[OrbitalEllipses]

Howdy y'all!

I'm new here, but not new to Impreza's. I'm the original owner of a 2002 WRX grocery getter! She's 60,000 miles young! :tongue:

Within the past 5,000 miles I've begun the process of modifying her. Currently she runs tasty M1 TDT 5W-40 as of the last oil change, but unfortunately she was sipping M1 5W-30 for the rest of her life. I've religiously changed the oil every 3,000 to 3,500 miles. Within the last 5,000 I cleaned the MAF, changed the air filter, cleaned the IACV and replaced gasket, fuel filter, replaced cabin air filter, new plugs, drained and filled coolant...etc, so basically the maintenance is up to date.

Within the last 2,000ish miles I begun to modify her. GrimmSpeed thermal coated UP, Invidia catted DP, P&L Motorsports catback, some bushings, a boost gauge, GrimmSpeed Air/Oil Separator, and that's really all that comes to mind.

Ever since I did the UP about 1,000 miles ago I've had weird issues. First it started with being unable to reach peak boost of 13.5PSI; tracked this down to a leak in the UP (Seafoam into the IM vacuum line facing toward the front). The next day I started the car and heard loud rod knock. Literally out of nowhere, I went on to discover that the noise wasn't rod knock at all but rather a loose coilpack on the #3 cylinder. Torquing it down fixed all my issues.

Within the past two weeks my car has started to release white smoke from the passenger side area of the exhaust manifold, visible when I allow the car to warm up whilst I smoke my morning cigarette. In addition while idling at a stoplight white smoke will come out of the hood scoop and/or out of the passenger side tire area.

Yesterday I drove 200 miles to see my parents. Along the way I noticed sporadic puffs of white smoke that only seemed to get worse the further I drove. I'm not sure what to suspect other than a failing headgasket. I still see 13.5PSI of boost and have not noticed any loss in power.

Halp?

 

[EvoEatr]

Howdy y'all!

I'm new here, but not new to Impreza's. I'm the original owner of a 2002 WRX grocery getter! She's 60,000 miles young! :tongue:

Within the past 5,000 miles I've begun the process of modifying her. Currently she runs tasty M1 TDT 5W-40 as of the last oil change, but unfortunately she was sipping M1 5W-30 for the rest of her life. I've religiously changed the oil every 3,000 to 3,500 miles. Within the last 5,000 I cleaned the MAF, changed the air filter, cleaned the IACV and replaced gasket, fuel filter, replaced cabin air filter, new plugs, drained and filled coolant...etc, so basically the maintenance is up to date.

Within the last 2,000ish miles I begun to modify her. GrimmSpeed thermal coated UP, Invidia catted DP, P&L Motorsports catback, some bushings, a boost gauge, GrimmSpeed Air/Oil Separator, and that's really all that comes to mind.

Ever since I did the UP about 1,000 miles ago I've had weird issues. First it started with being unable to reach peak boost of 13.5PSI; tracked this down to a leak in the UP (Seafoam into the IM vacuum line facing toward the front). The next day I started the car and heard loud rod knock. Literally out of nowhere, I went on to discover that the noise wasn't rod knock at all but rather a loose coilpack on the #3 cylinder. Torquing it down fixed all my issues.

Within the past two weeks my car has started to release white smoke from the passenger side area of the exhaust manifold, visible when I allow the car to warm up whilst I smoke my morning cigarette. In addition while idling at a stoplight white smoke will come out of the hood scoop and/or out of the passenger side tire area.

Yesterday I drove 200 miles to see my parents. Along the way I noticed sporadic puffs of white smoke that only seemed to get worse the further I drove. I'm not sure what to suspect other than a failing headgasket. I still see 13.5PSI of boost and have not noticed any loss in power.

Halp?

Are you noticing any coolant or oil loss? How does the coolant look? how does the oil look? Does there appear to be any mixing between the two? Is the vehicle running hot at all? Do you have any external oil/ coolant leaks or any other leaks you are aware of? Is the vehicle tuned for your modifications thus far?

 

[OrbitalEllipses]

Definitely burning oil, but that could be related to the fact I just switched from 5W-30 to 5W-40; I've always understood there could be significant oil burning when you switch. Before, I never noticed a significant amount of burning (definitely within 1 quart/1k mile parameter stated in manual).

The vehicle doesn't run hot. I have no idea what the oil looks like; on the dipstick it still looks fine though. There are no external leaks that leave a drip. The only leak I've ever had was the exhaust leak post UP install that seems to have vanished. I'll usually have the AC on when driving, once the car starts smoking at a stop I can smell it in the cabin. It doesn't smell like coolant to me, but I have a poor sense of smell.

The car is not tuned for the modifications, but it's a 2002 with just UP/DP. I was always told these were not a problem for my year, given the lack of OL/CL fueling delay that you see 2004+. And I really doubt it would blow my car up in ~500 miles.

 

[cabikejumper]

When I installed my up pipe I didn't tighten the coolant hose to the turbo. I had white smoke from it dripping onto the downpipe. Try checking your clamps.

Boost issue, had same problem. Did you crank down on bolts or torque them?
Check your hose to your intake side of turbo.



I could be wrong but when I had smoke and boost loss that's what the problem was for me. Hopefully it's an easy fix for you.

 

[OrbitalEllipses]

When I installed my up pipe I didn't tighten the coolant hose to the turbo. I had white smoke from it dripping onto the downpipe. Try checking your clamps.

Boost issue, had same problem. Did you crank down on bolts or torque them?
Check your hose to your intake side of turbo.



I could be wrong but when I had smoke and boost loss that's what the problem was for me. Hopefully it's an easy fix for you.

I actually had to pull my turbo because I couldn't jack the engine up to pull my UP. I had to take off the oil feed line, coolant line, and BCS line; as such I paid attention to them when I put them back on. The studs and nuts were torqued to spec; I don't currently have a loss in boost pressure.

Just went to check the coolant in the reservoir by the turbo and it's still very green. No cross contamination that is visible. HOWEVER since the car is parked on a clean garage floor I was able to identify a very small (just bigger than the size of a quarter) oil drip on the passenger side. It's dripping off of the front crossmember; I'll get the car in the air tomorrow to further identify where this drip is coming from.

 

[OrbitalEllipses]

No one's really following this thread, but I figured I'd update it anyway.

So passenger side front crossmember turned out to be drenched in oil. As were the swaybar and subframe. Managed to shine a flashlight up the UP; it definitely has some kind of burn stains on it. I'm in the process of removing it now.

I'll keep you posted to the results of the compression and leakdown I've scheduled for tomorrow.

 

[SeattleJeremy]

So the oil is coming from a line that connects to the turbo?

 

[OrbitalEllipses]

So the oil is coming from a line that connects to the turbo?

THE line. The one from the rear of the passenger side head that goes to the CHRA of the turbo. The one that has the filter screen in the banjo bolt that a TSB was issued for.

Compression came back 160, 157, 162, 157. It's totally the stupid oil feed line; I need to get proper crush washers for it.

 

[SeattleJeremy]

Gotcha! Glad you got it figured out and hope you can get it fixed soon. At least you've got good compression numbers ^_^

I thought there where two lines (one in, one out) for oil?

 

[OrbitalEllipses]

Oil drain pipe on the bottom of the CHRA? It's really hard to see and it's just a pipe that drains into the oil filter. The feed line is a hardline with banjo bolts on the CHRA and the passenger side head. There's two crush washers; one between the block and banjo and another between the banjo and line. Effectively, the line is sandwiched between two crush washers...I KNOW I didn't replace them when I pulled the turbo. :unhappy:

Now I have to go out and find them; unfortunately the auto parts stores around here are poorly stocked.

 

[OrbitalEllipses]

For future reference you want McMaster-Carr part number 97725A250. I was unable to find M12 copper crush washers anywhere.

 

[SonicWagon]

I had oil coming from the same line after my rebuild. My mechanic lost some of my respect In the process. he kept trying to tell me that it was axle grease burning off the frame. I finally got him to put it on the lift and sure enough it was an oil leak.

 

[OrbitalEllipses]

That's what my first guess was...but once I took a look none of the boots had popped. I had no idea how oil had gotten on BOTH sides of the front crossmember, swaybar, AND the subframe. Third time doing UP in 1 month, lol.