Help...White Smoke, no boost, rear turbo grinding noise

[ArmyJeff]

ok SO HERE IS THE DEAL: as the title of the tread describes, I hav white smoke, it backfires a little at deceleration, no boost above zero, and when it gets close to zero the rear turbo makes a horid grinding noise.

This is what I did, I put MSD wires on and new plat plugs with a gap of 34. I then changed my rear motor mount with a 3SX poly and put it back together to get all what was described above. During the install of the motor mount, I removed the rear downpipe/precat, and the exhaust, as well the actuator to gain room to get to the motormount. Replaced it all the same way and put it back together. Drove the car and could not get any boost and then the grinding started. I took it apart and re-did it and no change???? Otherwise i had the intake pipes off to gain some space and then put it all back together. Motor runs fine. I get no knock according to my HHH dataloger and all sensors seem to read normal??? Any advice? Blown rear turbo seals??? HELP PLEASE!!!!

[chargerx3]

hmmm...white smoke makes me think of blown head gasket, or somehow your cooler lines leaking into your turbo. My vr4 had had the same issue as yours when i bought it, but i never heard it grind nor did i have white smoke. i ran rich at times, but still managed to boost.

I say pull the turbo and check it out. you can get used ones for cheep on here.

[Hannibalzero]

Are you sure its white smoke, and not black smoke from running rich? If you had a sizeable boost leak past the turbo charger, the MAS could be measuring a lot more air than is actually passing though the throttle body. This, however, would not explain the grinding.

Before doing anything else, I'd check the turbo for shaft play and to see if you can freely spin it by hand.

[ArmyJeff]

The car/engine does have about 120k on it, and the turbos are most likely original. The engine is running fine from what Ic an see. No knoack or anything and all injectorsare firing,etc. It runs but when I get the boost close to zero it grinds and white smoke comes out of the exhaust until I let off the gas. If it were the block or head gasket, wouldn't it smoke the whole time, not just when the turbos spool up. The grinding is clearly from the rear turbo, not the front. Haven't checked for shaft play, but I did hear that the o-ring inside the turbo goes bad and oil and coolant leak into the housing and cause smoke?!! Anyone else hear or have the same issue? Thanks for all the help. I am about to get a set of turbos from DR if the turbos are the problem.

[chargerx3]

Your turbos are the problem in my opinion. Mine did the same under hard acceleration,but it was a light blue= oil & fuel. check your rear turbo out before you toast it, or cause anymore damage.

[turbochris]

I'm pretty sure it's your turbo.Are there puddles of oil in your intercooler pipes?
A little film of oil is normal, any more means you probably have to rebuilt your turbo or get a new one,

[VR4Drive92]

is it a grind sound like a grinding wheel?


or is a grind sound that sounds like a kenne bell cobra?


if grinding wheel : possible foreign object causing failure, or thrust bearing issue causing wheels to contact their associated housings.

if kenne bell cobra : then that's more than likey journal bearing issues. But would be a bad coincidence, more than likely.

my guess. #1 Grinding wheel sound and root cause.

[speeddemon11383]

Pull off your intake tubing and check your back turbo. That should tell you what is going on. If the turbo spins freely it's not the turbo. You should be able to reach the turbine without removing much other that the tubing. While you're at it remove the front turbo pipe too, and compare. Coming from someone who has blown 3 back 15g's it seems to me the back turbo is prone to failure before the front.
When my back turbo blew there was a bigger smoke show than a top fuel dragster doing a burn out. (Not enough time for story LOL) after that no boost, white smoke but no grinding because the exhaust turbine was in my exhaust tip, which is prob. not your case.

[ArmyJeff]

Good advice from all.

I will pull piping and check on Thursday afternoon when I am free. The grinding is definitely from inside the rear turbo itself. Smoke wise, is coming directly from the rear turbo because it is not coming out of the exhaust least in the front downpipe (also need to fix this). Engine is running great to my knowledge. On the HHH logger I get no knock and all sensor and injectors look and run fine to me. Both O2 sensor even rear the same. As for the white smoke, I almost think it is the seal inside the turbos that went, and my shaft is free spinning and griding, therefore I am leaking oil or coolant into the hot exhaust side. I was looking on 3SX and their rebuild kit on their site had a good desciption of my potential problem. Check it out:

http://www.3sx.com/store/comersus_vi...dProduct=24439

I will check piping and shaft play and get back to you all. Anyone got a rear turbo without shaft play sitting around for dirt cheap (just in case)?

[chargerx3]

look in ebay. there is a guys who sells his rebuild kit for $90 shipped and its just the same. save yourself $60.