Oil leak through turbo

the rear housing of my turbo which connects to the down pipe is leaking oil
what could be the problem?
i think it could be my small oil drain line which will be replaced tomorrow and because the angle of it isnt straight down into the sump its kind of passed the sump and goes back up. my fault for not measuring properly but it will be changed tomorrow to make it a straight 45degres down. think it may be the problem, jus wondering if anyone has encountered this problem, the project was jus completed today and when it was started up for idle to check for leaks that was the only problem
any help would be great :)

did you put a restricter in your oil line to drop the oil pressure?

Yes, your leaking oil into your turbo & exhaust through the seals.

Your turbo pressurising with oil and is not draining properly, this could be due to 2 things. Your drain is not sufficient or your turbo is getting too much oil pressure. Or simply the turbo is old.

-What turbo is it?
-Is it new or old?
-Are you running a restrictor in your oil feed? Turbo and/or lines?
-Where is your drain 'plumbed' in on your sump? It needs to be as high as possible.
-Is your drain pipe big enough?
-Your oil drain pipe from Turbo to Sump needs to be a constant downfall. It is a 'drain'.

Fix your drain problem and it may fix your leak.

i fixed the drain line and its a nice downfall to my sump which is tapped at the highest part :) so thats cancelled, im thinking it maybe the restrictor because i dnt think i have one, does anyone know where i can get a restrictor from? should i try pirtek again?
also my oil line says '-4 speed flow'

DLO01
its a T3 from a RB20
its in good shape not too new or old
the restrictor i have no idea, i'll take a picture of my oil line
the sump is in good nick dnt have to worry about that anymore :)
drain pipe is quite big :)
and the drain pipe atm is in a nice down fall

http://aycu29.webshots.com/image/271...1713015_rs.jpg
http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/248...8044188_rs.jpg
http://aycu15.webshots.com/image/278...2160517_rs.jpg
http://aycu15.webshots.com/image/252...6218185_rs.jpg

That is no restrictor.

Also I am not sure if your turbo has an inbuilt restrictor?
I think only GT turbos have inbuilt restrictors?

You may need a restrictor depending on size of your oil feed line.

It also depends on this. Is the turbo Ball bearing or Journal?

Ball bearing requires less oil, journal requires more.

In general terms:
If you do not have an inbuilt restrictor, depending on your oil feed line size, you may need a restrictor. If you do need one the size of the restrictor is dependant on the type of turbo.


Since your leaking and you say your turbo is fine, you will need a restrictor. I am not sure what size you should get though, but yes you can get them from Pirtek.

using the same turbo as me :D i use to have a problem with mine, mine was the drain line and also the feed line was leaking. mine still leaks a tiny tiny bit from the connections but its not fromt he seals so :) one thing with these turbos is the connections aint the best. make sure they are all tight as u can get them. if its defantly not coming from the fittings and the drain line is nicely flowing... then ur turbo might be worn which means either a rebuild or... just buy another cheap replacement (thats why i went rb20... cheap replacement :D)

ps for the record... i DONT use a restrictor on mine, its not needed. like i said mine works fine :D especially if u arnt water cooling the turbo as well u dont want to restrict the only cooling source it has. but they main way to cool a turbo is oil and i dont use any kind of restrictor on mine and i dont have my water lines connected..

ahhhh well shit i just said still applied... BUT that isnt an rb20 turbo.

jus went to pirtek and they ddnt help much,

i pulled out the feed line and turned on the car for jus 5seconds, it filled 100mls worth of oil in that litte 5 seconds, im pretty sure a turbo doesnt need that much oil?. anyway i was able to grab something to minimise my hole to the feed line, its now only about 1mm wide compared to my 3mm wide bolt that i had before which shot out a tone of oil in 5 seconds
i've let her idle for a while and she seems fine now :) thanks for all ur help

oh yeh aza , these turbo are quite good, they kick in pretty early than i expected , i jus havnt tested how long they hold for :) anyone starting a turbo project i would recommend this as a cheap turbo. or go the GT28RS! ball bearings are well worth the money if u have the dosh

Thats cool man, glad you sorted it. :thumbsup:

there oil restrictors are usually in the banjo fitting for the oil feed, its just a small hole. We have used solder before to fill the oil feed fitting then drilled a small feed hole to drop the pressure.

my question now is what turbo is it... its not the rb20 turbo but its defantly a nissan turbo. sure its not an rb25 or sr20det turbo? haha the intercooler flange on ur turbo is different to mine. still cheap nissan turbos ftw :D

the previous owner said it came from a RB20, the RB's came red and black top but its definately a nissan turbo. im not very sure but i remember SR motors running T2 flanges, and the RB running T3 flange turbos . all in all its quite good. full boost is at 4k, kinda of a lag but its worth waiting :D

back on topic for this forum, my leak is fixed. decreased the size of the hole to jus under 1mm and its great. now i jus gotta learn how to drive light footed, or else i'll be visiting the petrol stations more then once a week lol

Its a VG20 turbo by the look of it, better than the rb20 turbo's too.

looks like a gt28 or t28 s14/s15 stock and japspec turbo.

i got a gt28rs and a gt28 at home and they look very similar to that picture

RB20 turbo is stamped 16V on the compressor housing, and you need an oil restrictor for it or the standard s14/15 units. Not two days ago a mate of mine blew the seals on his t28 on a 4AGZE due to no restrictor. Not pretty - especially on the track.

Edit: 1mm is quite small. Most people run (or rather, most commonly available restrictors are) around 0.06" inches which is a bit more than 1.5mm, but your milage may vary.