fschiola

I have a friend that's working on his 1997, all stock. He replaced the exhaust manifold gasket, no noticeable leaks or cracks in the manifold, but noticed a exhaust stain on the turbo housing between the turbine and the compressor. He said that it gained him back about half of his power. There are no noticeable cracks in the turbo housing, the leak seems to be from the turbine side. He's fairly certain that the manifold is sound. Do you have any recommendations on a replacement turbo, stock is good enough for him. Can it be rebuilt or are rebuilt units available? He has his own shop that he repairs mainly gassers and hasn't ever run across this before. Any help will be appreciated.

dozer12216

Is the engine using oil. The oil return could be very restricted and not allowing free return of oil. Does the shaft have any appriecialble end play. Can the shaft be moved sidways and contact the housing??? The replaced gasket got half the power back, so now the performance is normaL??
Turbo oil leaks generally into intake or exhaust and leave noticable oil coking.

fschiola

The engine is not using any oil. He said that he didn't notice any end play in the shaft and it didn't appear that there was any evidence of oil leaking into the turbine or compressor housings. The leak on the outside looked like exhaust soot. As for the power, it was running bad with some smoke when he got into the throttle on a hill. With the replacement of the manifold gasket, he noticed a difference but only about half as much power as he used to get.

turbos10

Leaking or blown gasket on the exhaust side can definately cause performance issues. You need to check both mating surfaces with a straight edge and a feeler gauge. This will show you any low spots. If there are any over a few thousanths you could have sealing issues.