BNR S4 oil consumption (intermittent white smoke)
 

Hey guys ever since I installed my Bnr S4 I've noticed higher than normal oil consumption when periodically checking the dip stick. There is also some white smoke at times usually when the engine is cold and in between shifts. I am considering the JBR oil restrictor bolt but am skeptical as to how safe it is to restrict oil flow to the turbo. But, I'm also annoyed that I have to keep topping up my oil and having random puffs of white smoke out the exhaust. Fwiw I am pretty sure my engine is in good health.

Has anyone had a similar issue with a Bnr turbo? Thanks guys

I think the restrictor bolt is for the stock turbo so I wouldn't go that route.

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Yea definitely put the stock banjo bolt in the s4, it's designed with that oil flow in mind. Have you done a compression or leak down test? Also, what oil are you using?

I just did a compression test at work and all cylinders are above 180 psi (being at sea level). I looked inside the spark plug holes and didn't see any oil on top of the pistons so I'd think that my valve seals are good. There's no oil coming out of the PCV breather or the outlet of the turbo. I'm pretty sure the oil is getting past the turbo seals due to the intermittent white smoke out the tail pipe.

I spoke to Bryan at Bnr Supercars today and he said that there is a specific oil restrictor bolt for the Bnr S4. It is sold here: Shop Now

I also asked him if it would be ok to use a JBR bolt, but he said that the hole on the JBR is slightly bigger, so he highly recommended this one with a 0.060 hole.

I'll give this a shot and hope for the best:) Thanks, I'll report back with my findings.

There's a specific bolt that needs to be used and it's not included with the turbo? That's fucking retarded. And the JBR restrictor bolt is larger than the recommended bolt?? How tiny is that damn thing.

I get puffs of smoke on occasion. Can't see it from my seat but others have reported it to me. Heard it could be oil rings? My compression #'s are good as well.

I've been using Shell Rotella T6 5w40, and have had my idle set to 1k way before the S4. I didn't think I was going to go this route because It isn't very common for BNR's to smoke, but seeing as how people have seen some white/black smoke coming out of my exhaust and slight oil consumption, I might as well give this thing a shot. FWIW the smoke and oil consumption tends to be higher if I do more spirited driving, and tends to be almost none existent if I take it easy (which is what I will do until I get this bolt installed).

Bryan said that the bolt is only needed if your car has smoking issues but that every car will be different, and if there are any smoking issues the 0.060 bolt is recommended because it pretty much guarantees no smoking, yet still provides sufficient oil supply. He also said that using a bolt with a slightly bigger hole may work, but that it's better to buy the recommended bolt once and forget it.

It very well could be turbo seals. Are you using the stock banjo bolt? Maybe try contacting Corksport to see if they've seen any issues with their turbo's smoking?

My buddy suggested turbo seals as well, as the smoking was noticed within a week of putting that turbo on. However, I put on a catless DP too. If it was smoking before, my cat could have been masking it? Can't be certain.

The Corksport turbo came with a new banjo bolt and, if i recall correctly, it's restricted. The stock bolt was wide open.

Also, I'm running 2 OCC's, so I doubt crankcase pressure is an issue. The PCV OCC is VTA.

During clutch swap the other weekend, we pulled the turbo and exh mani to see if there was any excessive oily residue pre and post turbo. Pre-turbo would indicate engine issue. Post-turbo oil with pre-turbo clean would indicate turbo issue. However, I guess my issue is minor enough that we didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

Do you have the valve cover breather capped off? I read somewhere that capping it can reduce vacuum on the crankcase. I personally have a single JBR OCC with a check valve right at the IM, and a second check valve with debris filter tee'd off on that same line to vent under boost only. The second check valve then closes under vacuum to prevent air leaks. I found this setup here, it's the 5th one down: http://www.mazdaspeedforum.org/forum/foru...iaries-141095/

It was the most cost effective way to vent my setup without buying a whole new one and it claims to have the best results.

I wonder how big the hole is on the corksport restriction bolt?

I have 2 OCCs.
The one from the valve cover returns to the TIP, so it always sees at tiny bit of vacuum.
The one from the PCV returns to the manifold with a check valve for vacuum operation and the catch can is VTA with another check valve so it breathes in boost.

Interesting that there is a specific restrictor and you had to ask.... sounds like the seals are looser than stock by design and the alternate banjo is only for those that notice? T6 isn’t exactly a ‘light’ oil I would imagine people running lower weight would see more loss?

Just noticed smoking at idle with my BNR s4 v2 as well. Only had it for a few days and I have a catted dp and 2 OCC setup. I did notice some oil on the vented OCC filter.

@BuddySpeed3 keep us posted on the banjo bolt for the s4. I think I'm going to try that as well.

I wouldn't be surprised to see those using a lower viscosity oil have higher consumption. My OCC setup is very similar to your's, except I only have 1 can between the pcv and IM. It has two check valves, one at the IM, and one tee'd off the hose between the IM and OCC to vent excess crankcase pressure buildup in the can.

Will do. I've put the car away for winter, so more observations will be done in the spring. One thing worth mentioning is that when the engine is cold, there is more smoke at idle and or slight throttle in between shifts.

When the engine is at operating temprature, there is barely any smoke at idle and or slight throttle in between shifts. But at WOT, there is a lot of smoke in between shifts even with the engine warm.

This might be because the turbo seals and bearings expand as they warm up reducing the clearances, in turn reducing the amount of oil seeping past. I have a feeling the majority of the oil seeping past the seals is happening at WOT in between shifts and I'm not sure why.

I went to the track back in October for some open lapping, and people noticed a lot of smoke from my tail pipe. They described it as a blueish blackish whitish smoke. I too would notice it between shifts in my rear view mirror (puffs or plooms of smoke only in between shifts). I kept having to top up my oil as it would drop down near the min line every 5-6 laps. That's why I did a compression test and found all cylinders to be above 180 psi, indicating that the oil must be getting past the seals. I will definitely keep this thread posted and please let us know if anyone has any thoughts or experiences on this as well. Thanks:)

I am having similar issues with my S4. Just replace today the banjo bolt still smoking. Compression test is 170 and 160 in #3 . I use the car yesterday an oil go low. I have jbr occ since the car has 7xxx miles. I just need to to leak down test and make sure my pcv is not restricted. Buddyspeed3 how many miles is in your S4?

I've got about 20,000 km's (12,500 miles) on it. How long have you had yours before you started noticing oil consumption?

I only noticed oil consumption about 2 months after installing the turbo when I decided to check my oil, and saw that it was a little too far below min for comfort. Ever since then I've been keeping an eye on the oil level and have noticed patterns on when it drops in relation to how I've been driving the car.

Cruising around peacefully, it barely consumes any oil. It's only when boosting a lot do I see higher consumption. I don't think I have an issue with the engine as my compression results checked out at 180 psi across all cylinders. Also I've got zero oil coming out of the valve cover breather indicating that my vented OCC setup is working.

I will go ahead and verify that my pcv valve and OCC check valves are in good working order when I bring the car back out in the spring and install a few more performance goodies.

If you pull the downpipe it's easier to see if the turbo leaks oil in the exhaust.

So I should be able to see oil near the turbine wheel?

I have around 20,xxx miles. I use the car Friday and when i get hom the oil was low that the fiest time i notice the oil consumption

Yeah, and a lot of black crap trapped by that oil around the shaft, actual wheel, and so on. You should see that the black crap I mentioned is also kind of moist and looks like snoot with dust...

Ok thanks! I will check this when I take the turbo out in the spring to port out the wastegate to solve my boost creep issue:)

I have exactly the same symptoms as you. but now I have P0421 code that popped up yesterday. Hope it's not oil ruining my cat since I have a catted dp :-( It's my daily so I'll have to figure out a fix, or replace with GTX3071r gen2 and sell the s4 :-/

You may be right in that the oil could degrade the cat.

I have an OCC with a vented check valve tee'd off the line going from the IM to OCC, but I may get rid of that check valve and am going to run a gen 2 valve cover with the SP63 breather cap. Hopefully this will pull more vacuum on the crankcase and relieve excess pressure at WOT. This video illustrates how well that setup works. I plan to keep the valve cover hose going into the turbo inlet for more vacuum:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5bG_EkTHhM

I've also got the JBR oil restrictor bolt installed but haven't really had enough time to monitor if it has helped. If even after all this I still get oil consumption, I will try and seek out the oil restrictor bolt that Bryan @ BNR recommended found here:
Shop Now

If that doesn't work then we'll go from there.

Why get rid of that check calve? It vents under pressure, which is what you want.

If the code went away by itself I would not worry, it's probably from the colder weather and the fact that aftermarket cats may not be as good as the OEMs.

However, when I had this problem with my UR catted DP v1 (initially had a ceramic cat which i replaced wich a metallic cat) my problem was that I broke the cat, as in shattered it. Probably too muchuse of launch control.
Now I have another UR catted DP (v3) with a metallic magnaflow cat and this one seems to be holding up perfectly.

As for the oil level issues... since you all noticed the low oil level days after installing the S4 - well that's bad news for you. However, some people may have broken the ringlands in the process of tuning, that simply happens sometimes on tired motors which all of a sudden have to deal with even more cylinder pressure.

The increase of oil consumption may be another result of installing a big turbo and running with not enough timing. the extra air and fuel in the cylinders result in even bigger flames torching the exhaust valves during the exhaust stroke.

I'm not trying to draw the guilt away from the BNR turbos, I'm only trying to make a list of all possible issues that can lead to the oil consumption problem when going BT especially on relatively beaten motors.

Sometimes pulling the exhaust manifold and/or the downpipe just to take a look at the turbo can be enlightening.

I have an ATP catted (i believe it's metal cat) dp, but thinking of going catless. I just don't want a loud car since it's my daily, but i hope the 2.5" magnaflow exhaust will keep the drone and noise down. I guess will have to pull the exhaust mani and dp when I replace the mani with the XS v3 mani i have laying here waiting to install. I have a new built motor and compression tested after break-in and before tune. Haven't done a compression test after tune, but car runs great except for smoke at cold idle. No smoke when car is up to temp. In the long run I'd like to upgrade to a permanent turbo that's more efficient such as the gen2 gtx3071r. So if it is the turbo seals i'll just upgrade the turbo, hopefully that will be the end of that and live happily ever after.

Built motor has rebuilt head?

It's the sp63 stage 1 long block.

I take it the weather is colder in your area as well these days, unless you're in AUS or NZ. So that "white smoke" when you first start the car cold is condensation, is normal and natural.

The quality of the resonators used in the cat-back matters as well, but so do the downpipe and the test pipe.
So if it's your daily and you care that much about the noise you should seriously consider staying catted. I've been in that situation as well and ended up going with catted DP and catted TP. With a 3" catback it made a huge difference and I lost like 2HP which I later gained back by upping the WGDC.

I always had a catted DP, but adding this little unicorn here instead of the existing one made the cabin noise just perfect, not to loud, not too silent, just perfect. And now I can open the trunk when the car is still idling without impregnating all the luggage and clothes with burnt gas smell.

http://www.mazdaspeedforum.org/forum/foru...nicorn-214069/

Now they have this part listed on their site as well, for who wants to go silent and kick nissan GTR/porsche 911/ BMW M series fat asses.

The sound and noise level is perfect right now. At idle it sounds like a stock MS6 with magnaflow exhaust. It's truly a sleeper because it sounds like a lightly modded car during normal driving until WOT then it blows your mind lol

I just got a new BNR S4 v2 to replace my stock K04 that blew. At first I thought I was just burning off residual oil from the blown K04. However, it smokes very heavily after 400 miles and I’m losing oil by the quart daily. As others have mentioned, the smoking seems to subside as things heat up. Cold, it’s a god damned fog machine. Checked compression and I have less than 1% variance per cylinder. I’m really lost here. Anyone figure anything out?

Do you have an Oil Catch Can with a check valve? I'm thinking of checking mine to see if it's stuck closed. I basically want to ensure that the PCV system is in tip top shape.

This spring I'm installing a Gen 2 valve cover with the Sp63 breather cap to ensure minimal crankcase pressure (I also have good compression).

I figure since the majority of oil consumption is at WOT and not part throttle, slight crankcase pressure may be preventing proper oil drainage out of the turbo.

What's annoying is that my K04 never smoked with my current PCV setup. I'm thinking there is more blow by from the increase cylinder pressures associated with the increased boost.

We'll have to see this spring if the Gen 2 cover and breather cap along with the Jbr bolt solve this issue.

SP63 made a vented cap for the gen1 style valve cover as well. Also, to be honest I'm not sure a vented oil cap worth for anything lower than 600hp and race cars (such as drag).

One other thing to consider: other people with similar setups but only different turbos (garrett, corksport, pte) have these oil consumption issues? Because if they don't (and they don't!) and if in your case the massive oil consumption only started right after swapping the turbo I think you should have a word with BNR.

I have a Genpu, so I already have the valve cover. Also, I am using the Corksport catch can that does not use a check valve. Car’s at the shop now getting a leak down test. I noticed the top of the piston in cylinder 3 was wet, despite compression being OK. I’m praying it’s not ringlands failure. 🙏

Well, cylinder 3 and then 2 are the Achile's heel for these motors. If you noticed anything out of the ordinary despite apparent normality then assume the abnormality.

Block test and leakdown test were fine. Mechanic officially diagnosed as bad turbo seals in the brand new S4. Looks like I’ll be pursuing a warranty replacement.


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Turned out to not be a bad new S4. Bryan from BNR Supercars quickly identified it as a crank case ventilation issue. After further investigation, it turned out the oil and coolant mixed as a result of the original blown turbo, the water in the coolant vaporized and sent steam to my catch can, which collected and froze in my catch can due to the arctic temperatures we’ve had, causing a line to clog. This made my crank case pressurize, preventing oil from draining out of the turbo.


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Ok so a little update...

Smoking is still happening only at WOT but has improved a little bit. It's worse if the oil hasn't fully warmed up. Compression was checked and resulted in 180 psi across all 4 cylinders. I've removed oil return line and verified no blockage in the line, engine block, and turbo cartridge. Puffs of whitish blueish smoke occur more noticeably if I hit the throttle hard as opposed to gradually going WOT. It's also noticebly smokey if I hit the rev limiter (accidentally). It seems very much related to crankcase pressure as it only happens at WOT. If I rev the engine out to high rpm at part throttle to raise oil pressure, it doesn't smoke at all.

Things that have helped but not fully cured the issue:

1. Gen 2 valve cover w/ Sp63 oil breather cap; VC breather still routed to turbo inlet for vacuum
2. DM stage 2 vented catch can with vent routed to turbo inlet for added vacuum
3. Oil restrictor bolt from BNR (smaller hole than JBR bolt)
4. Switching back to 5w30 (was running 5w40 Rotella T6) as it drains out of the turbo more efficiently as per Bryan.

I really don't want to have to send it out to Bryan to get rebuilt. Has anyone had a similar issue with the S4? If so what was your solution?

Thanks!
Erik

The S4 is SUPER sensitive to crank case pressure. It doesn't take much to blow out oil. I would STRONGLY recommend a PCV plate and using Damond's OCC routing diagram pictured here. Also, check your AFRs. If you're running rich, you might see some blue smoke.

I like that routing, but I would have both cans VTA.