1 litre Micra Turbo - trouble

Paul Smith

Site Supporter
Hi, any help i have a 1 litre micra trubo 1993 k11, over the weekend i fitted a new braided oil feed hose which stop an oil leak i had (thanks for everyones help ptfe tape worked a treat) and the car has been flying going very well.


Until this morning, I noticed smoke coming from underneath the car on the way to work so when i got to work i opened the bonnet to find my breather on the right hand side of the cam cover pumpin out oil (usually connected to induction on standard models). Any ideas what may be causing this? i'm wondering if the drainage for the cams has become blocked could this be possible?

Any ideas are welcome.

Thanks Paul

oh 4 plate ceramic clutch arrived today can't wait for that bad boy to be fitted.(just thought i'd add this) Custom made
 

Davey C

Ex. Club Member
Club Member
my guess would be cracked pistons rings

take the plugs out and have a look inside the cylinder and see if you can see oil on top of any of the pistons.

sounds like pressure is forcing its way past the pistons and into the sump and thus forcing oil out of hte breather.

you will most likely be experiencing rising engine temps too, this would be the excess turbo pressure heating up the block from the inside. Ie the turbocharged air(hot) heating up the oil and causing smoke.

that would be my guess.

i would get a compression test done as leak down and see what that says.
 

Fordy

Ex. Club Member
davey c got it in one, the pressure is leaking past the piston rings you might be lucky with just a new set of rings but you might find more when your strip it down
 

Ed

Fusion Motorsport
MSC Founder
Official MSC Trader
Run the engien at idle if you can, and see how much blow by you get there should be little. Those pipes will often throw out oil vapour/deposits. If you think the rings are damaged but its driveable you can go to a hill roll down in gear at a relaticly high rpm (say 3000) with a totally closed throttle. Power on at the bottom and if you get a cloud of blue smoke then its almost conclusive.
 
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Paul Smith

Paul Smith

Site Supporter
Did a compression test this morning. on the gauge 9 - 13 is ok and the results from each piston were
piston 1= 6, piston 2= 12, piston 3= 10, piston 4= 9. so i think thats it i knackered it and reading some other threads i think i know how i did it. but i did beat a t reg 1.6 corsa sport all the way. so 75% of me says it was worth it.
 

Ed

Fusion Motorsport
MSC Founder
Official MSC Trader
It does seem that turbo K11 engines are very fragile. But im more inclinded to think its the way conversions are done. When you take the engine appart it would be interesting to see where the damage is.

How much boost were you running?
 
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Paul Smith

Paul Smith

Site Supporter
To be honest i don't know how much boost the reason being i modified the hosing from the top of the turbo straight over the engine top cutting out the intercooler (it was getting dark and i ran out of time with two jobs). This on one hand had fanatastic effects boost came on about 3000rpm and the car flew, so i think i got carried away and was in know rush to replumb the intercooler (school boy error) thus getting way to hot to quickly for it to cope.
 

Ed

Fusion Motorsport
MSC Founder
Official MSC Trader
Ok, depending on how its set up that would cause fast engine failure as you experienced. Shame since it could have easily been avoided.
 
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Paul Smith

Paul Smith

Site Supporter
yeah it is a real shame, and such a stupid error but we learn from our mistakes next time it'll be quicker and better
 
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