97dererk's thread) with gets 14 a/f at idle, without gets 17 a/f at idle. It's definently not coolant this time around. Last time it was thinner and it spread out more. This time it's really thick and being around the car has given me a headache and I feel nauseated. I'm thinking fuel.

btw, what vacuum should I be pulling at idle, I was thinking I used to get about 24-25. Right now I'm getting 20 and it will drop to 12 when I push the brakes. If I rapidly pump them I can almost make it die. I'm wondering if there isn't a brake booster issue.

Thanks in advance!

 

Brake booster failure?

Is your exhaust manifold cracked (CO fumes getting into the A/C inlet)?

 

The brake booster seems to be a suspect, just thought it was weird the brakes seemed to be fine when I parked it. Exhaust manifold should be fine, it was in good shape when I took it off and sold it! lmao.gif

edited!
definently the hot side oil seal. I checked after i got home and there is oil leaking between the integrated wastegate and the turbo.

anyone know where to get those seals for a garrett t3? or am i better off sending it in?

I asked the brother in law thats a bmw tech and he seems to think it's the brake booster and says to replace the booster and the master cylinder as a set.

 

It wouldn't hurt anything but the wallet to replace the booster with the master cylinder on a car this old. The turbo oil leak is just part of it. . . if you go turbo expect failures at some point . . . but it's good to know it isn't an ENGINE oil seal!

 

yeah, i was worried about block damage or something along those lines. at least the motor is good. anyone reccomend a turbo rebuild shop? i hear texas turbo's is good. i ordered a few parts from them along the way.

edit: I guess they changed their name/site since I last checked. Anyone had these guys repair a turbo? http://www.turbochargers.com/repair/ Seems like a pretty fair price.

 

Time for an update.

I getting a little discouraged. I replaced the center cartridge on my t3 and bolted everything back up and it's still smoking. I wasn't sure if it was just oil left over in the exhaust but when I poped the DP off again there was a nice puddle of super black oil in the integrated wastegate. Oil is still dripping out of my tail pipe.

I've decided it can't be the turbo. Before it was leaking oil into the compressor and exhaust side. now it's smoking less and the oil is just in the exhaust so I'm going the right way. Anyways my new plan is to replace all the valve stem seals. I believe it should be pretty easy to accomplish I'll just have to put the cylinder I'm working on at tdc. Only downside is I've never done it before.

I've thought this over and I don't think it could be anything else, what do you guys think?

edit: on a related note, when I had the manifold off there was a good amount of oil in runner 3 and back into the exhaust port about 2 inches. At the time I assumed that was due to the turbo leaking oil and flinging it up there since the turbo is situated right in front of runner 3.

brakes also still don't work but I haven't bleed it after replacing the master and booster, it was leaking fluid into the booster though, all the paint was eaten off.

 

Sounds like air in your brakes or a fluid leak. a vacuum leak would make your brakes very stiff and not do much.

 

^^It's just air I'm sure, I was too busy diagnosing the oil issue to worry about it this weekend.

I'm going to check on valve stem seals from the dealer tomorrow. What else do you guys suggest replacing at the same time?

 

btw dtn, I never thought to use the mighty vac to check vacuum on the manifold, not that I'd need to on the tib since I have a vac/boost gauge but cool idea.

anyways I ordered these and got them in today along with some new spark plugs
http://info.rockauto.com/Fel-Pro/Detail.ht...S707951_TOP.jpg

I also picked up a compression tester to use to hook up an air hose to keep the valves in place as well as a new jack to use to bleed the brakes, the old one just refuses to cooperate with the new ride height. haha.gif

I found a diy spring compressor that looks pretty slick. I'm going to pickup the supplies tomorrow.

 

Are you going to do a DIY for the valve seals?