Oil consumption

[Troszell]

Here is my issue, I am using a lot of oil. The car has 298k on it 250k of those are mine. No real issues with car just routine maintenance wheel bearings, tie rod ends, ball joints. I have a short ram intake, headers, up-pipe, down pipe, Cobb accesport running stage 1 91 octane with HWGV to hit target boost. I recently installed catch can but didn't find a lot of oil in it or in the lines for that matter, so I recently took out PCs valve and
cleaned it up (seems to move more freely) and replaced. My question is... Can the turbo be the cause of all this oil being burnt? I know the motor will be well worn out as well but no knocks or any real loss in
power, so hit me up with the responses any and all welcome. By the way it's an 04 sti

 

[Batmobile_Engage]

The turbo could absolutely be the culprit. I've seen turbos expel oil into the intercooler and also sometimes into the downpipe. I imagine you aren't seeing any oil drips in the engine bay or under the car, as you would have probably noticed that. Losing oil into the downpipe is annoying and a sign that the turbo is on it's way out, but losing oil into the intercooler is a bigger problem. It could cause a number of different problems that may lead to piston ringland failure due to detonation (knock). If you think it's the turbo, the sooner you can confirm and fix it, the safer your engine will be. IHI VF turbos are not widely known for their quality, so I'd assume it is the issue.

 

[Troszell]

Awesome thx for the reply once again, I got a cheap one to throw on, it stated it flowed approx 140 cfm more than the stock so not a big bump and a shop an hour away should be able to tune with my accesport as I don't wanna mess around myself (not yet) mechanical issues are more my thing.

 

[Batmobile_Engage]

Often times, the only way to determine that the turbo is indeed the problem, is to remove it.

However, if you want something to investigate in the meantime that is relatively easy, I'd suggest removing the intercooler (if you are running a top mount) and taking a look inside it (and also look inside the turbo's compressor output). You might see a bunch of oil laying in there...of course that doesn't mean that the oil is *absolutely* coming from the turbo, but it's a really high probability that it's coming from the turbo.

Does your exhaust look like you are burning oil?

 

[Troszell]

Only puffs smoke when accelerating from a down shift, idle at lights sometimes, and ya there was oil in those areas you mentioned. I am gonna buy the washers/gasket needed to install my other turbo, hopefully it helps as
much as your site, many thx

 

[Troszell]

I also seen a video on the side banjo bolt that contains a screen any thoughts on this, maybe even to clear from debris clogging?

 

[Raven32]

One thing that I have not seen mentioned here is have a local shop do a leek down and compression test. This will tell you if you blow by, bad rings, a bad head gasket or need a Valve job.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Troszell]

I have considered this however a reputable shop is hard to come by in my neck of the woods, here's a reason when I bought the car in 07 I had a Subaru dealership inspect the car, cost me 260$ and quoted me a brake job for a $1000. I know cars and my brakes weren't that worn I did em myself with hawk hi perf pads in less than an hour, the pads were under 300 so labour would have been 700 that I can't live with. But I hear ya and if given a real choice I would do as suggested. Thx as well

 

[Troszell]

I will be saving up for a complete rebuild possibly this winter but we will see how the money piles up
or doesn't

 

[Grinder34]

I bought a leakdown and a compression tester on Amazon for cheap. If you can change your spark plugs, you can do these tests.

 

[Troszell]

I will look into this thx for the tip.

 

[Batmobile_Engage]

Damnit, I knew there was something I forgot to mention....compression test. Glad it was mentioned.

As for the banjo bolt and screen, some people remove theirs and some people keep it in, but check it regularly for clogs.

 

[HolyCrapItsFast]

I believe there is actually a Subaru service bulletin that suggests removing it but as you say, if you leave it in, it would be subject to inspection from time to time. :tup: I removed mine because I had issues with that in the past.

Damnit, I knew there was something I forgot to mention....compression test. Glad it was mentioned.

As for the banjo bolt and screen, some people remove theirs and some people keep it in, but check it regularly for clogs.

 

[Troszell]

Thx again for all the info. Your site and moderators are great! Now it's a matter
of saving my funds up

 

[Troszell]

Well got he gaskets for the turbo from the stealership..outlet/intake exhaust gasket+oil/water return gasket+banjo bolt washers=$70.00 dont know if that a good deal or not but at least i didnt need to wait four days on shipping. contacted the shop i was told of for an open source tune...dude quoted me $350+ again dont know if i am getting bent over or its a fair price. any suggestions would be great I will be looking at the cobb maps and see if one is closer to what i need or could use. Turbo getting thrown on this weekend, I will take pics of the install, have an awesome day ya'll

 

[PHX-PDX Subi]

$350/hr is what I was paying for dyno tuning in Phoenix, COBB up here in OR quoted me $400 so sounds within the norm if its on the rollers...

 

[Troszell]

ok cool so i am not getting shafted too badly then :lol: good to know, also I forgot to mention yesterday when gettin my parts at the stealership I inquired about the screens in the banjo bolts, parts dude said better to have a lil debris go through the turbo then starve the piece of oil all together from clogging, so recommended the screens come out for longevity and piece of mind.

 

[Troszell]

and I know its not a dyno lol, whan asking about their tune it sounds like some open road pulls are the route used, as he asked how good my brakes were hahaha. I might just run an off the shelf map from COBB if one is close to my needs. I knew a fella before that would tune a map for you if you sent him all the data logs from the accesport, it may take awhile longer this way but save me a few hundred bucks and a few hundred miles of getting to tuning shop. remember SASKATCHEWAN is where i live.

 

[Grinder34]

Did Subaru stop including the banjo filter at some point? I thought maybe they did sometime in the GD genereration?

 

[Troszell]

They possibly could have. All I know it is likely still in place in my car and was advised to remove if it hasn't allready. If I find mine today I will take pics and upload sometime in the future