2000 V40 1.9T Burning Coolant Topic is solved

[pg1026]

Hello Everyone. I'm at a little bit of a stand still with a 2000 V40 that I bought from a dealership and thought I'd reach out to some Turbo Gurus out there. The car ran great when I test drove it. They showed me a breakdown on paper of the work they put into it. This included a valve job and head gasket replacement earlier this year among other things.

About an hour into my trip home, the low oil pressure light started flashing on and off. I pulled off and checked the level which was right on, so got back on the road. Further down the road I heard crackle popping which ended up being the turbo failing. There were no overheating issues on the 2.5 hour trip home. When I got home and ran the car the next day during daylight, I noticed lots of white smoke. At this point, I assumed the turbo seals had blown. After getting the turbo off and inspecting it was clear the turbo had indeed failed. At this point, I found a replacement at a local junkyard and installed it hoping to get the vehicle on the road and correct the coolant burning issue.

The same exact white smoke, coolant burning is happening after replacing the turbo, so step 2 was to check for a blown head gasket.
There was a little bit of milky residue on the inside of the oil filler cap which I'm unsure if was there before I drove the car home.
The plugs were dry but with a white color which would indicate coolant burning.

Compression test reading:
1 - 170
2 - 160
3 - 160
4 - 170

Cylinder leak down testing:
1 - 18%
2 - 22%
3 - 22%
4 - 18%

It appears there might be a head gasket issue between 2 and 3 but I am new to these values.
There is no bubbling through the coolant reservoir while putting air pressure to each cylinder at TDC.

I'm super welcoming anyone's opinion about what could be going on here being new to working on turbo cars.......Thanks!

[alschnertz]

My first guess would be a head gasket as well. Worse would be a warped head. Not knowing the car's history, I wonder if that's why the dealer changed the head gasket in the first place. How many miles?

Those compression numbers don't look bad. I know what a leakdown test is, but have never done one and am not sure how to interpret the results.

Me? I would try a test for combustion gasses in the coolant using one of these types of tools...
http://www.lislecorp.com/divisions/prod ... roduct=406

[pg1026]

The car has 148,000 miles.

It's looking like I will need to pull the head and check it out. There is a chance that the mechanic did not carry out the repair properly with regard to torquing etc.

I'm wondering if there is a way to bypass the turbo to narrow down it as causing the coolant burning.

[alschnertz]

"The same exact white smoke, coolant burning is happening after replacing the turbo"
If it did the same exact thing after replacing the turbo, I kind of doubt that was the issue.

However, if it was me, I'd also like to confirm this.
When you replaced the turbo, was it obvious that it is water cooled and perhaps oil cooled too? I'm not sure.
If it is also oil cooled, maybe try bypassing the water coolant line temporarily. I wouldn't run it too hard, but maybe you can mimic the symptoms.
I would only do this if I was sure the turbo was oil cooled.

[pg1026]

After testing with the combustion gas testing tool and liquid. No sign of combustion gases came back. The car runs very smooth with a steady cool temperature, but still white smoke which is definitely coolant burning.

This time I noticed some smoldering smoke coming from the catalytic converter which is right after the turbo on these.
I'm starting to think the parts-yard replacement turbo may also have failed.

There are coolant and oil lines both in and out of the turbo. I'm not sure how I'd keep coolant from shooting everywhere if I disconnected the coolant lines.

As much as it's a hassle to replace the turbo again, I'm within my 30 day warranty and trying another one will be way less work and $ than a head gasket job.

[alschnertz]

The car runs very smooth with a steady cool temperature...I'm not sure how I'd keep coolant from shooting everywhere if I disconnected the coolant lines.

"Cool temperature" What do you mean by that? How are you determining this?
The temp. gauge on my '01 S40 tends to run just below half way. Been that way for the past 7 years / 50,000 miles so I think mine is ok. Granted, I never checked with another gauge or even with my scan tool. Most decent scan tools should be able to display the coolant temperature.
Cool is not necessarily good. I would expect this vintage S40 to be running around 190-195 degrees F.

Regarding the "coolant shooting everywhere", can you try to to disconnect the coolant inlet and outlet from the turbo and loop them together with another piece of hose on a temporary basis? You know, just for testing. That's how I'd do it.

[pg1026]

The in-dash gauge is reading steady at right around the halfway mark after warming up. "Normal range" would have been a better choice of words here. No overheating is happening.
Good idea on looping the lines.
I will look into what I would need for fittings to pull this off or cap each line.

[difflock54]

Was the head skimmed when the head gasket and valves where re seated? One would have expected that to ensure the head was not warped when it was refixed.
The paperwork describing the breakdown of work carried out should include that.

[pg1026]

I was also expecting the shop had checked for a warped surface on the head. The paperwork is for head block clean and valve set. I have tried to get more detailed paperwork, but the dealership blew me off and didn't mail it like they said. Today I'm going to remove the coolant lines to the turbo and plug them, then let the car idle and see if coolant is still being burned.

[alschnertz]

I just had another thought.
Why not just pressurize the cooling system and see if it holds?
If the turbo is leaking, the pressure will go down, no?