Hello,

My brother picked up an '86 Turbo 4x4 Pickup a few months ago. He lives in FL and is driving it up to NJ for an 80th suprise b-day party and just to visit. Anyway, I'm personally experienced with working on cars, namely VW/Audi stuff, I have a full garage with tools and everything to do work.

The car has 90K miles on the clock, and according to him, is going through oil like crazy, on the upwards of 2-3 quarts/tank of gas. Any ideas on what the hell would cause this much of an oil loss?

Also, at 90K, what sort of stuff can be expected to go on the truck? - he's coming up for a few weeks so I can take my time and do a lot of maintance on it while he's here.

Any help is appreciated

 

that much oil loss is eitehr an insane leak, or bad blowby caused by worn piston rings...

 

When he told me the amount I literally laughed over the phone for like 15 seconds straight as he just sat there in silence occasionally saying, "what?"

He said it's not blowing blue/black smoke or running odd, so it HAS to be a leak as far as I can imagine. He [brother] is not very mechanically (automotive) inclined...he's a carpenter by trade. He mentioned something about the turbo return line. Are these known to fail/leak? I can not fathom what part on a car thats like 20 years old with ONLY 90K on the clock would lose that much oil between tanks of gas...not oil changes...tanks of gas...he fills the tank, and buys 2 quarts of oil.

 

I imagine when he gets there you can see where that much oil is comming from, if it is not burning it I would say front or rear main seal. I had the front go out on me and i lost over gallon in 100 miles. I had to limp it back to denver, and with the help of bord members got it fixed up but it was too late and the motor seized soon after.

 

How hard are these motors to work on for stuff like this? Are they straight foward jobs for the most part or...?

 

i have a 22r but its the easiest.. the turbo migth get a little mreo cramped because of the special manifolds, but generally on my carbed engine there is tons of room, i can actually sit inside on the wheelwell lines and still work on my truck.... not to comfortable but doable

 

What about service manuals? Are there any good factory books. I know the plethora of chilton/haynes books, but I'm looking for something a bit more in-depth. For instance, VW/Audi use the Bentley books which are thick enough to double as a weapon on the roads, diagnostics, electrical diagrams, detailed procedures, etc... Anything similar from Toyota?

 

dude the turbos that these trucks came with are junk ,70k is about as long as they last,then the seals go inside the turbo houseing ,i bet if he takes the intake pipe off he will see its coated in oil,not only that the exhaust side of the housings are known to crack around the wastegate area and burn through ,developing ony 4-5 psi of boost ,he's gonna need a turbo.i'm dealing with mine now.

 

...super...

any idea on the price of a new turbo for them? Or should I just have a go at a rebuild - what size/type of turbo is it. (I'm seriously oblivious to this motor)

 

The turbine exhaust housing cracks on the Toyota CT20 turbo that goes on these trucks. It's most likely sucking oil into the turbo or the rings are completely shot. A new CT20 from Toyota is around $1800, I got a rebuilt turbo from East Coast Turbos for around $725. As long as the engine is fine, a rebuilt turbo, new gaskets, clean or replace the oil line and it should run strong. But be careful if you have to take the manifold and turbo off the head, it's easy to strip the exhaust stud threads in the cylinder head. But it's almost impossible to get the turbo off while leaving the manifold bolted to the head.

 

yup i left my turbo on the truck ,just unbolted the manifold and lifted the head off ,i'm working on a blown head gasket now so while i have the head off i'm gasket matching the exhaust on the head and manifold mand cleaning up the little bit of flash in the intake port and gasket matching the intake ports ,i checked my turbo and its got a little play ,so i'm in the market for one here soon,also it wouldn't be a bad idea to check the valve stem seals it being this old with low miles i'll bet there dried out ,mine where falling apart when i took the springs out tonight

 

The most gain you will see is from porting the exhaust manifold where it bolts to the turbo. Then take the turbo apart(it's easy to remove the big snap ring and separate the turbine housing from the rest of the turbo) and port the turbine housing. There's a lot of extra metal that can be removed and you can smooth out the rought casting of the turbine housing as it narrows. That's the reason they crack, the rough casting has minute cracks that the exhaust heat gets into and expands. By proting and smoothing the housing it will reduce the chance of it cracking in the future and allow for more airflow and more boost. I bought a grinding stone at the local hardware store for $2.50 and used my drill. It took a lot of work, but it was well worth it. I think MJM makes a new turbine housing for the CT20 turbos but I'm not sure if they will sell them separately. One thing you may want to try, is to make your own oil supply line out of flexible braided hose because the stock Toyota line is way too close to the manifold and that's why the oil line heats up and eventually gets clogged and adds to the failure.

 

yea i found a place out in SD that will sell a exhaust houseing for $300.00

 

thanks jeff