Turbo rebuild Evo 9

[Heaveho]

Ok, tried with this a few times on the MLR, as have others recently, with no real progress.

I'm not happy with the oil consumption since fitting a Mivec top end and turbo on my 8........I believe the turbo to be the culprit, and rather than risk more money on another used item, I'd prefer to rebuild the one I have now.

Has anyone used anywhere that they can recommend, I know such places exist, I'd just like to hear from someone with 1st hand experience.

[cptsideways]

Universal Turbos near Ringwood, very helpful & do a proper job

[liner33]

+1 for universal turbos I've been using them since the early 90's , turbo failures are usually self evident through , you will see oil smoke out of the exhaust at idle when the engine is hot it can be like someone just turned the smoke machine on

[Heaveho]

Great, thanks for the info, I'm only in Southampton, so that makes it easier. The car only uses oil when driven on boost, when I drive it to Newcastle, or the ferry at Heysham for the TT, I can sit off boost at 90-95 and it doesn't use a drop. Someone following me to Goodwood one Sunday in the summer remarked that they could see just the faintest haze from the exhaust when it was being driven hard.

[liner33]

Doesnt sounds like turbo to me, I'd do a leakdown test personally

Have you got a oil catch can ?

[Heaveho]

No oil catch can, it's basically a standard Evo 9 engine with stage one mods and remap...........didn't use a drop of oil when it was in Evo 8 spec, only started when the head and turbo was replaced with the 9 top end. It has the EGR removed ( 9 one was different, and I didn't have it ). It runs about 1.75 bar, dropping to 1.5 held, and it doesn't feel like it has any performance issues. There's no oil smoke visible in the mirror or on start up, and no oil smell from it when following it, as said, just the faintest haze when following it on boost ( which could just as easily be fuel vapour with an Evo! ).

It's using nearly a litre of oil every 1k miles though, which isn't something I'm happy about on a well serviced 40k miles car.

[liner33]

Was the head checked/rebuilt ?

[longbow]

Not sure what the price of a rebuild will be but there is a new one on MLR for £750 delivered.

[Heaveho]

liner33 said:

Was the head checked/rebuilt ?

Well, it was put together with new cam and valve stem oil seals, but I bought it off someone quite well known on the MLR who assured me it had only done 7k miles, and he generally has a good name on there, so I wasn't too worried.

Rightly or wrongly, as it may turn out!

I saw the new turbo on the MLR, in all honesty I was more annoyed that I missed one yesterday for £70 that the owner was selling already disassembled and in need of a rebuild...........if I go that route, I'll specify a BB conversion for faster spool, and that would have been a cheap way into having a spare!

[rb5er]

A friend had an evo9 fq360 from new and when on boost there was always a tiny bit of smoke and a smell of petrol that must have been unburnt.

I don`t think he had oil comsumption issues but there was usually a very small amount of haze/smoke.

[liner33]

Thats normal, these cars like most turboed engines run quite rich on boost

I dont think the oil consumption is related to the turbo here, the engine could really do with checking first to eliminate anything else , a leakdown test should give you that information and is the cheapest option to start with

[Heaveho]

liner33 said:

Thats normal, these cars like most turboed engines run quite rich on boost

I dont think the oil consumption is related to the turbo here, the engine could really do with checking first to eliminate anything else , a leakdown test should give you that information and is the cheapest option to start with

Are you, like me, assuming that the oil consumption issue is related to the fitment of the later head ( or turbo, in my case ), given the fact that it only began to consume oil immediately after they'd been fitted?

It's probably of no relevance, but the Evo 9 had different rings fitted from the factory for better oil control, something my car obviously doesn't have. I don't see any real reason for it to be an issue, but they must have done this for a purpose.

[liner33]

It could be to do with the head or it could just be co-incidence.

A leakdown will tell you for sure , however I have had similar issues on turbo'ed cars if the engine cant vent properly , never really looked at the mivec head but the 8 has a couple of breathers iirc , one at the back of the rocker into the plenum via a one way valve and one off the right hand side into the intake pipe

It might be worth taking apart some of the intake pipework to see if there is any oil in there

[Heaveho]

Thanks for the input, the car's laid up 'til March in theory, but I can probably sort out doing a leakdown test at home............I'll post up what I find, be interested in your thoughts when you see the results. In a way, I'd prefer it to be the turbo, just an easier thing to remove and fix or replace.

My understanding of the results of a test like this is that obviously, the lower the figure the better, however, I've seen articles that suggest that figures as high as 20% aren't necessarily worth rectifying, at least as far as regaining lost horsepower is concerned. I'll be in 2 minds as to whether to bother doing anything with it if the figures are no more than that, given that it still feels great to drive, and the only noticeable irritation is the oil consumption.

My main concern was that the turbo was the issue, and that it may result in it self-destructing and putting itself through the engine.....if the engine isn't in any real danger, I may just learn to live with it.

Edited by Heaveho on Wednesday 1st January 16:46

[liner33]

You'll be able to hear where the air is leaking most importantly