Turbo Death?

[ShadowFox]

Hey all,

I’m in a pickle, the past few weeks I’d been installing the ADD Stealth Fighter bumper which required an intercooler relocation. I finished the project on Sunday.

TLDR; I think my turbo grenaded and I can’t see why.

FWIW: Truck IS tuned and I’ve been running it about 4-5k miles with no issues. Truck has about 12.5k miles. Oil was changed at the Ford dealership in September.

Drove the truck around a few miles and it was fine. Monday I had planned to drive to Colorado—I made it about 50 miles before the service engine wrench light came on while trying to pass someone. Pulled over and used forscan and a P0299 code was glaring at me, turbo underboost. I cleared the code, checked what I could see of the IC piping and drove a few miles. It was fine until I tried to pass againDrove it back home granny style and called it a night.

The next morning I pulled off the grille to check all the boots and piping and they were all snug and torqued accordingly. Decided I wanted to try and recreate the issue on a closed road about 1.5 miles away. I figured a boosted launch should push enough PSI and get me up to a freewayish speed the best I can. Looked in the rear view and a huge cloud of white smoke was looming where I just was, a CEL and no power. The CEL was a cylinder 3 misfire.

I turned the truck off for about 10 minutes trying to figure out a game plan. Turned the truck back on and limped it the 1.5 miles home. Smoking the whole time but I kept the truck to about 20 mph. Pulled in the driveway and checked the oil dipstick, it was dry. Checked all fittings again and couldn’t find anything wrong. Went inside for a few hours researching potential issues and came back out to oil on the driveway where the exhaust pieces are clamped together. I found a trail of oil down the street and I imagine it went back to the crime scene.

I’m not savvy enough with engine and turbos to know what happened but I’m trying to figure it out.

- How would upgrading an intercooler grenade a turbo?
- How much oil needs to be removed from the engine for the dipstick to show up dry?
- How tf does a turbo suck up liters of oil in such a short period of time?
- Probably have more questions too but this is long enough as is.

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[ShadowFox]

The lower two PCM codes are the active air shutters which didn’t have the motors connected.

 

[Icecoldak]

If its still under warrenty, I would flash to stock tune and throw several key cycles on the truck and then take it into ford and Wish for good news!!!!

 

[Rinn69]

"- How would upgrading an intercooler grenade a turbo?"

Not saying it did, but upgrading the intercooler COULD be a cause as to why. Depending on the tune, if it was "pushing the limit" of all the components, a change could cause issues....I've read about others with tunes and they make sure to tell the person making the tune, ALL mods to the vehicle. Changing the intercooler may increase or decrease temp, pressure, flow, etc, which in turn could start a domino like effect. If the tune is for mods A,B, and C, then you throw mod X, and Z into the mix without modifying the tune, bad things could happen IMHO.

 

[Je1279]

I'm no expert on turbos, but I can't see a way that relocating your air to air intercooler would result in what occurred. As mentioned above, it's possible that the tune caused a turbo to fail prematurely and it just happened to occur right after you relocated the intercooler. Did you get a low oil pressure warning at any point?

 

[Maplestaple]

Intercooler itself wouldn’t cause these issues. I’ve added bigger intercoolers without tuning afterwards without any issues. Did you notice any sounds or anything while in boost? It seems your turbo is dumping oil past the seal, and yes if the seal is gone, it will dump oil like mad. Maybe you forgot something in the piping and the turbo sucked it in?

 

[Je1279]

Intercooler itself wouldn’t cause these issues. I’ve added bigger intercoolers without tuning afterwards without any issues. Did you notice any sounds or anything while in boost? It seems your turbo is dumping oil past the seal, and yes if the seal is gone, it will dump oil like mad. Maybe you forgot something in the piping and the turbo sucked it in?

That reminded me of this individuals very unfortunate and costly learning experience.

 

[RickBullotta]

Did dirt/grime get into the turbo on the exhaust side?

 

[WhiteLightningnshitshadow]

I can't see how this would even be tune related frankly. Do you have a catch can installed creating higher case pressure? That thing looks like a hemorrhage more than a leak.

Id try flashing to stock and warrantying. That lack of oil would have me shitting my pants about a new block potentially.

 

[JExpedition07]

With your truck still being under powertrain warranty, I would agree with the others. I would start by filling with oil to proper level, return to stock tune and see if the dealer will fix under base warranty. Just because you modded the truck does not give an automatic out for warranty. The onus is on Ford to prove your mods did this per the Magnuson Moss act, and I highly doubt your intercooler upgrade had anything to do with this. With that immediate crazy consumption of oil, I think you did indeed lose a turbo.

With the gray smoke it seems the internal oil seal was compromised (likely due to turbine or shaft failure), and then the turbine guzzles down oil like a drunken sailor. What is peculiar is the exterior oil, I am wondering if an oil feed failed too.

 

[JExpedition07]

Also regarding your dipstick question, usually 2 quarts from bottom of dipstick to top full mark. But keep in mind it’s plausible it’s been consuming oil over a few weeks if the internal seal has been steadily leaking.

 

[Dale B]

A turbo is just two impellers on a shaft with a bearing in the middle. The bearing is lubricated by engine oil. When the bearing goes so do the oil seals on either side. The oil is under pressure and will flow toward both sides, one intake and one exhaust. The intake side will suck oil faster when it is under vacuum. A bad turbo bearing can push a lot of oil in a hurry. A little oil down the intake is not too harmful, a lot is. Have it towed to where you plan to have it fixed.

I have had turbos since 1978 and the sight of a trail of smoke in the rear view mirror always means thousands in repair bills. That is also why I ordered my truck with a 5.0.

 

[SumGuy]

Intercooler itself wouldn’t cause these issues. I’ve added bigger intercoolers without tuning afterwards without any issues. Did you notice any sounds or anything while in boost? It seems your turbo is dumping oil past the seal, and yes if the seal is gone, it will dump oil like mad. Maybe you forgot something in the piping and the turbo sucked it in?

This was going to be my comment.

limp mode after from what I can tell a flashing cel, and continues driving truck…that didn’t help. Might need a new block too, or at least your block now have a few thousand extra wear miles on it now.

the good news is, now OP gets to upgrade turbos and really put that fancy intercooler to use!

 

[Gros Ventre]

I can't see how this would even be tune related frankly. Do you have a catch can installed creating higher case pressure? That thing looks like a hemorrhage more than a leak.

Id try flashing to stock and warrantying. That lack of oil would have me shitting my pants about a new block potentially.

A properly designed and installed Catch-can will not alter crankcase pressure.

 

[NH_Leadfoot]

I'm going to guess some foreign matter found its way into one of your charge pipes or intercooler during the install and it got sucked into the turbo. Hopefully during the tear down the turbo compressor wheel doesn't have any nicks/chips on the fins. They might try to blame that on the intercooler install.

I'm with the other guys, put it back to stock, bring it back to Ford, and fingers crossed they'll help you out under warranty. Then you can put the stuff back on after they get you sorted.

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