Intercooler full of OIL

[BigRed77]

The car is a 87 Dodge Daytona Shelby-Z T-2 A-555 picked it up for next to nothing. (not running) He said that the car had blown a head gasket and he removed the head but never replaced it but bolted the support brace back on. When I bought the car the head was unbolted but not the coolant return line it was still attached , and the support brace was still attached to the turbo. Also the intercooler is full of oil and the turbo has a small amount but has zero shaft play (like new) car has been sitting for a while don't know how long he also said that it never smoked while he had owned the car.also #4 exh. lobe is about half gone due to wear and no rocker arm. He said that he was tired of it running hot and there was exhaust fumes in his coolant thats why he pulled it apart. Even with all this I am still very happy with this car. I am kinda new to turbo cars I have owned a few but never got in to them until now. I think that the seals are bad in the turbo but the berrings feel great and the owner said that it never smoked could that be possible?
any help would be great.
Thanks
Ben.

[86lance]

could be possible yes,dont know until its put back together,but why go thru the work to have it crap out

[jonnyb]

Sure could be possible - the pcv system routes gases (and blowby) back to the airbox. A cracked piston will cause massive blowby that can/will blow a ton of oil out of the pcv and into the airbox - which then gets sucked into the turbo and it pushes it right into the intercooler. The result is an oil residue on the turbo inlet and an intercooler full of oil.

I had a cracked piston in an engine that didn't smoke at all, but it would blow a quart of oil out of the motor through the pcv system after only a few runs in boost. Even with the crack in the piston the car still ran fine - and like I said - it didn't even smoke! However, if I let the oil build up in the intercooler for too long, it eventually would get forced into the intake and cause detonation (oil in the fuel mixture drastically reduces the effective octane rating of the gas) and some smoking.

You might want to just pull the motor and pull your pistons - my guess is that #4 will fall apart when you pull it out of the bore.

[BigRed77]

I dont think it is a bad piston they all look good but I havent pulled any of them out of the block I was thinking about the pcv system but I didnt know if it attached to the intake system before or after the turbo until I just thought about it (it wont work with boost, im a idiot) I will check the valve tomorrow.

Just checked the turbo again with warm fingers it has maybe 1/32" or 1/16" of play.
Does anyone know the spec on this?
Thanks
Ben.