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2.3L turbo bad passenger side of engine oil leak


scotts90ranger

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In February or March I think I finished rebuilding my engine, April was my yearly wheeling trip, drove about a tank and a half through the thing and went through ~2-3 quarts of oil. The oil is on the passenger side of the engine, most of it going down the starter and covering everything including some on the inside of both rear tires, the driveshaft, dripping off the rear diff and some on the mud flaps...

This area of the engine is really cramped as the spring bucket and frame rail are right next to the turbo, and looking up from the bottom there's a front axle and engine cross member in the way...

When I started looking into it a couple weeks ago I noticed the #3 exhaust port was leaking, both those bolts seemed to loosen up for some reason and burnt the valve cover gasket, changed the valve cover gasket and got the exhaust gasket to stop for the most part. Also since there was oil up to the front of the block, I took the timing belt off thinking one of the galley plugs was leaking, it wasn't, so I thought I would reseal the cam bolt, that wasn't it either...

It only seems to leak hot, on a hot cruise down the highway 2500-3000rpm I have 50psi oil pressure.

My question, is there any pressurized oil on the passenger side of the head gasket? It's the only thing I can think of. I can see how I could have nicked the head gasket when putting the head on by myself. I would dig out a spare block but they're both buried, and I think I might have scrapped my old cracked head that was out in the shed.

If it's not the head gasket, what would it be? It's not the oil supply line to the turbo, and doesn't really look like the drain back line from the turbo, I'm running out of ideas...

Any ideas are greatly appreciated!!!

I'll try to stop in more often, and maybe clean out my PM box, I know I got one notice that someone tried to PM me while I was gone... if anyone wants to get ahold of me, email is always best!
 


turbo91xlt

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Check the pan to block surface, I've yet to have any luck with the '89-'92 pan gasket sealing up perfectly. The underside of my '92 was throughly soaked with the year worth of driving I had on it lol. The design of the o-ring style gasket changed for the '93-'94 and the oil pan was changed ever so slightly to fit that new gasket. I have the '93-'94 gasket but I havent gotten around to pulling a matching oil pan from the junkyard yet.
 

scotts90ranger

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Unless it is missing I can't see that leaking that much oil, especially to cover 3/4 of the passenger side of the block and everything behind it from the head gasket to the oil pan...

I'll go look in the shed tomorrow, the more I think about it the more I think I forgot to scrap that head...
 

scotts90ranger

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found my cracked head, and now I know it's not the head gasket... all the oil to the head passes through the back drivers side corner, well the pressurized oil at least...

That pretty much means the turbo is making a mess somehow... which doesn't sound fun... maybe this turbo is easier than the stock one, we shall see...
 

redhurricane

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All 4 of the lower exhaust manifold bolts share the head bolt intersects, and oil passages. hi temp rtv usually keeps them sealed for me, and I use a copper exhaust gasket (head side and turbine side). the foil lined paper gaskets are junk for a turbo application.


For the first time in 4 years, I have a DRY 2.3 turbo engine and engine compartment. No leaks at the valve cover, oil pan, turbo feed/return, oil dipstick, NOTHIN!!!! Life is good.
 
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scotts90ranger

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Interesting... hadn't thought of that... that would explain oil under the exhaust manifold...

Just for good measure I might throw in my spare exhaust gasket since I found one, it's not copper but hey... I'll have to pick up some ultra copper as I think I ran out...

Thanks Red...
 

redhurricane

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If it's wet under the manifold and not wet above the header (valve cover to manifold) it's likely the lower 4 bolts. Good luck sealing it up and report back with your findings.
 

Haywire6000

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I always enjoy reading thing like this before I run into issues like it, that when when it happens I have an idea where to look! lol
 

scotts90ranger

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Problem solved... I'm an idiot...

On one side, now all the lower exhaust bolts are now sealed with Ultra Copper, they were dry when I pulled them... as I was pulling the last one I decided to look at the oil feed line to the turbo, it was very tight, but the fitting into the turbo rocked... pulled that fitting out and it's threads were stretched, put the 1/8-27 pipe die to the fitting and taped it up and got it a turn tighter than it was before.

I have a feeling my huge oil leak that only happened at cruise on a hot engine is now gone... Way too late now to test, but it is going to be my DD for a while since the Tracker went downhill today...

I do have a tendency to overthink a lot of things... at least it was something simple and stupid...
 

scotts90ranger

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well that didn't last long... it's leaking again already... bought a new fitting on the way home, I bet that last one was just done... it worked for about 50 miles , but the 60 mile commute to work today was too much...
 

scotts90ranger

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Ok, it's not the fitting... which is good because I ended up buying the wrong one, I think they were out of that one... for some reason #3 is leaking oil through the exhaust gasket... The oil loss is much better than it was, but still not fixed. I'll grab the leak down tester from work to test it out this weekend, and do a compression test just to see as well... I'm going to guess I did something wrong when I put the engine together, or I'm going to regret not doing anything to the head when I had it off...

Dangit...
 

redhurricane

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paper gasket on the manifold? ditch it and get the .043 copper unit that Columbia river stocks. then run all 4 lower bolts in with RED RTV, not ultra copper. you can always pull the valve cover and confirm torque value on the head bolts/studs as well.
 

scotts90ranger

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For the record, found the leak... I pulled the head on Sunday, finished getting it stripped and cleaned off today at work on lunch. Somehow the #3 and #4 exhaust valve guides are worn to crap, like .015" side to side play and that kinda killed the stem seals, and in that it recessed those two valves... The head doesn't look cracked and my guess is it'll live to go another round.

It'll be heading to the machine shop tomorrow, luckily in my spare gasket pile I found a cam seal and stem seals so that'll save me a little $... The list of stuff they're going to do is a full cleaning then magnaflux (we have one at work, but theirs will be better, and I didn't have time at lunch), ream for and install valve guides, install seats for the exhaust valves, install new cam bearings and install all the parts I send with it (I'll put in the lash adjusters and rockers... it's not like these are hard to put together anyway)

Apparently the estimate is around $300 but that really is a fair amount of work and all but the assembly I'm not capable of... If this head is good that will save me MANY HOURS of porting that it's kinda cold for :).

I REALLY wish that when I had the head at a different machine shop 4 years ago they would have caught those valve guides... I'd only put about 10-15k miles on the thing tops since I did that build... and wish I had taken the head apart and figured all of this out when I had the engine apart... Luckily I have everything I need to put it back together as all this working on stuff is making me broke...
 

turbo91xlt

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$300 is a good deal. My machine shop would definitely charge more then that and it wouldn't even include new harden seat installation.
 

scotts90ranger

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35"
It's sitting at work, looks very good, much better than the last machine shop that had it... all 3 faces are surfaced, all 4 exhaust valve seats are installed, new cam bearings, and they put it together for me minus the lash adjusters and followers since that's easy...

He left the valve spring cages off, said they didn't fit? They were on there when I re did it last time (and obviously when I took it apart), if this is an issue let me know before Friday as that's when I'm going to hopefully start the reinstall! I imagine it's not a big deal, so I'll put it on how it is...

I'm looking forward to this, should run better!
 

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