91 SE-R GTi-R smoking BAD

I just picked up a 91 se-r with a gti-r swap in it and am trying to figure out why it is smoking like crazy. the guy i got it from said he blew the stock turbo up and got a new one and rebuilt it, he said he cleaned out the intake and intercooler. I had it running and it smokes with the intercooler on it and with it off so I know its not residual in the i/c. I wouldnt think that there could be that much residual oil in the intake.? Does anyone know how I can isolate weather it is the turbo or something in the engine?? I checked for shaft play in the turbo and it doesnt seem to have any. I know it has 5/30 oil in it and it will burn a little with that light weight of an oil but not this bad. I am going to do a comp. check on it tomorrow and see where that leads me but if that turns out ok I am at a dead end.
Any help or thoughts would be great. Thanks

I'd double check all your intercooler piping connections. Make sure there is no boost leak. I use to have trouble with boost leak on my old turbo 240 setup. But, didn't smoke that bad. Just didn't run rite. Also, check the both sides of the turbo. Compressor and turbine side to make sure there isn't any fresh oil leaks. If there is, could be bad seals. Or could it be that the guy didn't replace the bad turbo.

Ben had a smoking issue with his turbo setup. I think it was the motor. Chim in Ben.

Hope this helps.

Yea my smoking issue was a set of rings in my engine. Take the IC piping off of the TB. Hook a chunk of pipe and the MAF up to the TB and "bypass" the turbo and run it then. If that turbo that you have on there is a GTIR turbo, I do believe those are ball bearing, and if thats the case then they are not rebuildible.

thanks for the help. I did have it running with the intercooler off the car and it still smoked, i will hook the MAF up to the TB and see if that changes anything. if the rings are bad then when i do a compression check it should leak down fairly quick correct? the oil in the engine is extremely clean and the oil it is spitting out is extremely black almost like deisel oil. the guy i got the car from said that the turbo is a T-28 i believe off of an S-14 with needle bearings not ball bearings and he reabuilt it. I dont know if he did it correctly or not because the rebuild kit box is still in the car and there are a couple seals left in the box..... however I dont know that much about turbo's yet to know if they are just extra pieces or not... Thanks again for the help

Yes a compression test will let you know if it is the rings or not. Does this smoke right away when you start it up or does it get worse the high the RPMS go? You might have a bad turbo still as well. Does this have stock oil lines or a braided line?

yea it smokes worse the higher the r's go. the lines are braided. I will be doing the comp. test later today and I will post my findings. do you know about what the comp. should be? i was thinking somewhere around 150-160?

Since you are running a braided line, you may need a re stricter for the oil pressure going into the turbo, especially if it is a -4an and larger line. It could be pushing oil past your seals on your turbo, you will have to rebuild it again and get the re stricter if this is happening.


Comp numbers should be around 150 and up. You should have a fairly equal spread across the board too. Remember to disconnect your fuel pump when doing the test and keep the throttle body open.

Oh and when my rings went out my readins were like this:

160-75-165-95

well i just got done with the comp. test and here are the numbers: 188 191 186 11, now i guess I get to tear it down and see exactly what it is the piston or rings. anyone know a good place to buy parts for the GTi-R? and thanks again for all the help.

Damn that sucks man. www.Gspec.com Best place to buy stuff. If you need anything, let me know.

yea it sucks but i picked it up for $1000 so its not to bad. just have to deal with tthe wife now...lol hopefully its not to bad inside

Well shit, thats a deal. How is the body? If you dont have a knock or anything like that, you might be able to get away with just re ringing it.

yea i thought it was a good deal. the body is in pretty good shape just a little rust on the rockers right in front of the rear wheels.