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View Full Version : UPDATE.FIXED...Damn. Cooked something. Primary turbo maybe?



SOREN
04-25-2010, 05:55 PM
Coles notes: Something major busted in my Leggy while my wife was driving, now I've got to figure out why there is oil everywhere.

My wife was driving the 1994 Legacy RS that I just imported from Japan. I've brought a couple cars over, and never had any issues - so I guess this time was just unlucky! :( It had 52,000 Km on it, and was in pretty good shape, I actually drove it for about 2000 KM home when I first got it in the end of March.

My wife was coming home after about a 3 hour drive, and started to get some whitish smoke out the back about 60Km from our house,my wife and her aunt observed the coolant temp, and had decided that nothing major was wrong, and had continued driving. Then at 20K from our house, she'd rolled the window down and smelt oil, so she pulled over. At that point the oil light came on, and she shut it off directly.

I showed up about half hour later, and observed the passenger side (left hand side if facing forward in the car) was covered in oil - all the way back to the rear wheel well. It was pretty bad. At first I'd thought for sure the engine is blown, but she mentioned that there was no loss of power, that they noticed. She did mention a tick-tick tick sound, but it was very quiet.

I've not been able to get my nerves calm enough and my head straight enough to do a proper search and come up with anything yet. I'm guessing that maybe the turbo went (whitish smoke and ticking) and then when enough oil had been lost out of the turbo, then the oil light came on.. Sound plausible?

I couldn't find any oil on the top of the engine, it all looked pretty dry, but where the battery sits was covered in oil too.

The other thing that I thought might be possible, would be something like a seal blowing out?

Any ideas? Anyone console me that it's not as bad as I'm thinking?

hmmm.
In the next days, I'll start to try and search properly, see if I can get some understanding about this. I was also considering taking the battery and all that junk out on the side to see what I can see...anywhoo..

Robbks
04-26-2010, 12:54 AM
it's possible the oil feed to the primary turbo has split and pumped out a heap of oil.

but re-fill with oil, start it up and find where it's coming from.

as long as she's shut it off soon enough, you may be fine,
but usually if the oil light comes on in an EJ, it's too late...

SOREN
04-26-2010, 10:40 AM
Robbks, thanks for the response, I know very little about this system, and was again looking at those famous TT scans, and I considered that possibility myself, it's good to hear it as a suggestion. I'll probably get the balls up next week to look at it.

Reuben
07-10-2010, 06:44 AM
Primary turbo's on these early models are also notorious for blowing up. Really really damn unreliable turbo's. And it's impossible to track em down cause they all die. Most people upgrade to the GTB VF18/19's when their 13 kicks the bucket.

SOREN
08-23-2010, 01:58 AM
Been a long time since I've posted here, because I've not been driving the leggy. It's been the bastard stepchild, sitting in the back.. :( I got 'er checked out and the problem appears to be the oil feeder line for the turbo that's on the passenger's side (right, if you're at the front of the car, and looking towards the back.

This baby is a metal, and has a fitting on one end, and a banjo bolt on the other. I can't get the part anywhere. I think the part number is:
15192AA082

15192B 15192AA082 1993/0501 - 1996/0531 EJ20H

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm in Canada, but would do an international ship if I could be sure of the part. I've PM'd Yamazaki, but I don't really think this is worth his time, and something that he usually does.

SOREN
08-25-2010, 10:55 AM
So, I've been trying to find this part, but my mechanic friend just manufactured something for me. Did it in about 20 minutes last night, and the Leggy is back up. No issues yet, engine is strong, accel is still the same..

I'm in business again! I'm expecting to be on the boards a little more, now that the bastard stepchild is parked out front, instead of sitting in the back with weeds growing around and over it!

Gave her a good wash this AM before work, got the engine looking a little cleaner, I'm certain there's lots of oil that the winter is going to have to remove! :) But, she looks very nice!

Reuben
08-27-2010, 05:13 AM
I chucked one of those out a couple months ago, we are tripping over em here. Too bad i no longer live in Auckland. If i idi, i would have offered to send you your primary oil feed line.

Glad to here you got it running though! Now go for a boost and blow up that primary already.

SOREN
08-27-2010, 10:35 AM
Hah! Thanks for the well wishes. In an awkward way, it was likely a good thing this happened, because not having the Leggy for so long, I actually really appreciate it, and I'm absolutely loving it. Now to find some small mods to do... :)