Oil in Intake Manifold, WTF?
 

So I've had a small oil leak ever since I got my engine rebuilt about 4k miles ago that was losing about 1/2 quart over about 1k miles. I took it to the shop that built the engine and they put dye in the oil and then pressurized it to find the leak but couldn't pinpoint it. It doesn't look like the rear main or oil pan. They did say that it appeared to be coming from somewhere under the intake manifold.

I pulled the manifold myself and then discovered that it was absolutely covered in grime and fresh oil (see pics). When I had the engine rebuild I had a valve job done and the head cleaned, and now the valves are coated in black sludge and a metallic buildup (see pics). I'm not sure if the metallic buildup was still there right after the engine build, but the sludge definitely wasn't.

I checked the TMIC and it has a film of oil in it as well, same for pipe running from the TMIC to the turbo, and there was also a little oil on the intake side of the turbo.

As for the turbo, the shaft has what I think is a SHIT load of play in it, probably 1mm travel side to side and a little less in and out. Turbo is stock but has been beaten on.

So I'm thinking the turbo bearings are fucked and have been spewing oil and metallic particles into my engine as it chews itself up. The amount of oil in the intake seems to be too much for it to be the PCV. If it's the turbo it could re-ZZB my engine at any time so I've stopped driving my car until this is resolved. I compression tested the engine about 300mi ago and came back 170-175psi, so the engine seems ok now, but I'm going to borescope it to see if there's any scoring from the metallic particles that are coating my valves.


My plan of action is:

1) Borescope to see how raped my cylinders are
2) Get a new turbo if that's the problem (rebuilt K04 or BNR3 depending on what else is fucked)
3) Clean IM and TMIC (may be excuse to get CX Racing FMIC)
4) Somehow clean the valves? -> ADVICE??


Can anyone provide any insight or advice on this? Am I on the right track here about it being the turbo??

Thanks

Had @chasewiese; take a look, thinks it's a combination of not having a baffle in my oil pan with BSD and agitated oil that the PCV system is pumping into the manifold.

Thinking the metal on the valves is from my engine break in. Compared my turbo to his extra k04 that has 10k miles on it and my turbo doesn't look that bad, though not great so I'm gonna throw the 10k k04 on. Also going to clean out the manifold and valves and install a JBR OCC and baffle and see what does.

Do anybody have any other thoughts on this diarhea in my intake?

you found oil in the IM, traced it to the IC, traced it to the turbo. Is it in the intake where the PCV connects? If not then it may just be bad turbo seals.

You seem to have this covered I'm not sure where the confusion is. Check the OCC lines if you have one, particularly the one into the IM. If you don't have one then check the line anyway.

Just was looking for a sanity check. I'll check the intake fittings and see if there's any oil in them.

EGR dumps a bunch of shit into the intake manifold/valves as well. Do you have an EGR-delete, or have you at least had it unplugged since the rebuild?

It wasn't blocked off and was throwing a code for insufficient flow, so I assume it was full of shit that was still getting blown into the intake. I did just block it off when I took off the manifold so no more of that bullshit.