legacycentral bbs

Although this pertains to the Legacy Turbos, I'm sure it works in
much of the same way for the NA cars as well.

The other weekend I decided enough was enough with the stock PCV and
breather set-up spewing oil back into the intake on my Legacy Turbo.
There is a plastic "S" shaped pipe that connects the two breather
hoses on the back of each head, to the intake. I was always aware
that some oil was getting pushed into the intake from these hoses so
I decided to take the plastic "S" shaped piece off and plug the hole
left from it in the intake. Then I simply pointed the hoses down to
the ground. Problem one solved. Then, if you look near the throttle
body, you will see one hose coming straight up and it has two hoses
that branch off of it, ones goes to the PCV valve, but the other goes
( you guessed it), back into the intake. When I removed this plastic
pipe from the intake, oil was litterally dripping from the end of it.
Granted, my motor has over 123,000 miles and I use full synthetic so
naturally it is going to use a bit of oil, which it does, but jeez!
So I just plugged that hose as well as the hole it left. Now, no more
oil in the intake.

Oil in the intake system does a few things. One is when mixed with
fuel, it lowers the octane rating which is the last thing you need
happening, especially when paying Sunoco Ultra 94 prices. Also, if
you have an intercooler, after it coats the inside of it fairly well,
it will begin to decrease the effectiveness of the intercooler
itself. Also, in my case, the rubber gasket that is inbetween the
intercooler and intercooler pipe began to deteriorate because of the
oil. No, I don't feel any difference in power but I feel better
knowing the oil is not getting into the system. It is good for
nothing. One day if I get a digital camera, I may take a few pics and
put them up on Dave's Turbo-Centric.

On getting rid of the "oily's"
Hope I am doing this properly this is a first on this board. But that
aside what I have found is that a lot of this oil is getting past the
seal on the turbo and it is a fact of life with a IHI with high
milage
I could be wrong but have seen it more than once or it could be a
combination of Turbo oil and oil in the breather system. On the Hose
I
use a silicone hose that can be purchased at most truck or heavy
equipment service companies and it stands up very well.

Alan, I don't disagree with you. I'm sure my turbo has seen better days and
a rebuild/upgrade is on the "things to do" list, but, judging by the amount
of oil actually in the three different breather hoses, I'm fairly certain
they were the culprits putting the majority of oil in the intake system and
since it is very easy to dismiss that possibility all together by not
routing them back to the intake, I gave it a try and everything seems
noticably dryer in and around the intake system since then. I haven't
checked the intercooler yet but I believe that will remain much cleaner as
well.


-Matt

Well I did say I could be wrong and after some investigation it looks
like I was. There is certainly an abundance of oil in the breathers
and PCV. I am in the process of installing a Subaru fluid to air IC
from a EJ2.0t and there is some oil in it also but not nearly as much
as in the previous IC perhaps the factory may have done something to
cure the problem. I am going to try your fix for now as this is a
good
time for me to clean out the IC as I agree with you on the oil
cutting
down on the IC efficiency. On the hose problem I use a silicone hose
that I buy from a trucking service co. I just returned from there
they
were open and are 24hrs 7days this might be something to keep in mind
as most cities would have such a place Denver has both Transwest
(Freightliner) and Kenworth.