[michaelbrown13]

I'm now on my 3rd Turbonetics turbo unit for my 2005 350Z. The 1st unit went 6 months before smoking, the 2nd and now the 3rd about 30 days. I do not drive my car hard. When I excelerate I get white exhaust smoke as it shifts through each gear and again when back off the gas pedal and decelerate, it's very imbarrassing. People try to stop you to tell "your cars smoking man".
The 1st and 2nd units were installed by AAM, Altered Atmosphere Motorsports, in Maryland and the last unit was done by PTuning here in Manassas, VA. All installations were done according to spec and worked fine for the time periods I mentioned above, then they started to smoke, so it's not the shops fault.
On the 1st installation I had AAM install their oil pan spacer, with oil line taps so they wouldn't have to tab into the oil pan itself. The system now has use of 6 quarts of Amzoil racing oil, instead of the normal 5 quarts.
PTuning thinks it could be just as simple as Turbonetics "oursourcing" the production of their turbo units and have gotten some bad units (but 3 in a row). Or, maybe the connectors that connect the oil lines to the turbo units are too small, causing the oil to back up in the turbo unit and blow the seal, then the oil gets blown into the cylnders and burned.
Yes, we've tried changing spark plugs, running compression test and the Z motor is fine, thank god.
Next week I'm going to call Reggie, again, get another unit and spend another $600.00 to get the old unit removed and the new one installed, but I would love to hear if other Z and G owner's have encountered this same problem.
By the way if you live in NOVA, PTuning is a great place to get H/P parts and service done. Check them out at www.ptuning.com. If you call them ask to speak to Mike or Tuan.
Help!!
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[Robert]

Have you checked the oil drain line to ensure its not kinked or going uphill anywhere? This could cause turbo seal failures.

[GaryGT]

check oil feed 2 turbo that its not kinked and also check the return line to the sump!!

[michaelbrown13]

Originally Posted by Robert

Have you checked the oil drain line to ensure its not kinked or going uphill anywhere? This could cause turbo seal failures.

Sorry about the delay in responding, I have a very demanding job and get home pretty late every night during the week. Wah!
Yes. the lines have been checked. The pros at PTuning that I started going to for mechanical work 2-3 months ago have really been life savers. They thought the same thing. They and I have been communicating with Reggie at TN and Reggie and the shop agreed with your assesment on my350z.com, where you said you thought it could be the AAM oil pan spacer and the fact we're tapped into it (much higher) and we should probably tap into the oil pan and as low as possible, gravity and all. Seems with the line going in higher tapping into the oil pan spacer gravity may be working against us and we're getting oil staying in and flooding the turbo unit, eventually breaking the seal.
Reggie was kind enough to send a brand new TN unit, and because there was concern on his and the shop's part that we should really be using the coolant feature as well the shop had Reggie ship the TN coolant installation kit and hopefully that will arrive today (Saturday) and the shop can install that and finish up the rest of the repair and get me back on the road sometime Monday afternoon.
Wish me luck. And thanks for your input.
Hey I have a question for you. You seem to really have a handle on TN and Z's, how do we get the SES light to go out. Ptuning has already replaced 1 of the O2 sensors in bank 1, I think and that cured it for about 10 days. Then they installed a "bung" on the upper O2 sensor on the 1 cat I have in the exhaust and that worked for about a week.
Ptuning "thinks" it might be a sensor (Nissan) of some sort up in the air intake, sort of above the driver's side intake and exhaust manifolds. Any thoughts. I know it's really nothing, because the car runs great, when the TN unit is working properly so I don't really worry that it's actually a "problem", I just hate the light, it bugs me.

[michaelbrown13]

[quote="GaryGT"]check oil feed 2 turbo that its not kinked and also che
Sorry about the delay in responding, I have a very demanding job and get home pretty late every night during the week. Wah!
Yes. the lines have been checked. See my response to Robert's quote above yours.
Thanks for your input. Everything helps.

[Robert]

I don't know if anyone will ever be able to really get rid of the light all together. The Zs and Gs especially the later model ones seem to pop codes no matter what you do when they are boosted.