Oil Restrictor for Ball Bearing Turbo

[suprastroker88]

So i picked up an sp61gt dbb turbo. When i start it up, all the oil goes straight out of my exhaust. So I'm thinking maybe I need a smaller restrictor. Here's the thing....... I'm using a ge block and my oil feed line is ran off of the oil pressure sending unit. Could anyone tell me what size oil restrictor I need?

 

[MDCmotorsports]

First, we need some info.

-Size of feed line
-Oil pressure
-Size of return line
-Picture of return line setup
-Picture of PCV system
-Check turbo for shaft play
-What manifold is turbo on

 

[suprastroker88]

I'm not sure what size the lines are. They are the lines that come in the oil line kit with the turbo when you buy it from Sound Performance.

The return line is a stainless steel softline from a ct26 softline kit. I cut the fittings off both ends and connected them to 2 drain fittings. I connected the drain line to a custom flange made for the opening to the block that is blocked off just below the oil filter spot on the ge block.

Its on the stock manifold since it is a bolt-on for the 7m.

I did not see what my oil pressure was at idle. I just made sure I primed the oil system and turbo and kept cranking the motor with the efi fuse out until i got about 20lbs of oil pressure. then i started the car and let it idle.

Absolutely no shaft play whatsoever

I will get some pics up as soon as i can get my hands on a camera

 

[thedave925]

@ Suprastroker:
I would think a restrictor would present enough resistance to oil flow that no matter the incoming pressure from the oil pump, the restrictor is only going to let so much past so fast.
Oil out the exhaust, makes me think 3 things:
-Too large a restrictor
-Blockage at the dump site or in the oil dump line
-Turbo oil seals are on strike! lol

So what size restrictor is in there now?
Are you positive the dump line is free, both at the turbo and the block? Take it off and peek for light
And with no shaft play, how can you be certain the seals are still okay?

@ Jon:
I'm not familiar with how ball bearing turbos are built, but I know enough that too much oil pressure will bleed past the bearings, right?

But what if the restrictor is the correct size, and yet there is all this oil coming out the exhaust?
Does that mean the oil seal is bad? How could you tell if there's no shaft play?

And what about when the turbo is dry? Ball bearing turbos are supposed to spin more freely both dry and wet than journal turbos I would assume, no?

Is there a way to test the oil seals off the engine? Say, pressurize the oil feed and let oil drain off into a bucket or something?

I've not owned a ball bearing turbo but these are some concerns that've come to mind when i consider a new turbo...

 

[suprastroker88]

@ Suprastroker:
I would think a restrictor would present enough resistance to oil flow that no matter the incoming pressure from the oil pump, the restrictor is only going to let so much past so fast.
Oil out the exhaust, makes me think 3 things:
-Too large a restrictor
-Blockage at the dump site or in the oil dump line
-Turbo oil seals are on strike! lol

So what size restrictor is in there now?
Are you positive the dump line is free, both at the turbo and the block? Take it off and peek for light
And with no shaft play, how can you be certain the seals are still okay?

@ Jon:
I'm not familiar with how ball bearing turbos are built, but I know enough that too much oil pressure will bleed past the bearings, right?

But what if the restrictor is the correct size, and yet there is all this oil coming out the exhaust?
Does that mean the oil seal is bad? How could you tell if there's no shaft play?

And what about when the turbo is dry? Ball bearing turbos are supposed to spin more freely both dry and wet than journal turbos I would assume, no?

Is there a way to test the oil seals off the engine? Say, pressurize the oil feed and let oil drain off into a bucket or something?

I've not owned a ball bearing turbo but these are some concerns that've come to mind when i consider a new turbo...

i was told that i should have to change the restrictor on the turbo since its the same one that comes in all the sp61gt's and this turbo is the bolt-on for the 7m so it shouldnt need to be messed with. and the oil drain line is free of all debree

 

[CyFi6]

I believe that "drain" under the oil filter is actually a pressure port (only drain port in the picture is circled in blue, and not present on the NA block) :yikes:

 

[hvyman]

^That would be a turbo block. N/a blocks dont have that iirc same why they dont have stock oil feed.

You need to take the oil pan off and either weld in a -10 an to it or get a gte pan with the oil cooler port to use as a drain. Your just pumping oil out the seals which now might be toast.

 

[Devin LeBlanc]

The GE pan has the oil cooler port on it already, THere is just a M10x1.25 plug in it. I drilled mine out to match the size of the -10 AN bung and tig welded it on

 

[hvyman]

Not all of them. I had 2 that didnt. Was revised into 1 pan instead of 2.

 

[suprastroker88]

^That would be a turbo block. N/a blocks dont have that iirc same why they dont have stock oil feed.

You need to take the oil pan off and either weld in a -10 an to it or get a gte pan with the oil cooler port to use as a drain. Your just pumping oil out the seals which now might be toast.

damn. ok well im going to tap a whole in the pan for a drain and use it as an oil drain line and try that.

how would that port under the oil filter spot be a pressure port? it looks just like the stock oil drain on a turbo block?
And if it is a pressure port, what is it for and why is it blocked off?

 

[CyFi6]

damn. ok well im going to tap a whole in the pan for a drain and use it as an oil drain line and try that.

how would that port under the oil filter spot be a pressure port? it looks just like the stock oil drain on a turbo block?
And if it is a pressure port, what is it for and why is it blocked off?

Theres a good chance that your pan already has a drain bung plugged off, but yes you are pressurizing both the feed and drain ports of your turbo right now.

That port under the oil filter is a pressure port because some NA Supras had a pressure based oil cooler (depending on location, I don't think any had it in the US) that used that flange.

 

[suprastroker88]

Theres a good chance that your pan already has a drain bung plugged off, but yes you are pressurizing both the feed and drain ports of your turbo right now.

That port under the oil filter is a pressure port because some NA Supras had a pressure based oil cooler (depending on location, I don't think any had it in the US) that used that flange.

aww damn. well that's most likely my issue. i never knew about that pressure port. thanks for that info. im in the process of switching the setup around and starting it up again so we'll see what happens

 

[thedave925]

^^^ There, I found your problem! That drain is really a pressure port, DOH!
lol Capt'n Obvious

 

[suprastroker88]

^^^ There, I found your problem! That drain is really a pressure port, DOH!
lol Capt'n Obvious

lol thanks Dave!

---------- Post added at 04:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:19 PM ----------

^^^ There, I found your problem! That drain is really a pressure port, DOH!
lol Capt'n Obvious

lol thanks Dave!

 

[Devin LeBlanc]

Take a look in the 7MGE section, I have a thread on NA-T in there.. Take a look at how I did my drain

 

[suprastroker88]

So I fixed the issue. It was indeed because of where I placed the oil drain line. So I routed it to a drain fitting on the oil pan. Everything works great now.

This turbo feels sluggish right now, I think maybe it's because I'm only running 10psi until I install my rc550s, which I hope to have in before the end of the week!

Thank you to everything that gave their knowledge and input on my little issue. SUPRAMANIA FTMFW!!!!!