Rusty, I couldn't hold back on this one. Think about it, 1600°F exhaust gas
in a zone of back pressure, and therefore heat transfer, bearings and about 50k
rpms! If you can think of a more difficult spot for a seal please let me know
about it!
Bill Jepson (Wondering how turbos stay together in the first place.)
For the record, I
know it's hot :-)
So does this mean
the compressor side can have a seal, since it's not 1600 degrees? Would
you almost always lose the oil out the exhaust, and not into the intake?
If you lost it into the intake, it could affect the way the engine runs, but if
it goes into the exhaust side, it will just blow out the pipe.
This goes back to
using an oil shutoff to stop the oil leak, but as we discussed before, you
won't know this is happening unless you smell oil burning. I'm pretty well
tuned into the smell of oil burning now though :-(
I still have the
stock low oil sensor functional in the pan, and it lights a very bright LED on
the panel. Perhaps that would be my only warning, but you'd have no idea
of where the oil was really being lost from. You'd essentially have
to be willing to waste the turbo for any oil loss just in case it was
in the turbo.
By not planning
to do this soon, it gives me time to think about all the options, and hopefully
talk myself out of it :-)
Cheers,
Rusty (single
rotor mount, take two)