Having a new baby around is a truly wonderful thing, but there’s been way too much happening on that front to be able to get out and fight the battle of the leak.
In an attempt to get the car street-able, I’ve bought some switches and started installing them. Of course, along the way, I started to wonder why I wasn’t just using the stock control. Deciding that was actually the smart way to go, I found it in a box in the basement and dragged it out. I’ve re-built the connector that I had hacked apart to connect up various switches, but stunningly, it doesn’t work at all. In fact, not only do the turn signals not work, now the brake lights are broken again, too. Bonus.
In other news, I’ve been giving the oil spray a little more thought. Basically, there’s one of three things going on:
- There is an actual hole or loose connection in the turbo oil plumbing
- There is too much crankcase pressure that isn’t getting vented
- The oil drain is getting backed up.
If the problem is a hole, then there should always be leakage, and it appears that we only get spray under boost. If there’s a loose connection, though, it could be “good enough” for regular pressure, but once the crankcase pressure builds, oil could leak past the seal. That leak, then, could be:
- Oil pressure sender nipple to block
- Oil pressure sender nipple to OPS
- Oil pressure sender nipple to turbo inlet
- Oil inlet connection
- Connection from oil inlet to turbo
- Connection from turbo to oil output
- Oil output metal-to-rubber connection
- Oil output rubber-to-pan-barb connection
- Oil pan barb
- Oil pan gasket
I’m doubting that it’s anything at the pan, since the oil-spray is hitting a bit higher and there’s a whole lot of steering parts in the way. I suspect that there’s a little too much car in the way for the oil pressure sender plumbing to be the cause, but it’s not impossible.
If the problem is that the oil drain is getting backed up, then there are two things that could solve the problem. Either a flow restrictor needs to be put in the oil inlet line to slow down the flow going in, or the oil drain hose needs to be replaced with something a little more direct.