'90 S13 / Redtop SR20DET - Motor won't idle, oil out of turbo (pics, video)
 

Hello everybody. I recently starting working on my S13 project again and I've run into some trouble.

Just as some background, I bought my S13 about 4 years ago with a bad clutch in the KA24E motor. I ordered a blacktop S13 clip and was sent a redtop clip with 155k km on it and a bad front oil leak. I pulled the motor and shipped it back and was shipped another redtop (should have been blacktop). This one was clean so I just kept it (don't ever buy from Osaka JDM motors, at least not 4 years ago. I never did get an ECM from them). I was so tired of fighting the damn thing at this point and real life took over so I put the car in the garage and parked it for a couple of years.

I recently got working on the car again and put the SR20DET in a couple of weeks ago and have been slowly working to get it running. I recently put in a new battery, got it to crank and got oil up into the head. I put the new plugs in, hooked up all the wiring and tried to start it tonight to see if it will idle. I have not yet hooked up most of the ancillaries (IC piping, radiator, drive shaft, downpipe ...)

The motor did start but it would shake violently (I have Nismo mounts) and buck and stutter and won't idle. If you hold open the throttle body for a few seconds, it will kick into a high idle for 3-5 seconds then fall back to the studer/stumble and then finally stall. I helped a friend with his S13/SR20 swap a few months ago and we could get his car to idle normally in the same state as mine. After I tried this twice, I realized the turbo was throwing a lot of oil out of the hotpipe outlet. There is also a significant amount of smoke coming out of any opening on the engine. Pics below are the oil coming out of the motor.

http://www.divizion.com/nissan/IMG_1530a.jpg

http://www.divizion.com/nissan/IMG_1531a.jpg

I am assuming that at the very least, the turbo bearing are shot and the turbo needs replaced (if anybody's got a T25 they want to get rid of cheap, I'm a interested). I'm concerned that their may be additional problems/damage to the engine.

Linked below is a 11 second (22Mb, sorry, didn't check the camera settings first) video of the motor trying to idle. Please right click and "Save Target As" to save some of my bandwidth.

http://www.divizion.com/nissan/MVI_1532.avi

I'm hoping that my turbo is seized and this is creating a ton of exhaust backpressure and causing my idle issues but as my luck goes, it's probably much worse. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. Thank you.

hrmmm well maybe you should connect all your vacum lines!! thats why it wont idle...
I see one major line not even connected.... your brake booster line!!!! that needs to be connected if not car starts and dies in seconds...

i would connect all your lines

as for the turbo blowing out oil.. i dont know what to tell ya.. sr20's are known for crappy stock turbo's.

by the way your car will still run nornal with blown turbo.. my buddy had a sr20.. had a blown turbo for 7 months till he upgraded the turbo... and drove around and didn't have any running or idle problems.

ok...i can see this is your first swap

the video: no vacuum lines need to be connected. also, there is no MAF hooked up. your ecu cant measure the air flow if its not flowing air

DONT NOT TRY TO START IT/RUN IT ANYMORE until everything is hooked up properly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
you can be damaging everything internaly
This is just the tip of the iceburg. if i had more then 30 seconds to type to you i would tell you a ton more that is wrong

edit...you have nothing hooked up other then the wiring harness. oh my god

yeah he's pretty crazy.. I hope we don't flame him too bad for making a video like and engine has nothing hooked up and he wants to know whats wrong with it? lol.

this is why i dont like buying cars that have been already modified you never know what the previous owner did to it...