dead primary turbo or something else?

[Guest]

have noticed today that on start up after a drive my legacy blows some blue smoke and when reved over 4500 rpm you can hear what i describe as being a grinding sound note that my old engine had exactly the same issue but it ended up doing the beb thoughts?

[Guest]

and if it is blown is it okay do drive it till I get a new turbo?

[WRXONP]

if its making the noise over 4500 i would think its the secondary turbo not the primary??

[Guest]

it starts around 4000 but is most noisy at 4500 should i still drive it or leave it till new turbos come?

[Jord]

Can you pinpoint the noise to the turbo? If its producing blue smoke then it burning oil somewhere, possibly the oil seals in the turbo.

[WRXONP]

does the secondary have a wastegate actuator ?

if it does - take the circlip off the end of the actuator arm and pull the actuator arm off the wastegate flap - this will result in the turbo making no boost what so ever - take for a drive and see if the noise has stopped - that will tell you its the turbo

[Guest]

Im only guessing its the turbo because my old motor did it but this new motor has only started doing it when it started smoking so guessing the turbo is on its way out? and will give that a try wrxonp

[Guest]

Here is a video for you guys doing a few revs so you can listen to the sound it makes

[Wiretap]

I can't hear anything outside the realms of 'normal' for an agressively set up engine

[Guest]

it has the exhaust disconnected just where the 2 down pipes meet so shes abit loud atm, but if your some one who is used to the tt and then one day it starts making this noise you defiantly pick it up

[Jord]

Cant really hear anything obvious from that video either. Take a length of hose pipe and put your ear to one end a place the other end on turbo core if you can isolate the sound to the turbo then it may be your problem. Your GT wont have a secondary wastegate so you cant use Brads method, however you can prevent the secondary from opening by removing the vac line that runs to the top part of the secondary exhaust actuator.

[Guest]

okay so if i do that the turbo wont make any boost like wrxonp said?

[RSB]

Dosent sound like a failed primary to me. When mine let go, the whine was loud and started at around 2k rpm.

[Guest]

I forgot to add you can here that noise at 3000 now after some listening

[Jord]

Yes. Removing the top vacuum line will prevent the ECV on the secondary from opening preventing it from spooling.

That said it pretty rare to have a blown secondary, they have very little load on them compared to the primary.

[Guest]

well wether it's a primary or secondary it's got to be the turbos that are making that sound since when I put the motor in every thing was sweet but then came the smoke and then this noise, out of interest should I change oil incase any metal bits are floating round and any thing else I should do to prevent the new turbos from getting shagged?

[WRXONP]

Well I guessed at secondary since u said above 4500 / but if u hear it down low it could well be the primary

Put a long screw driver on the core of the primary - put your ear upto it and hear it - the primary should be spinning on idle so of its shagged it would sound pretty nasty through the screw driver stethoscope

[Guest]

okay could you tell me about the rest of my question ? cheers

[WRXONP]

I would stop driving it - change turbos and change oil and filter cos pieces could go dieb the oil drain pipe

They would just be in the sump tho

[Guest]

would it be worth pulling off the sump or will draining the oil do the trick?

[Guest]

when I took the secondary off it had oil all round the intake pipe

[WRXONP]

drain the oil and inspect - normally when a turbo goes - it will either dump oil into intake and/or exhaust - but if bearings are grinding (making noise) its possible metal shavings have gone down oil drain -

[Guest]

well any way got both turbos off yesterday they seemed fine no shaft play, will drian oil today . .

[Guest]

drained the oil the only thing I found at the bottom of the bucket was abit of plasticky stuff maybe of abit of a seal but no metal bits here unless they are sitting at the bottom of the sump

[WRXONP]

something plastic in the oil?

and arent they journal bearing turbos? if so they will have play