My 930 is spewing oil at the track

[briankeithsmith]

I am having trouble with my 1983 930 at the track. My car is spewing oil out of the over-flow tube after a track session. Alot of people think that I am overfilling the oil, however I would like to describe what I am seeing and see what you guys have to offer.

Here is the situation: I come in after a hard session on the track and oil is pouring from the right rear of the car just in front (nearer to front of car) and to the left of the oil tank. I open the engine compartment and I can see that the airbox is full of oil just as if the oil has been overfilled.

When I got to the track the next day I warmed up the motor, and got it warmed up about half way on the temp gauge. I left the car running and had the car on level ground and checked the dipstick 2 or 3 times. Dipstick is bone dry. Oil gauge on the dash reads nothing. I then locate a thin piece of steel and insert it in the tank so that it goes about 1.5 inches farther than the dipstick does. I hit oil on about the bottom inch of the rod. Therefore, the oil is more than 2 qts low, according to everything I have read.

So I do not add any oil. I come in after my first session on the track, and oil is just pouring out of the airbox again.

What is causing this?
1. Could it be that the thermostat is not working, and therefore not allowing the expanded oil to enter the oil tubes to go to the front cooler. The car is running great - other than it can't breath through the oil-soaked air filter. Oil pressure and oil temp is good. I haven't felt the oil lines to see if they are warm. I didn't think of this at the track.

2. Could it be that the cornering load is sloshing the oil into the overflow? Anyone experienced this? If so, noone is reporting that I am spewing oil onto the track. Therefore I have kind of ruled this out.

3. Could it be that someone has replaced my dipstick with a shorter dipstick (I haven't checked the dipstick part number yet) and therefore my measurement of the car being low on oil is not actually correct. Not likely, since the oil gauge on the dash still isn't reading anything...

Has anyone experienced this? And if you have, what have you done to resolve it? Has anyone re-plumbed their overflow into another container in the engine compartment, sort of like a radiator overflow?

Thanks for any advice...

Brian Keith Smith
1983 930

[TRE Cup]

it is possible that you have the breather hose and the overflow from the top of the motor swapped on the oil tank? The hose that comes from underneath the injection at the flywheel end of the motor, goes to the oil tank attachment. The one on the filler neck of the oil tank goes to the air filter , or better yet , a catch tank. Check the part number on the dipstick- the turbo tank is different, so requires a p/n 930 107 731 01. Checked warm at idle , as you described, the level should be 1/2 way between the two marks

[briankeithsmith]

I will doublecheck the oil tubes but I am 99.9% positive they are hooked to the proper places.

Besides, the way they are "bent" due to all of the years of being in the same position kind of makes it difficult to screw them up.

Someone on another board mentioned the fact that the scavenge pump may not be keeping up? Wouldn't I notice a problem with the engine running improperly if that were an issue?

Car is running great, as I said, oil pressure and temps are good, and I'm hitting 150+ at VIR on the straight, so the car is performing well. It's just puking oil for some reason...

Brian

[cstreit]

I had this same problem. Severely worn rings were allowing the turbo boost past them, pressurizing the crankcase and hence the oil tank. This blew massive amounts of oil out into my airbox...

Unfortunately the fix was a rebuild. Hope this is not your problem but I would do a compression test and leakdown if you cannot find the answer.

[TRE Cup]

Like Chris and others suggested, the scavenge pump and compression /leakdown should be checked next. BUT- If the scavenge was faulty, then prolonged idle would result in billowing smoke from the exhaust- (the build up of oil would wick past the seals in the turbo) not back up in the air filter. So logically , from your description of symptoms, that is out.
okay then, do a compression and leak down to see if the motor is healthy

[TimT]

to much oil,

do a drain........ then refill

refilll with one less quart than specified

fire the engine and let the temps come up....

adjust oil level

for track use keep the oil at the bottom line

[cstreit]

You look at the speedo? Big Cajones man! I tape mine over because I'm afraid of what I'll see....

I agree with Tim and TRE... Try lowering the oil to the minimum mark while the engine is at operating temp. If that doesn't work, make sure your hoses are right and the accumulator/seperator is okay...

If that's okay, you'll have to really start digging...

[briankeithsmith]

Just to re-iterate on this. When I come in after a track session, the engine is warm - full operating temp obviously - and nothing is reading on the dipstick. I mean bone dry.

Like I said, I stick another rod in there that goes 1-1.5 in lower into the tank than the dipstick and I hit oil. I don't think its an overfill issue. I really don't.

But, just for grins, I will perform an oil change....

Brian

[briankeithsmith]

Here is an update regarding my oil spew problem. We were able to duplicate this problem in my garage today.

Here is what we did:
1. Removed airbox
2. Removed Intercooler
3. Removed Oil/Air Separator

We then ran separate lines for the following vents:
1. From the oil tank, where it formerly connected to the bottom of the air/oil separator we ran that straight up in the air and attached a breather to the end of the hose.
2. From the oil overflow port that is on the oil filler, we simply ran that to the engine compartment.
3. From the crankcase vent we simply ran it into the engine compartment.

We purposefully removed all of the vents listed above from the airbox in order to determine where the oil was coming from. By plumbing the vents in the manner we did, we could easily identify the source of the oil simply by looking at the hose it was coming from.

We then reinstalled the airbox and intercooler. We did NOT reinstall the oil/air separator due to the way we had the lines plumbed.

We started the car and allowed it to idle in the driveway until warm. No leaks or oil spew.

We then closed off the end of the hose connected to the oil overflow port that is on the oil filler. About 10 seconds later, the oil hose that comes from the bottom of the tank that normally attaches to the bottom of the oil/air separator started puking oil.

Based on this it would seem that the problem lies somewhere in the oil/air separator, however we ran 75psi worth of air through it and could rather easily feel the air at the end of all the hoses involved with the oil/air separator.

MY QUESTION:
Can I simply attach breathers to the ends of the 2 lines (1 for the oil overflow port on the oil filler, and 1 for the crankcase vent) and run the car in this manner, because it seems like this will allow the oil tank to breathe properly and not spew.

My other question would be, is there any other reason why the oil tank would not be breathing properly.

Brian