Engine 850: B5234T/2.3/20v/T5: Is my 850 T5 dying?

[bournricha]

The compression figures are very good ,apart from no2 .The fact that it recovered with oil shows that it is worn /maybe stuck rings or wear in the bore .On the chance that a ring might be stuck ,run it with a dose of fuel treatment and try again .
Even if the difference remains, 10 bars is not crippling, and when the engine is fully warmed and oiled the difference could well reduce .
So the engine is not a write off basically and the fault must be in the ancillaries ,mostly likely, as people have said ,in the turbo

[Matthews 855 T5]

Hi Oliver

Do you have a lot of oil in the large pipes going to the intercooler?

Are you 100% sure none of the pipes are leaking?

As said these are strong motors and do need proper running to make sure valves are kept clean, but poor oil, few oil changes and running low on oil will cause damage.

Is there any blue smoke on cold start?

Let us know and keep in touch
Matt

[Oliver Hartland]

Hi Matt

Errrr I haven't been able to check - will have to take it to a garage as I haven't got any ramps to be able to have a look at the moment

I'm not sure at all about the pipes. Last time I was looking underneath I could see that the back of the engine was quite wet with oil at the bottom and an oil leak was an advisory on the mot in October. When I did the compression check I discovered a large pool of oil underneath...which turned out to be a very loose oil filter. That being said, I didn't think it had been leaking for that long yet oil consumption is a crazy 1.5 litres per 500 miles-ish. Not good!!!

The last owner neglected this car (he had it for three years and couldn't remember when he last did an oil change plus it was 20k overdue on a cambelt change) and I am trying to bring it back to health.

If I'm going to have the turbo looked at - should I a. have mine reconditioned; b. buy a replacement 15g or c. buy a different/bigger turbo (16t perhaps)?

No blue smoke on startup but, when it's cold, there's quite a bit of white smoke. Doesn't use any water whatsoever though.

Regards

Oliver

[Matthews 855 T5]

White smoke when it's cold is condensation, should clear up when it's warm. Leaks not good, big leak at back of engine sounds like blocked turbo drain pipe, as mentioned in another post can give symptoms of worn turbo.
The other big leak could be rear main seal, when mine went I got through 2ltre oil every 500 miles or so. That could be your oil usage? Trouble is getting the gear box off to replace the seal is costly.
See what your garage says, but I wouldn't go fixing turbo until leaks are sorted, you'll get there.
Matt

[warthog]

Hi Oliver,

looking at your compression figures they don't look too bad, yes #2 is a little lower, but that may be stuck piston rings that will respond to some oil / fuel treatment. Much cheaper and easier than an engine strip.

Almost certainly your oil consumption and poor performance is down to the turbo. On the T5's the turbos only last around 150k miles and much less if the oil's been neglected. Turbos need a large supply of clean oil both to lubricate and to cool them (even though the 850 turbos are also water cooled).

I'm just 1/2 way through my second T5 turbo rebuild. Once the turbo is off the car then the job is quite easy. There are some excellent videos on YouTube guiding you through rebuilding the turbos. Rebuild kits from the States are around $40 including postage. Alternatively I've seen rebuild turbo cores available for about £130 (you need to change over your intake and exhaust scrolls from the old turbo). Complete recon turbos are around £450. (But my first T5 turbo was a recon unit that was worse than the one I took off). Thus I now do complete rebuilds myself rather than rely on others to bodge it!

In my experience, the difficult bits of the job are in removing and replacing the turbo on the car, especially the top exhaust down pipe nut (that you can see but not easily get at with any leverage to undo) and replacing the oil and water banjo unions on the turbo core as you need several pairs of hands to do the job and there's barely enough space to get one finger on the union let alone one hand! Just take your time and don't bend the heat shields removing them from the car as they must go back on afterwards and you don't have room to rebend them into shape when they're in the engine bay.

At the same time as the turbo, change the 3 pipes controlling the boost pressure, waste gate and blow off valves. The originals suffer from the high engine bay temps and fail. Replace with silicone hose that you can buy on ebay for a few quid and cut to length. Worth checking the other rubber unions on the inlet manifold as well - they suffer the same fate and could be upsetting your fuelling.

Good luck. T5's are great cars and it would be a shame to see another one resigned to the scrap yard.

Brian